Well, its not been the best growing season, a dry spring and a very wet summer - but in the garden hope and growth spring eternal.
Most of us will be lifting crops in the coming 8 - 12 weeks, and its time to start planning the winter crops.
Having worked a kitchen garden you deserve to be able to take fresh, home grown food from the garden all year round.
That brings us onto the topic of winter veg.
Cabbage is named for its cropping season - not for its planting season.
Spring cabbages are usually sown in July and August being planted out
in September and October to overwinter and be harvested from late
February through to the beginning of June. In windy areas, earth up
around the stem and compress the soil with your foot to ensure the
plants are stable and don't suffer root rock.
They tend to be conical in shape and quite loose leaved, often referred to as spring greens or collards.
Heritage types I would reccommend are Baccalan
de Rennes and Precoce
de Louviers
If you sow now spring cabbage should be ready for transplantation to their final spot from
Mid-September to the end of October.
They will be about six weeks old,
between 2 ½ -3 inches (6-8cm high), and with about 6 leaves. It is recommended you water the ground deeply around the young plants the day before you
intend to move them, as this will prevent transplant shock.
Lift out the young cabbage plants from their seedbed with a trowel or
hand-fork retaining as much soil around the roots as possible. Pop each
transplant into a 4-inch deep hole, each one approx 12-14 inches apart.
Allowing 12 inches (30cm) between each of the plant rows.
The 4-inch deep holes
will often swallow the plant up to its first leaves, but in the windy Irish climate it will give them deeper roots and they are less susceptible to being leggy or wind damaged.
Transplanting the cabbages encourages formation of a solid head, heart,
and establish a sturdy root system. If seedlings are left to grow where
the seed is sown, the cabbage heads can be of poor density.
The transplanting process toughens them up, which will help see them through the winter for fresh, early season greens in February, March and April - after harvest obviously, the spring planting season begins.
Another worthwhile crop is Wiener Runder Kohlschwarzer, the German winter cooking radish.
This over winter veg that stands well in the ground can be used like turnip or swede in
soups and stews.
Well, thats the winter beds more or less sorted.
Leeks, winter onion and winter cabbage transplanted into place. Bean seeds sowed to be ready for spring.
Kale doing OK - may chance a few more, and Garlic in between the beans as a catch crop.
Rhubarb crowns planted and the horseradish slip transplanted in the top of bed 4.
I think I will create two new beds next spring, and dedicate that one to things like blueberry, gooseberry and goji plants, kind of a fruit and herb patch for the future - its very rocky anyway so not a great idea for root veg.
Just some photos of what was done fairly quickly
Overview of some beds
Beans, leeks, caulis, some winter onions
beetroot leaves/swiss chard ready for the kitchen
Chicken wire is to try to keep the kittens out
Mostly winter and spring cabbages
Massive, beautiful rhubarb crown - one of a pair from next door.
The original plant came down from Meath in the 1920's and has survived in Connemara
Really excited about these, but will need to wait 3 years
Lots of compost dug in, and bark mulch to protect.
There's more to a kitchen garden than just summer salads.
You can have good, fresh food through the year and reduce the food miles.
I have started cleaning up the beds, and trying to keep the cats out.
Leeks have been transplanted, as these can stay in the ground through the winter.
I'm also growing modules for winter and spring cabbage, Kale's and cauliflower.
Transplanting the leeks also allows me to earth them up further.
They are slow growing, but well worth the wait.
My Paris Silverskin pickling onions have not grown all that well - too crowded or overshaded perhaps, so I transferred them to a new bed with the leeks.
Its also time to start crop rotation, so putting in the leeks starts next years onion patch.
As well as that there is just general cleaning and tidy-up. The squash that I grew went out of control, so a couple of planks and nails with a length of old telephone wire has been set up to provide a trellis of sorts, rough and ready but it gets things back in order.
Over the weekend I will clean up the pathways and I have a few more bits and pieces to pickle or preserve.
Some of the broccoli have bolted, so its time to keep an eye on the others, if they look like their going to bolt, then it is a case of blanch and freeze I think.
I will need to trellis up a few other bits and pieces, but over all there's not that much to do other than prep work for the winter vegetables.
To me one of the quintessential tastes of Connemara is soda bread, butter, homemade blackberry jam and sweet tea.
This recipe, an accidental find, is a blackberry chutney that expands the options for a readily available and free resource.
But it is a change, and a new idea in terms of how to use blackberries to make something other than jam - Blackberry Curd isvery fine option, as is Blackberry and Beetroot salad.
The cool thing is that fruit, with their high acid content, are less likely to go wrong during the preservation process, so this might be a good one to start with - particularly with the added acidity of the vinegar.
Its going to be a bumper crop this year, that much is obvious from today's walk to pick blackberries.
It was great to see so many blackberries reaching maturity this early in the year, and the plants are weighed down with immature fruit.
Although I struggle with briar's in the veg patch I am lucky in the fact that the walls here are covered with briar's, and with little or no traffic they are clean.
I came across the basis of this recipe due to taking a spin!! As Brillat-Savarin - perhaps in hubris - once wrote "The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star"
A good friend of mine owns a local store and needed a hand with taking a delivery from a cash and carry.
I went in to see if I could get some allspice, for a Jewish recipe I found for turnips - but no luck there.
However what I did find was Kilner jars - a thing I have wanted for a while, especially after seeing onion preserves photographed on food, flora and felines. Bit sad, but it is a question of catching up with the Joneses, cant have those southerners having their food look better than mine - the cats would never forgive me.
Anyway, getting the jars, they gave a recipe for blackberry chutney. I have never even heard of it so I did a bit of research.
Apparently it is basically a Devon/Cornwall recipe, which is a part of England I love for the food, the surf and the people.
There are a few variations, but he basics are blackberries, chili's, ginger, onion, sugar and wine vinegar.
In this recipe the weights are for standard, but I added a few bits and bobs.
STANDARD
1 tsp Olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cm ginger, finely chopped
2 large red chillies, finely chopped
1 lb blackberries
45 grms brown sugar
30 ml (one fluid ounce) white wine vinegar
MY EXTRAS
1 cooking apple, cored, peeled, diced
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp honey
1/2 combined tsp (i.e. - 1/2 a teaspoon of all, not of each) of:
Mustard seed, crushed
Coriander seed, crushed
Cumin seed, crushed
Method:
1: Heat the olive oil in a heavy based pan, add onion, chili and ginger
(I also at this point added the spices and lemon zest)
2: Fry gently for 4-5 minutes until softened, do not overcook.
3: Add blackberries and cook for 3-4 minutes
(I also at this point added the apple, lemon juice and honey)
4: Add sugar and vinegar, mixing well
5: Bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 mins or until thickened.
6: While the chutney is still hot, transfer to into hot, sterilised jars.
Delicious served with goat cheese and crusty bread, but it can be used as a chutney with other dishes, I'm looking forward to having it with bacon wrapped rounds of goat cheese.
I will add photos to this post in about 3 weeks, unless I am back at work.
This recipe has a real salt and sweet flavor, but should not be eaten for at least two weeks after jarring.
That's easier said than done, every pickle so far has either been eaten or given away as a gift.
And that kind of brings it to mind - why, with the availability of good, cheap pickles, preserves and chutneys do I bother with so much work? It does seem quite impractical
Well, I think it is important to know how to preserve food, I can milk a cow, catch a fish, skin a rabbit, butcher a lamb etc. - so there is that primary drive for knowledge.
There is food miles, I wrote before at how shocked I was to be buying garlic from China and onions from New Zealand - when these are not particularly seasonal foods.
But, perhaps, most importantly, maybe it is a labour of love.
For many people, pickling and preserving are a family way of life - a custom handed down through generations.
Its also great to have home grown, fresh from the garden preserves, pickles, chutneys and jams that can provide variety to the table.
On having variety and range in food - and cooking -Again I must quote Brillat-Savarin once wrote "The Creator, who made man such that he must eat to live, causes him to eat by means of appetite, and for a reward gives him pleasure in eating"
Most importantly of all perhaps is the giving of food as a gift - this is particularly true of food you have made or grown yourself.
I am not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination, but there are so many references in the bible, koran and other texts it is hard to ignore how fundamental and intimate the sharing of food is.
Across all cultures, the sharing of food is for joyful occasions, weddings, births and holidays.
I will have an excess of food - the koran says Food for two suffices three; and food for three suffices four
That simply means to share.
A fundamental part of christianity is the last supper, the gathering together and sharing of food.
In Nehimiah 8:10 it says "Go and enjoy choice food ..... and send some to those who have nothing prepared"
And by digging up these recipes, and sharing them with others on the world wide web, maybe that is an extension of sharing food, and maybe that explains why I do this blog.
My garden makes me happy, so perhaps the most relevant quote I can think of is one of Buddhas sayings -
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
Burpees Golden are a heritage beetroot, but are golden in colour.
Roasted they are milder and sweeter than red beets.
A Victorian variety of beetroot bred by the old American seedhouse Burpee.
The roots are orange-yellow in colour and turn to a deeper golden yellow when cooked.
They don't bleed and stain like red beetroot. Young leaves can be eaten as baby leaves.
The small beets can be used as salad beetroot and then of course the mature beets can be used in salads or cooked as a vegetable.
Eat raw grated, boiled, roasted or pickled.
This pickle was kind of a mistake, I was making up a pickle mix with what I thought was a cider vinegar, but it turns out it was a white wine vinegar.
It will be interesting to see how it turns out.
As with the malt and mustard pickle I roasted the beets instead of boiling them.
From what I can gather on the net, boiling this type can drain all the colour from them.
They came out of the oven a lovely dark yellow.I was worried I would not have enough of them to pack out the jar, so I threw a small Stuttgarter onion from the garden in with the packet.
The pickle mix for 1 jar was:
150ml White Wine Vinegar
100ml Water
4 tbl spoon sugar
1 tbl spoon sea salt (try to get non-iodized salt with no anti-caking agent)
1 tbl spoon honey
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 teaspoon dill seeds
4 cloves
5 whole pepper corns
2 cardamom pods
2 cloves garlic
1/2 stick Cinnamon
1/2 green chili
1 cm ginger
1 cm horseradish root.
Fennel trimming root
In the jar I put
1/2 green chili
1 clove garlic
fennel trimming leaves
1 cardamom pod
2cm horseradish root
1cm ginger root.
All the rest was as with themalt and mustardpickle, check it out for advice, links and a step by step on pickling.
It should be interesting, but regardless of how it turns out, it looks lovely in the bottle.
Well, I always wanted to do this, these were literally from plot to pot and pickled. Its not that tricky a job, but there are a few major pointers highlighted in the blog.
Main thing is to keep everything clean as you can, the rest is simple.
After a lot of research, I found some of the best advice at gardenfork.tv and pickyourown.org as a basis, but there are a few extra bits and bobs.
I have grown what I am assured are a hardy gherkin, but they are not up yet, so the beets go first.
I bunch cropped the beetroot - two types grown at different intervals.
One type was Bolthardy, a fairly common variety, the other was Golden Burpe.
It was time to start cropping, the first sowings are big enough to pull, and the later sowings need the space.
To get a nice red pickle I went for the bolthardy, and they do seem to grow faster than the other type.
The only vinegar I could find locally was Chefs malt vinegar, but I will be using cider or wine vinegars down the road. Certainly, in theory, I could make my own cider vinegar from local apples, so the next batch will be done with cider vinegar.
The first step was to top, tail and peel the beetroot. Some folks say just boil them and peel after prior to pickling, that is your choice.
But, to maintain as much of the original flavour and nutrients I roasted most of them tightly sealed in tinfoil, to let them steam in their own liquids.
I kept enough for one jar to be blanched and loaded, nearly raw as an experiment on texture and pickling, but the general rule with beets is to cook them prior to picklng.
6 tennis ball size beets, topped, tailed, quartered.
These went in the oven for 45 minutes at 200 deg. C (400f)
MUSTARD AND MALT BRINE
Before you do a brine yourself, do a bit of research, I went with what I had in the house
Also test as you go, balance it up to suit your palette, its very easy to vary.
If you want a sharper taste, add lemon juice or more vinegar, a sweeter taste add more sugar or honey.
When tasting, take very little brine in the spoon, have a glass of water on standby and try not to inhale the steam, trust me, its an eye watering lung buster.
300ml distilled malt vinegar
200ml malt vinegar
250ml water
4 tablespoons Lakeshore wholegrain mustard with Guinness- or mustard seed if you like
1 heaped tablespoon of salt - Try to find non-iodized sea salt
4 heaped tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 small onion
These are the spices I used for this batch
4 bay leaves
4 cardamom pods
4 cloves
4 sprigs of fennel (these were thinning's)
1/2 lemon, quartered
1 chili
1/2 inch ginger
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon of:
mixed spice
ground coriander
pepper corns
Tarragon
Dill seed
Bring to the boil until sugar and salt well dissolved.
MAKE SURE THE WINDOW IS OPEN IN THE KITCHEN - the vinegar can be bloody strong when boiling.
CANNING/JARRING
I'm sure you can buy jars and lids - these are best, but I just recycled some jam jars.
These need to be spotless - as do the lids, I washed and rinsed several times.
You will need at least one pot with boiling water - this is called the canner.
I used two, I use a fish kettle to maintain sterility and a pot to use as the canner.
Handle with care, I got them really hot using the fish kettle as a steamer, so they were at least 100c coming out.
I used a pair of oven gloves, but there are special thongs etc if you intend on doing this on a regular basis.
Carefully remove the jar from whatever steriliser you are using, move fast. The idea is to fill, clean and close as quickly as possible to maintain sterility.
I placed a bit of ginger, some fennel thinning's, a little chili and a clove of garlic in each jar.
Then I loaded it up to within 2cm of the top with the roasted beetroots.
After that I ladled in the hot brine, the only thing removed from the kettle were the lemon rinds.
Everything else went into the pickle jar.
Cover the beets, I filled to within 1cm of the top of the jar.
YOU MUST LEAVE OVERHEAD SPACE BETWEEN THE LIQUID AND THE LID
The next part is perhaps the most important AFTER filling the jar remove the lid from steriliser
Have a clean tea towel or kitchen roll at hand.
Make absolutely sure there is no residue inside the lid of the lip
Give the threads and the lip of the jar a wipe - make sure there is no residue of any kind where the jar makes contact with the lid.
After that I transferred the jars to the canner, a deep pot half filled with boiling water.
Cover and let sit for 5 minutes
With the lid off, this causes the pickle to steam, lowering the air pressure just above the liquid.
One thing I found was taking clingfilm, hold over the jar mouth. Slowly lower the sheet (peel/sterile side down) over the jar mouth, because of the heat of the jar, the clingfilm will close in on the grooves.
This stops contact between the metal lid and acidic pickle, so the taste will not be spoiled my metallic contamination.
I then put on and and hand tightened the lid.
The jars sat there for another 10 minutes.
Remove from canner and allow to cool.
I was very happy to see the vacuum tabs on the jars depress.
I could hear them click, or ping back down into position.
That is the only indication that I have of a good, airtight seal.
Another trick is to invert the jar, and make sure there is no stream of bubbles getting in, this is especially true if you have a piece of plastic between lid and lip.
These can be kept in a fridge, or a cool dark place
SHELF LIFE AND STORAGE
As far as general rules for shelf lives of common veggies and fruits jarred foods do well stored in a dark, dry and cool place.
Be sure to label all jars with pickling date.
Glass is inert, but the lid is not. Some people advise putting a small square of clear plastic between the contents and the lid - as you will find with home made jams.
The only reason I did not do this is that I did not have a suitable plastic, fairly sure a cut square of a sandwitch bag would do the trick.
From what I gather on the Internet, you are looking at 6-8 months shelf life with common jam jars.
Using proper pickling jars and new lids, its longer.
Generally speaking, spoilage is indicated by:
The lid is bulged or flexes (isn't sucked down tight), then gas has built up from decay.
Any signs of seepage or leaks (the jars should be fairly clean come out of the water bath).
Finally, an off smell, visual signs of mold, or a change in color or texture from what it should be!
Anyway, I will keep people updated as to how it goes.
Nicoise salad is really the taste of the summer - a classic southern French salad with eggs, beans and oily fish. There are no beans in this recipe - simply because they have not grown yet, and you do miss the crunch, but its something to build on for later in the year.
The classic Nicoise uses Tuna, but for an Irish twist one could always use poached (as in cooked, not hooked) Salmon or Mackerel fillets.
After a day stacking turf, the last thing I wanted to do was cook, so this is a real cupboard meal, using things most people would have at hand
It is such an easy meal to prepare, and I love the fact that all the veg came out of the Kitchen Garden, so its really a big deal for me - this is what starting a kitchen garden is all about.
NOTE: I serve this in a deep plate
Ingredients
Cold new potato's
1 clove Garlic
1 large Shallot
Baby Lettuce (3 small heads that were being thinned out)
1 tin Sardines - You can use any oily fish, Herring, Salmon, Mackerel etc for a more Irish flavour - Crab meat as well, but this will change the texture of the meal. I would not use a smoked fish.
1 Egg per person
Mayonnaise
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt & Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
Butter with herbs, garlic, smoked Salmon, Gravlax or Anchovy - whatever is at hand.
Squeeze of Lemon or Lime
If you have them, french beans lightly steamed or boiled, strained and allowed go cold - a small knob of butter while they are cooling and a whizz round the pot to coat does no harm.
Method.
Green Salad (plate base or edge)
Wash and dry salad leaves
Dressing
1/3rd Balsamic Vinegar and 2/3 Olive oil
Pinch of salt and Pepper
1/2 clove garlic - I finely grate this in
spoon whole grain mustard - I tend to use a 50/50 blend of Lakeshore wholegrain mustard with Guinness and the old reliable Colmans English
Shake well and pour over green leaves, toss the salad.
Potato Salad (plate centre)
Cold potato's
Green part of Shallot to taste and a sprig Parsley finely chopped
Enough Mayonnaise to coat potato's
Pinch of Cayenne (adds spiciness) I really reccommend this
Put in a bowl and mix
If you have time, leave to chill in fridge, and it will keep for about 3 days. The longer it sits with the Cayenne, the spicier - great contrast with the fish and eggs
Egg, quartered, plated up with sardines - lightly sprinkled with a little paprika
Sardines: I drain them, give them a squeeze of Lime and garnish with the chopped bulb of the Shallot, but you have a range of suitable Irish fish like herring, mackerel, salmon, trout etc - as long as its oily, poached and cold.
Some toast fingers, or brown soda bread for a more Irish flavor - served with an egg cup or ramekin of butter flavored as you like, I just did a herb butter.
This is a really nice, easy to make meal - perfect for lunch with a cup of tea or these late summer evenings with a chilled Rose wine, or white of your choice. I went with a simple Chianti.
I did miss the beans, but the fresh Shallot gave a nice, tangy sweet bite to the whole meal.
Later in the year I'll do a more 'Irish' version with poached Salmon or trout and brown soda bread - but it is such a flexible recipe - fresh veg, fish, eggs - voila - Serve and enjoy - et Bon Appettit
SLUGS
Another thing I have been doing lately is slug lamping, come sunset I go out with a can of salty water, and check the beds and their sides with a torch.
I also check the plants, their base and the underside of the leaves in particular.
If I find any of the beasties they are dispatched rather quickly.
Although labour intensive, one hour of hand picking will provide a noticeable reduction in snail and slug populations.
From what I understand, if you kill one by hand, its as good as killing 200 chemically
The beer traps are also doing their jobs, as I have seen a steady reduction in the numbers of slugs.
BUTTERFLY CONTROL
One particular job that I feel weird about is checking the leaves for butterfly eggs.
The white butterflies lay their eggs on the underside of leaves, and they are noticeable.
I have found them to be yellow or lime green.
Sorry about the focus on the shot, but the clusters are quite unmistakable.
The outer shell on the larger, lime green eggs are quite hard, like bits of grit.
On one of the pea plants I found a cluster of orange eggs - these may be from a moth.
I use a thumbnail to take them off and pretty mush squish them, feels quite bad, but then if they became caterpillars, I'd be annoyed at the damage. I have planted nasturtium flowers in window boxes elsewhere as a trap crop, to give them an alternative place to breed.
There is a real temptation, after doing so much work, to revert to Abbot Arnold Amaury's attitude of "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius" - Kill them All - God knows the innocent.
Regardless of how tempting it is - theres no real need to go over the top and revert to all out chemical warfare when it comes to defending the garden from pests (even when three kittens you feed are really getting annoying)
Everything in nature serves its purpose, everything has evolved to its place and has its reasons. Not all insects and bugs are pests.
Spiders, ladybirds, bees, worms and may beetles help us in the garden.
Pest Control
But some, slugs, caterpillars, leatherjackets and others are threats to the veg garden.
I really don't want to use chemicals in the garden, as they will kill helpful or harmless bugs, and can hurt bees and hedgehogs,
I like them and you dont see many hedgehogs out here in the west - not to forget that whatever we spray goes into our food chain.
In actual fact, if the hedgehog hating UK wardens who cull the hedgehogs in Uist in the Outer Hebridies need a place to send them as refugees instead of killing Mrs. Tiggy-winkle and her family every year, they can send them here.
If they can survive Uist, Connemara would be like Hawaii, they are more than welcome as asylum seekers here as they eat slugs and snails so would be an asset.
I also really, really dig bumblebees and dont want to see them harmed - but more about that in another blog.
PESTS EXPECTED
I can't cover all threats, but there are some that I have already identified.
Slugs and snails have a perfect habitat here with mild, damp weather. I do hope the cold winter may have reduced their numbers.
Daddy Longlegs - or Cranefly - until now I thought harmless, quite likeable creatures, but it turns out their kids are utter delinquents in the veg garden. Their larvae are called leatherjackets and do major damage to roots.
Other problem kids are caterpillars, the larvae of butterflies - already I have seen a lot of a white type with orange tipped wings fluttering around my garden. For help on identification of butterflies see irishbutterflies.com and ukbutterflies.co.uk
The three kittens do try, but have not succeeded in catching any and so it seems to be up to me to sort them out.
There are onion fly and carrot fly, but I believe - and I may be wrong here - that they prey on each other so where I have carrots, I have onions in an attempt to divide and conquer.
The only natural allies I seem to have are dragonflies and spiders, so one hopes they will take up residence in the trellis' and catch some of the butterflies, aphids etc.
PASSIVE DEFENCE
This is the term I'd use for something that is not active, not aggressive but a deterrent - like the Swiss army.
SLUGS
In an effort to dissuade slugs from getting into the beds, the pathways have been made of old ash, and a surface of pine needles has been built up around the beds.
Coffee grounds are already recommended as a home remedy for keeping slugs and snails at bay.
Each morning I sprinkle coffee grounds around the paths as well as left over coffee.
Coffee grinds apparently repel slugs because pure caffene is a poison to them and corree has a very bitter taste.
Another avenue I am looking at is the electrical low voltage system - essentially two copper wires hooked up to a battery. When the snail hits both wires they get a tiny shock which drives them back.
Comercial version of this are relativly expensive, and I dound a length of discarded telephone wire, so I am looking at doing something of that nature in a DIY set-up.
There is also the old fashioned slug trap with beer. Two things put me off this.
One is will a beer trap attract slugs from outside the beds.
Secondly, is it immoral to have beer and not actually drink it yourself?
BUTTERFLIES
There are three types of White Butterflies whose larvaes pimary food source are Brassicas - or Crucifers as we should call them in future.
They are: Large White (Pieris brassicae) Small White (Pieris rapae) and Green Veined White (Pieris napi)
They all look quite similar - these pics are all female, and anyone who has seen the Alien movies knows the egg layers are the really dangerous ones.
The good news is that their caterpillars also eat Nasturtium, apparently, planting Nasturtium flowers can distract the buggers.
So I intend to plant some out close to- but away from the cabbage beds. The intention would be to hit the brassicas with liquid derris plus, but not the Nasturtium, causing a distraction at least one would hope.
ACTIVE DEFENCE
Well, this makes me worse than Saddam Hussein I guess, I have the capability and I am perfectly happy to use biological and bio-chemical weapons of mass destruction that are at my disposal.
Active measures I would term a more aggresive form of pest control, going out to kill or maim the pests.
Nematodes are new to me - these are the natural parasites of pests that occur naturally in the wild, but by concentrating them in a small area (e.g. the veg patch) we overwelm garden pests.
I have bought my initial batch of nematodes from Mr Midletons - who are one of the best garden suppliers on the Island, and not to disparage them in any way, it was only after I made the purchase online did I find an Irish made product which I will be buying in about 6 weeks. It seems better for the casual gardener.
From Supernemos you can get, online, SuperNemo, an Irish invention. It is a little more expensive than Nemasys - but it kills a wider range of pests.
What I would really like to see from an Irish company like that is a twin-pack containing nematodes for slugs and all the other nasties, hope someone does something like that.
Nemasys / Nemaslug
Biological Warfare - These are parasites that hunt and kill garden pests. I bought them online from Mr Middletons in Dublin
Nemasys is aimed at carrot rot fly, cabbage root fly, leatherjackets,cutworms,onion fly, ants (why?) sciarids, caterpillars,goosebury sawfly, thrips and codling moth.
Nemaslug is aimed at slugs and snails and like Nemasys uses natural parasites in large numbers who hunt and kill slugs.
These products are living organisms, and have a very short shelf life. They must be stored in a fridge, and made up solution cannot be stored.
The standard packets (2xNemasys [14.95]& 1x Nemaslug [17.95]) total cost 32.90 EUR.
I got both types as I wanted a comprehensive program.
But I will try the Irish SuperNemo next time I am due to dose the beds.
From Mr Middleton you can also buy full season programs for each type, which means they post you new nematodes about every 6 weeks - more details on their site.
The main thing about the application of nematodes seems to be never in direct sunlight - i.e. overcast days or evenings, into moist but not waterlogged soil - ensure temp over 10 degs C and thats it, just add the sachet contents to a watering can and spread it around.
Liquid Derris Plus
Chemical Warfare - What I found was Liquid Derris Plus, a bio control spray. This is said to fight off greenfly, blackfly, caterpillars and red spider mite.
This product is dangerous for aquatic life, so if you have a pond cover it up. My only concern in using this is that the old drains nearby are a nice home for frogs (who eat slugs and bugs) so I only sprayed on days that had a few dry days with little or no wind forecast to avoid as much runoff and drift as possible.
Only the beds were sprayed, not the extra ridges as they are very close to the old drains.
