SEEDLINGS AND A MYRIARD OF PLANT POTS

March 27, 2025April 3, 2025 | gaiainaction

I’m sitting at the window looking out to our garden from our sunroom, which actually used to be called a Conservatory but when the old roof started to deteriorate and started to leak we got it covered in slate and put in two Velux windows, so now I call it the ‘sunroom’ and that will suffice.

And as I look out to the garden I can see some beautiful shrubs that are flowering right now, the forsythia is a patch of yellow and then there is the Berberis Compacta fully decked in orange, it’s beautiful to see even through my still blurred eyes, I’ve had cataract surgery last week and I still cannot see clearly. The Azalea both the purple and white one are coming into flower too, and the Rosemary is one blur of purple and dark green.

I’ve been working with my seedlings this morning; I’ve been repotting some of them. The room is filled with all sizes of pots, which I’m filling with soil, and I am planting seedlings like there is no tomorrow, I have got so many seeds coming on and this whole room is absolutely turned into a greenhouse. I’m so happy with having this space and being able to get my young plants going. I haven’t been able to set up the small plastic greenhouse in the garden yet but that’s the job that’s got to be done. I will then move all these young plants in there and get them to grow strong before I can put some of them out in the purposed plot, the soil needs to be prepared yet. The grass which I had covered with cardboard needs to be either dug or else I will just throw soil on top of it. The soil for the potatoes is ready though, and they have been chitin here on the press, so weather allowing, they are next to go into the ground.

Right now, the sky is gray and there’s a bit of wind, but my chestnut tree is starting to come into leaf, its buds are bursting. The sky out there is filled with birds flying in all directions, seagulls and crows especially, they’re all happy to be alive I think, yes there is lots of activity, for one I have seen our resident blackbird couple eyeing the thick hedge which is where they made their nest before.

It does look like rain and so it probably will rain but there is a lot of inside work and that’s what I’m busy with at the moment. I have 28 kale plants, they’re very small yet but that’s ok as they are only for use next winter, I sowed some extra to be able to share them with others, because that’s fun.

A week later and now we are April!

Despite my limited vision at the moment I was able to plant my potatoes, which is great as it puts me ahead. Meanwhile the sun has been shining for days and there is a warm wind today, my washing has been dancing on the line all morning, a lovely sight to behold because I can now put my clotheshorse away for the summer (I hope). Young plants and seedlings are coming along great and I’ve sowed more. The garden has dried out in the meantime, mud has become hardened already. I now urgently need a gardener, that is, a person who can do some of the jobs I cannot manage. My grandson has advised me to do proper fencing around my new vegetable plot rather than just put pots around it. The idea is to keep the cats from doing their business in the soil where the vegetables are growing. But I might just settle for keeping an eye on it daily and using a shovel. Not decided yet, but note that I have five different cats, not my own, visiting the garden!

Project not finished, watch this space!

CATCHING UP – TAKING STOCK

January 26, 2025 | gaiainaction

It is time for a bit of stock taking, and for catching up with many friends and followers of my blog. Personally the year 2024 has brought many changes, some challenges, some sad, and some good. Worldwide it’s been a sad and chaotic year too I think. Many of us have asked ourselves serious questions about our general humanity, our deeds towards our fellow human beings. A lot of good has been happening too during this past year, a lot of compassion has been shown, and brave and good people have shown to be always around.

I visit Ian, my husband, in the nursing home every week, something we both look forward to very much.

And now January is almost over and I’m still organizing my activities inside the house and out in the garden, and in society. Lots to do, all good things. During the winter I’ve availed of webinars and zoom meetings a lot. Webinars about grasses and rushes, and other natural subjects. Regular zoom meetings of a lace making group. And an introductory course in tree identification. Collage making or painting with my grandchildren is very rewarding too. Locally there have been meetings of the Early Retirement Group which has fabulous and interesting (mainly) other women as members and a good program, one of the things we do is a weekly chair yoga session which keeps us all quite flexible. Then the monthly book club and the poetry circle are such a joy, as are the very regular and hugely interesting art exhibitions. Skibbereen has it all. There is simply not enough time to do it all.

And then there is the weather which during winter can be quite challenging, storms, heavy rain, frost, the type of weather that makes you want to crawl behind the stove with a good book. Christmas and New Year celebrations seem to have come and went in a flash this past year. The dark days are now getting a little lighter and soon it will be the first of February, for Ireland that heralds the beginning of spring, it is also the feast of St.Bridgid and has now become a public holiday. And so…. I’m chitting my potatoes to have them ready for planting in March. My garden is still my focus a lot of the time.

