Gubu.ie

Have about 60 Colchicum autumnale flower buds showing at the moment with hopefully a lot more to come. Each bulb produces more than one flower. Naked ladies is the "common" name.

Pumpkins. Into the polytunnel to change colour and season. Substantially less than what I had this time last year.

Ncdjd2 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 9:02 pm Would be great to see them. The combines will be in soon so

Aaaaaand ... a month later, they're in and gone and the field has been ploughed, harrowed and re-seeded. And I missed the whole thing.

I planted a couple of hundred clumps of snowdrops a few years ago. I got them green off a friend of mine who has zillions of them about the place. I've noticed that the ones I planted on fertile ground seem to have disappeared but the ones planted near trees are thriving. They must not like too rich of a soil. I love seeing them come up as it reminds me that winter is coming to an end for another year.

As I always tell people, divide snowdrops in the green and keep at it every year!

No clumps I'd divide up in that picture but another year or two and those will be ready to divide.

Flower power. The beds of sunflowers I sowed are slowly starting to flower. There is a big variation in height depending on where I sowed them. Some beds are three foot tall others going on nearly six foot. My flower patch is a mixture of cultivated and non cultivated varieties of plants ( weeds )

Looks gorgeous.

isha wrote: ↑Sat Jul 23, 2022 9:56 amLooks gorgeous.

How are your spuds doing Isha ? My neighbour has started harvesting the Queens so I got a bag of overgrounds left by the harvester yesterday. I'm going to have a big plate of them today

Some more of the sunflowers. The brown bits on the side was Phacelia but has now more or less died off. Planted it too heavy so it came and went too quickly due to overcrowding.

What do grow the sunflowers for - the birds, personal enjoyment or is there a commercial angle?

Ncdjd2 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 23, 2022 10:03 am How are your spuds doing Isha ? My neighbour has started harvesting the Queens so I got a bag of overgrounds left by the harvester yesterday. I'm going to have a big plate of them today

The spuds are doing okay. Some sort of a leaf browning and withering thing on some that is not blight. Have started eating them alright. I could happily live on potatoes to be honest, I think they are yummy. The garlic and onions have been disastrous. Have no idea why. Overall for various reasons I would not even be doing a passable job in the garden this year. Though the flowers are certainly nice now. I will make a better effort next year hopefully.

Del.Monte wrote: ↑Sat Jul 23, 2022 10:23 am What do grow the sunflowers for - the birds, personal enjoyment or is there a commercial angle?

Birds, bees and personal enjoyment Del. The seed eating birds love these over the autumn early winter. Also the roots of sunflowers go deep into the ground which improves the structure of the soil.

isha wrote: ↑Sat Jul 23, 2022 10:24 am The spuds are doing okay. Some sort of a leaf browning and withering thing on some that is not blight. Have started eating them alright. I could happily live on potatoes to be honest, I think they are yummy. The garlic and onions have been disastrous. Have no idea why. Overall for various reasons I would not even be doing a passable job in the garden this year. Though the flowers are certainly nice now. I will make a better effort next year hopefully.

There is a two week period in the life cycle of garlic that the bulb swells and it needs plenty of water during this period or it wont develop. I think it's around April time as my neighbour who grows it commercially gets stressed during this period with irrigation. He plants it around October. It costs him 10000 euros an acre to purchase the bulbs which come from Holland. Every years at least 3 or 4 acres go to waste due this and other issues. But he's obviously making money out of it as he is increasing the area sown every year.

A quick glimpse of one part of this year's harvest-in-the-making:



Sweetcorn and sunflowers sown deliberately in an L-shape to provide a lot of shade for peas and beans behind ... but still not enough during the heat-wave (although that was more a problem with the soil in that area than the sun - I think too much leaf- and bark-mulch ended up in the centre instead of being mixed throughout the bed). There's a line of Charlotte potatoes in there as well, behind the sunflowers, ready to be picked now.

Gherkins in the background, going crazy, and Jerusalem artichokes further back. On the right of the sunflowers, water melons, charentais melons, a poor crop of carrots, and an even poorer crop of lettuce. But also drills where I've planted more carrots, lettuce and pak choi these last couple of days.

This is the "cool" bed; there's more stuff on the terraces, but not visible in this photo ... and less than there was last week, as all the garlic and shallots have been lifted (both had a good year, especially considering the soil in that bed is still being improved).

Had the phone out in the garden today (for once!) so can treat you all to a photo of this year's garlic harvest. I didn't spend 10000€ nor plant an acre of it, but I'm happy with the return on my investment.



Think it was about 4€ for a 500g bag. I thought it expensive at the time, but didn't have enough saved from last year so bought fresh stock.

Vertical gardening!



This is my pre-landscaping vegetable patch, still in use and supposedly dedicated to root veg while I improve the soil in the terraced beds. As you can see, the not-rooty things think it's great too! Sunflowers (nearly 3m tall), maize (about 2.5m), gherkins (would be higher if the tomato spirals didn't stop at 1.8m), and in the distance, Jerusalem artichokes (also about 2.5m).

It was a surprise to see all these grow so well and so high, but having these vertical screens was part of the plan - to give shade to the soil and plants below and between them. The system is working. At least as well as it can in 35°C afternoons during a severe drought.

Meanwhile, up on the terraces ...



First time growing pattypan squashes (Lidl's 29ct pack of seeds) and they've done very well. The big leaves of the plants also provide great shade for the beans behind, but I have millions of the fruit (or veg if they wish to identify as such ) and don't know what to do with them! Other than take photos - here they are with a few lettuces that'd really rather be somewhere else: