Well, just got home and turned over one of the beds, some nice surprise parsnips.
A bit skinny, but a fair few of them so that was nice. It really goes to show with a bit of planning you really can have food from the veg patch all year round.
The Russian kales, while small, have survived 8 weeks of neglect and are coming along. Nice little winter cabbage in the garden that was used up in champ yesterday.
The dwarf curley blue kale is a virtual perennial, still producing abundant and good quality leaves.
Sea kale did not make it through the winter, so need to start that again.
Fruit trees coming into bud - just came back to Connemara via Cork, down there a few fruit trees were already in bloom!
Cordoon is coming on very well, and that was the one perennial I was worried about!
Now Spring is here. Saw a couple of wild bee's yesterday :-)
Just preparing beds, a little later than usual but better late than never.
Manure was dug in last December in most beds.
First job, as with the last 2 years is to use the superb Irish made product, SuperNemo's, and apply that.
It is a broad spectrum, pest specific and super effective way of dealing with garden parasites.
I use Nemaslug as well for slugs, but when it comes to things like caterpillars, thrip, wireworm and leatherjackets Supernemo saves a lot of money and time in comparison with the nemasys programs that require pest specific doses, and Supernemo are an Irish developed company.
In actual fact, Supernemo this year wereshortlisted for the Irish Times innovation awards - I think they should have won the damn thing.
Leek nursary looking good, transplanting small leeks tomorrow.
Ready to put potato's in the ground, latest I have ever planted them.
Bed for turnips ready, this year again concentrating on Tipperary Turnips from Irish Seed Savers as the main crop.
Cabbage seedlings ready to go in as soon as the ground is turned.
Put in a new herb bank with potted plants from Dangan Garden Centre and will be cleaning that bank up using ground cover to supress weeds. Main thing is to get the herbs themselves established, apart from the bay tree they are all ground hugging types, so the idea is to get them to spread out and take over the area.
Nothing fancy this year as yet, making paper pots for some seeds to go in the ground later in the year, e.g. squash etc.
Folks, if you use this blog for recipes, best advice I can give you is grow a few bits and pieces for the year, even an ornamental kale, it is really rewarding.
This list summarises some commonly held beliefs about the uses of companion plants, and basic anti-pest precautions I have coveed here before.
Firstly, slugs. Beer traps, copper bands and a good defense in building of slug hostile paths are primary.
Encourage Toads, Frogs and Hedgehogs by providing safe havens, dried cat food t attract them (this will also attract slugs so spread it away from veg beds) and shelter.
Their menu include cutworms, crickets, grubs, chafers, caterpillars, ants, moths, flies, slugs.
They are your friends, welcome and love them,be gretful if you have them.
Slugs are most active at night and are most efficient in damp conditions.
Go slug lamping at night, its fun. At dusk, go out in the garden with torch and a knife and kill them on sight, every slug you kill stops hundreds more being born
Far and away the best course of action against slugs in your garden is a simple adjustment in the watering schedule. Avoid watering your garden in the evening if you have a slug problem. Water in the morning - the surface soil will be dry by evening.
Studies show this can reduce slug damage by 80%.
Secondly, the more insidious underground pests, cutworms, leather jackets et al, especially when opening up new grass land for veggies - use supernemo - a great Irish product that I found to be outstandingly effective.
In my own - non scientific - tests, supernemo outperformed nemasys, another pest control pack, and also I could clearly see that beds treated with suprnemo had little or no crop damage,whereas the few extra beds I threw in the garden that were not treated with supernemo but nemasys suffered very badly - in particular root crops.
SuperNemos are an Irish made bio-control product that contains a wider range beneficial nematode species.
SuperNemos is environmentally friendly, harmless to wildlife, earthworms,bees, bumblebees, pets and kids.
It attacks only target insect pests. There is no need for masks or specialized safety equipment.
This product will control Vine Weevil, Wire worms, Strawberry Root Weevils,Carrot Fly, Weevils, Chafer Grubs, Caterpillars, Cutworms, Leatherjackets, Beetle larvae, Cabbage caterpillar's, Flea beetle, Cabbage root fly, Fungus Gnats Larvae and many more!
SuperNemos will attack its target insect species; the nematodes enter the host through body openings or by penetration of the body wall. Once inside they kill the host within 48 hours.
Now the plants and their companions:
Allium--flowering onions, chives, garlic, leek, onion and shallot
Companion to: Roses, carrots, tomato, fruit trees and other vegetables
Repel aphids, weevils, carrot flies, moles, fruit tree borers; controls rust flies; protects tomatoes against red spiders. Protects roses from black spot, mildew and aphids. BUT is believed to inhibit growth of peas and beans.
Basil
Companion to: Tomato, asparagus
Repels aphids, flies and mites; helps control insect pests such as tomato horn worms, asparagus beetles, and disease.
Beans (Butter, green, snap, string,wax)
Companion to: Beets, carrots,cucumber, corn, aubergine, potato,strawberry
Encourage growth of companion plants. Adds nitrogen to the soil.
Borage
Companion to: Tomato, strawberry, fruit orchards
Repels tomato worms. Adds potassium, calcium and other minerals to soil. Attracts honeybees.
Chamomile
Companion to: Cabbage, onions
Improves growth and flavor--but plant only one plant every 150 feet or so.
Catnip
Companion to: Aubergine. Fresh catnip steeped in water and sprinkled on plants will drive away flea beetles.
Celery
Companion to: Cabbage, leeks, tomato, cauliflower
Improves growth of companion plants. Repels white cabbage butterflies.
Chervil
Companion to: Radish. Improves growth and flavor.
Chive
Companion to: Carrots. Improves growth and flavor.
Coriander
Companion to: Vegetables. Repels aphids. Attracts bees.
Cucumber
Companion to: Sweetcorn, beans, peas, radish, sunflowers
Improves growth. Vines growing with corn help anchor sweetcorn.
Dill
Companion to: Cabbage. Improves growth. Blossoms attract honeybees.
Fennel Most plants dislike fennel--so plant it away from the vegetable garden.
Its foliage and flowers may attract beneficial insects.
Geranium
Companion to: Cabbage, corn, roses. Repels cabbage worms.
Horseradish
Companion to: Potato. Encourages growth.
Hyssop
Companion to: Cabbage. Improves growth, deters cabbage moth.
Marigold
Companion to: Tomato, potato, strawberry, beans, roses
Encourages growth, deters some pests.
Discourages harmful nematodes if they are grown for several seasons in the ground in areas that have nematode infestations.
Mint
Companion to: Tomato, cabbage. Improves flavor and growth
Mustard
Companion to:Cabbage, cauliflower, radish, Brussels sprouts, turnips, collards, kohlrabi
Plant mustard as a trap crop. It attracts numerous insect pests. Remove and destroy it before your main crops can be harmed.
Nasturtiums
Companion to: Cucumber, other vegetables, fruit trees.
Repels aphids,cucumber beetles and white flies.
Acts as trap crop for aphids. Repels borers near fruit trees.
Onion
Companion to: Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli,beets, tomato, lettuce, strawberry, chamomile, summer savory
Repels aphids, weevils, carrot flies, moles, fruit tree borers; controls rust flies and some nematodes;
Protects tomatoes against red spiders. BUT is believed to inhibit growth of peas and beans.
Oregano
Companion to: Broccoli, brassica's .Repels cabbage butterfly.
Parsley
Companion to: Asparagus tomato, roses.
Deters asparagus beetles.Improves growth. Deters rose beetles.
Nigel from chillington hoes also informed me that parsley is related to carrots and parsnips and will not deter carrot fly and will actually be attacked by them.
Peas
Companion to: Sweetcorn
Adds nitrogen to soil for use by hungry corn plants. Grows well with carrots, turnip, radish, cucumber, beans and potatoes.
Pennyroyal Broccoli,
Companion to: Brussels sprouts, cabbage, other plants. Discourages ants, plant lice, cabbage maggots.
Radish
Companion to: Cucumber. Deters cucumber beetles.
I spoke before about slugs in active and passive defence measures. One thing I spoke of was beer traps.
Rather than buy dedicated beer traps from a garden centre, its quite easy to make them from empty plastic bottles, cover and all.
Simply cut the bottle in half, on the lower part then cut in little castleations, like a square zig-zag pattern, and after glue back the top of the bottle, you can lace in the cap to improve the bond - and then a dab of superglue and/or a staple.
I also cut and flip out a flap of plastic, this will - one hopes - help keep the rain water, slow evaporation and not allow the beer to overflow or be diluted.
Its cheap, recycles a plastic bottle and it lasts a long time.
The bottle is then placed in the ground in the bed with the openings close to the ground.
The trap is then baited with beer - I am lucky that my local, Coynes bar in Kilkerrin, pour the driptrays into a bottle, which I pick up and use to fill the bottom of the trap.
Its a real mix of beers, stouts and largers, quite pungent.
It gets past the moral dillema of using real beer from a can, but any cheap tin of beer will do.
The smell of the beer attracts the snails who crawl into the trap, and drown, so lets say they die happy.