This coming season my main big plan for the garden is to plough up half my little grass field so I can plant more vegetables. For the past five years I have added more and more shrubs because I had much less time to garden and thought it was the better way. This meant that I now have less and less space for vegetables. So space will have to be made. My grandson Ruben who is now a strong teenager and very willing to help me has already cleared one plot in the back of the garden, he wants to do more. We are great mates and I love him coming over and working alongside me, and afterwards we have pizza and watch a movie.

Luckily during the last storm none of our trees suffered, we have seven trees in a small garden. We live in a terraced house and the garden is relatively small. Ours are a birch, oak, chestnut, hawthorn and elderberry, and in the front garden, a currant tree and an acer. Our hawthorn tree was affected by blight last summer and lost all of its leaves, we’ll see what happens this year. The chestnut had been trimmed five years ago and has some rot in an outshoot and that will need looking after.

Gardening and planning a garden, as many people know very well, is a great joy, and keeps us fit, it’s also hard work at times, but that can be done in part, an hour here and an hour there on a daily basis, weather allowing of course (I’m a fair weather gardener). To be out in nature is such a joy, the fresh air, the scents, sounds, and seeing the growth is all delightful and will keep me going for ever. The observation possibilities of seeing insects, birds, wild plants and herbs growing, as well as tasty vegetables and trying out new types. And then there is the digging up of potatoes and the harvesting of edible produce, how much better can it get I think it satisfies one of our most basic instincts as humans, that of survival.

Not being sure what 2025 will bring for us all, I wish many blessing for each and everyone.

Loving thought to all.

WINTER LIGHT AND COLOURS

December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 | gaiainaction

Travelling through the Caha mountains during winter I find that there is plenty of interest to see and get excited about even just along the way. While some of my drives are taken in bad weather conditions, heavy mist, rain and or wind, most of the time I’ve experienced dry and also regularly sunny weather.

Most of all, this winter I find the skies fascinating. The colours, subtle, in pastel pink, light blue, ashen grey or radiant white, and even as if with a magic brush, diffused streaks of periwinkle purple. I’ve seen it all in skies over the Bantry Bay, over the Caha mountains and over the Glengarriff valeys. Ever changing skies with light of a beautiful quality. It certainly holds the attention of the traveller. These days I drive home when the sun is setting, adding another marvel of light, the setting sun, often spectacular!

Looking down into the valley there is a whole palette of different browns, beiges and forest greens. A true feast for the eyes. As can be seen in the photo below Glengarriff National Forest has a lot of birch trees growing, and apart from their stark white trunks, their branches are particularly beautiful at the moment. Every time I pass clusters of them I try to think how to name their colour, a type of maroon, or a vintage wine, or does it look more like an English lavender, burgundy, gothic mulberry or umbral umber. It is hard to pinpoint exactly the colour of those branches, and it also depends how the light shines on them and how the rain brightens them.

A variety of other branches, among them the deep red of the dogwoods is always very nice in a landscape, and so is the drama of the bleached grasses, rushes and sedges covering whole stretches of hillsides with cream blonde colours or even rusty browns.

Darkness falls early these days, painting the landscape mainly in moss green, dark brown or black, though the mountains in the distance do give us some mauve. The landscape changes constantly, it is very noticeably when driving higher up, clouds throwing huge shadows over the valleys interspersed with stretches of sunlight. As I said there is a lot of interest even in winter on my journey. Probably much more to discover yet and that leaves me with a feeling of ever more excitement.

I came across two photos of winter foliage recently, these are paintings of the Danish painter Peder Mork Monsted, (1859-1941) from his ‘Winter’ series. I thought it shows the colouring of the birch trees beautifully and rather well. I think his work very nice. (Referenced from Gallery of Art) with thanks.

A JOURNEY FULL OF INTEREST

October 17, 2024 | gaiainaction

This photo shows the road over the Caha Pass going down into Bonane with a beautiful view of the Macgillycuddy Reeks in Killarney in the distance, among them is Carrantuohill, the highest mountain in Ireland at 1038m. It gets climbed often, recently my sister, brother and other members of the family enjoyed getting to the top. I took this photo and had waited all summer for the right moment to get a clear view of those mountains, it was already deep into September when I got the right conditions, it shows how the land had already started to get a rusty colour, beautiful!

The landscape has been sometimes dark and mysterious lately, this photo I took the day after a large storm sent torrents of rain down the mountains. It made for a most beautiful journey.

Because of the large amount of rain that fell Barley lake (situated in the Caha mountains) could be seen from the tunnel road quite clearly, while I was literally driving through the clouds. Lots of waterfalls everywhere. Beautiful!

The sky is often quite spectacular to watch. In Ireland neither the rain, nor the sun are ever far away and the clouds are ever present in fascinating forms.

On better days, a roadside picnic with a lovely view over the valley below is a must stop for me. The quietness, even if this is a main mountain road, is so very peaceful.

Some more photos of last months journeys to Kenmare. The landscape is changing its colours fast. I often climb up some of the rocks and find all sorts of interest. The flora is mainly brown sedges now and some of the young gorse plants that were still flowering, and the end of the heathers, also the beautiful seedheads of the bog asphodel, a lovely bright orange!

There are plenty of places where I can stop and look at the views or whatever else I want to find. Lower down in the valleys there is a lot more plant growth. Higher up the rocks are a huge fascination of mine.

On this journey there are, in their natural environment, still a lot of old barns and cottages, these are still in use and have been beautifully restored, though some are left as interesting ruins. The traditional cottage of this area of Ireland is a small stone-built house, two windows with a door in the middle, I think two up and two down they call it in vernacular architecture. Here in this photo gallery is one of those traditional cottages, well restored and used, it’s on the road down into the valley of Bonane on the way to Kenmare. It’s very nice to have a stop there and my sister Josephine and I had tea and traditional scones there last summer, but about this place which by the way is called Molly Gallivan’s cottage (after the original owner) I will tell in another blog to come. Visiting places like this goes back a long way in our family.

And as you can see from my photos there is so much a journey of a mere 71km can provide, even on a weekly basis. There is never ending interest, what with the changing seasons. And the sheer amount of interesting facets one comes across on such a journey make it certainly very enjoyable. Wow!

OCTOBER SUNSHINE

October 11, 2024 | gaiainaction

What a most beautiful autumn sunshine at the moment here in West Cork. After an incredible display of the Aurora Borealis last night, we woke up to a little bit white frost, nature has had a lot to offer this morning which I discovered during a much desired walk on the path to Russagh Mill. It’s one of my favourite walks, this path overlooks a long valley, still lush and green in the distance. Closer by I especially noticed the sunlight on the blackberry leaves lighting up their earthy colourings.

This walk also has many shaded areas with lots of ferns. The shade is created by the trees, mainly ash, willow, hawthorn, and other species too. In fact I discovered a new tree which had escaped my notice in the past. When I looked it up on my phone it turned out to be a White Willow (Salix alba), one of its common names is Golden Willow, I like that! A fact I’d like to share about this tree is that “Its inner bark – raw or cooked can be dried, ground into a powder and added to cereal flour, then used in making bread etc. It has a very bitter flavour, especially when fresh, and it is used as famine food when all else fails. The leaves and young shoots are not very palatable and used only in times of scarcity. The leaves can also be used as a tea substitute.” My Flora Incognita got this information from Wikipedia as far as I know, so that is my source of my information I want to acknowledge. I wonder if this tree was every used during the potato famine here in Ireland. Below is a photo of the said tree.

Below are the seedhead of Willow Herb, Hawthorn berries, Fern, and a late flower in the hedgerow.

Blue sky during these autumn months is very welcome.

This last photo is on another part of my walk. The farmer here was growing a plant of the legume family with lilac flowers and thick looking seed pods, there is a whole field of it here, and further along there grows a lot of Dock, now in seed. What caught my attention here was the several dozen of birds fluttering and flying around all at the same time, and definitely looking as if they had a mission in common. I whipped out my phone and checked the evolving picture before me with my Merlin app and to my delight these birds came up as Eurasian Linnets (Linaria cannabina) I was so impressed as I had not seen those before here, and so many of them together. They belong to the Finch family. Apparently they are fond of flax seeds, hence their name. The male’s colouring is beautiful during the breeding season, lots of red.

Well, that walk was so nice, and finally I’ve taken the time to write about it. I’ve missed my blog writing very much and I want to be back to it regularly. So much to research and write about. I’m still driving to Kenmare every week to see Ian, I travel through the Caha mountains and I love it, the beauty of that journey is a weekly joy. Every week something new and interesting to notice and discover. And after seeing Ian, enjoying a nice cup of tea and chat together, the journey back, very often I stop to look at a view or a rock or plant. It’s so dead quiet up in those mountains, even when I’m on a main road there are whole period of quiet. I’ll tell you more about that soon. Meanwhile, much love.

OVERWINTERING HERBS IN WEST CORK

February 4, 2024 | gaiainaction

Rosemary – this plant is three years old

Currently it is the time to take stock and make plans for this coming growing season. I have done a little of that, and I’ve also gone through my last years garden journal to check on what did well and what is just not suited to our type of garden soil, the amount of light and the temperature, and I’ve made a few notes on that. While I was checking all the beds, seeing what is growing well during the winter months, I noticed that herbs and some wild plans do very well during the winter in this area – it being the SW of Ireland. Our climate here is influenced by the gulfstream, this makes our winters mild, usually we only get a little night frost, and this seldom harsher than minus 3 or 4. The plant hardiness zone in this oceanic climate is around 9. So today on the fourth of February I took some photos of what is growing right now, what I can use from our garden. And there is quite a lot.

There are some large and strong lavender and rosemary plants, they are getting old now and a little woody, but still flowers profusely. Normally the rosemary blooms in the winter, beautiful pale blue flowers. I find that rosemary grows extremely well and fast here. The lavender sometimes blooms twice a year and gives a generous crop. Some years ago I planted a sage bush and it soon almost took over the plot, definitely overshadowing the oregano at the moment, again this plant gives beautiful darker blue flowers on spikes, which turn a rusty colour in the fall. Our oregano plants almost disappear during the winter, only a few leaves remaining, but they come up wonderfully well once the sun warms the soil. What does disappear are the different types of mint, the chives, and the lavas, but they also return with the warmer weather. The bay leaf plant grows in a pot, it is slow growing which suits me, I use it all the time. Curly parsley is another herb that stays green all winter. My French tarragon I’ve had to overwinter inside where it is doing ok. I have always loved growing herbs, because of their scent and of course because of their culinary uses. I like to cook with them. Other herbal plants in our garden, like the dandelion, three cornered leeks, borage, feverfew, shepherd’s purse, cleavers, and nettles, just appear and I only use some of them in my cooking, others like the feverfew for example I just like the idea of them being medicinal herbs, but because I don’t know enough about them – I do not use them. Nettles, cleavers, three cornered leeks, ransom, and dandelion I do use, but not for their flavour, more for their vitamin and mineral content.

I enjoyed telling about my herbs and wild plants, I hope you enjoyed reading about them. Today I cooked a Gingered Sweet Potato and coconut stew with lots of cilantro (which does not do well during the winter here – at least not outside!)

I saw a program recently where herbs were used in a border, and left to flower and bloom. It gave me an idea, I’ve tried it before with both celery and coriander plants, but I grew them in pots. I am now going try growing them in-between other flowering plants in my borders. I guess coriander is native to the Mediterranean. Celery, though, is definitely native to Ireland, there are still uncultivated wild celery plants growing on Irish soil. Their flowers are umbelliferous, lovely light delicate flowers which will definitely add interest to my border.

When I’m reading, thinking, talking, or writing about plants, their origins, their uses, their benefits, and their beauty, and how many of them travelled from faraway places, then I’m as happy and interested as can be. So much to read and learn about them.

COLOUR AND TEXTURE IN THE WINTER GARDEN

December 13, 2023December 13, 2023 | gaiainaction

‘Every gardener know that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle, a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl. And the anticipation nurtures our dream’ B.Winkler

‘What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness’ John Steinbeck

‘Don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous’ RUMI

Lacework of the hydrangea flowers.

‘In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy’ WILLIAN BLAKE

Totally enjoying a beautiful winter, the sky, the plants, seedheads, and all the little miracles that manifest during this time of year are a joy to behold. Winter is a time for reflection and restoration in nature and in ourselves.

Wishing everyone a peaceful and beautiful Christmas and mid-winter time, may peaceful blessings be upon you all.

THOUGHTS OF SUMMER 2023

June 11, 2023July 3, 2023 | gaiainaction

This summer is moving along nicely, after a rather cold spring with lots of icy eastern winds. Today I’m sitting under our hawthorn tree thinking of writing another blog post which I feel is long overdue. I want to write about where I am at this moment, what is inspiring me and how I’m filling my days.

Right at the beginning of spring I felt the desire to work with a greenhouse in order to grow more and better plants in this unpredictable climate, and soon after longing for it I started looking at different designs, and ordered our present tunnel, Ian treated me to it. It is a small tunnel but then we have a small garden. I’ve never looked back.

I’m growing more vegetables this year, I’m not leaving things up to my intuition like I usually do or did, this year I’m actually reading up in gardening books and on the web what are the best ways to grow certain crops, and most important, how can I improve my soil, or at least help it to keep fertile. Up to now I’ve always collected my garden waste and thrown it into a corner at the end of the garden, but not anymore. I realise that I need to put nutrients back into the soil. Ok if there are some wild plants among them that I don’t want to regrow necessarily, if they are in seed, then they go into the compost barrel, but all other green waste stays on the soil where it grew, it’s a good mulch and it kept the soil moist during the driest weeks earlier in the summer. I’m also keeping a good garden journal this year, noting everything I sow and grow and how it is doing and other notes on how I can improve their growth in future years. It’s useful!

My interest in gardening lies not alone in beautifying my surroundings, or in growing vegetables, I also like to experiment, not only with growth but also with the soil, with the sort of pollinators that are visiting, and with the changes to our trees and other long standing growth, such as what type of wild plants keep germinating and growing to maturity, as that changes over time. For a few years I had Evening Primrose and Mullein growing and self-seeding, now they are gone. But the pale Hedge Woundwort has been a loyal wild flower all over the garden for decades, as has the Herb Robin. I practise polyculture.

Now and then I take test of the soil to see if there is anything lacking and usually there is. I have tried to rectify this over the years with seaweed fertilizer. I garden totally organic! I find this testing immensely interesting and am learning more every day. Listening to podcasts or webinars that discuss the important of soil building and organic growing and so on keeps me fired up.

At this time there is also the produce collecting, the use or storing of same. Delicious dishes are being produced in my kitchen, I enjoy all the cooking of the fresh produce. There is the herb collecting and drying, I grow a huge collection of different herbs, many of which I dry for winter use. Teas also, like Hawthorn, Lemon Balm and Lemon Vervain, Mint etc… Collecting seeds for future use or for swapping and sharing will be the next step as the summer moves along.

The big experiment this season is growing my own potatoes. Early in the year I bought Mirabella seed potato in one of our local garden centres. These seeds are blight resistant and organic. So I dug up all the grasses from a patch at the back of the garden and after chitting the seed potatoes, planted them out. They grew fantastically well. I had 22 plants! Only to discover that they were early potatoes that do not store well, my idea was to have potatoes over the winter as we are not big potato eaters. I’ve dug up some to date and they are nice, but they will probably be gone by the winter time. Note so self: Next year… check that out better. To lift up a crop of potatoes from the soil is like witnessing a miracle over and over again, I find it both fascinating and exciting and I love it.

I’m aware of the decline in biodiversity and as much as possible I attend and take part in local groups that are concerned about this and try to enlighten the public about all the various aspects of avoiding and helping to minimize this current worldwide problem. The environment and biodiversity is high priority on my agenda, and while I can only attend a certain amount of activity or meetings, I like to give priority to this important current problem. I take photos of pollinators and share them, we need them more than we know. Knowing which plants attract pollinators and cultivating those also is of importance.

All in all nature in general, in all its beauty and interest is enhancing and making my life fascinating. Every day I learn and discover more, it lights up my days and keeps my brain sharp with doing more and more research. What a blessing. There is today a huge amount of information online and in up to date books both about the beauty, the interest, and the problems currently present in the environment, with biodiversity, with the ecology, in farming practises, and in nature connectedness. It is a never ending nature study!

Fortunately many people are very well aware of all this and much is being done, but much more needs doing worldwide.

ENTHUSIASTIC PLANS FOR OUR GARDEN

March 26, 2023March 26, 2023 | gaiainaction

It is nearing the end of March and though the weather is still quite wet, it is time to put some of the plans that I have made for the garden into action. The frost is gone and the temperature is now around 18 degrees. The soil temperature was 11 degrees Celsius today. However, the soil is still very wet. I’ve been working at the back of the garden taking roots out of the soil, roots from ivy, black currant, and nettles from a patch where I want to grow our potatoes this season. It’s hard but rewarding work and I just love working with the soil, feeling it and finding little creatures in it, even the colours of different soil is interesting. The plot that I’m currently working in has always been used to dispose of organic matter, and it has benefited this soil very much, its colour is more brown than the surrounding black. Originally our soil was mostly clay but over the years I’ve been changing it to loam by using lots of composted garden and kitchen refuse. So anyway, my plans for this year include introducing some of my favourite perennials and annuals, some of these I will be sowing and some I am buying. We do have two excellent garden centres here in the town, I can get anything I want. Talking about anything I want… one of my dearest wishes for many years is to get a small green house, think of what I could grow off season…

This is only the start of getting the plot ready, lots more work to be done.

During the winter I covered the patch that I planned to use for the potatoes with canvas, it did make a difference when I uncovered it yesterday, a lot of the grass had wilted. Two robins where looking for grubs in the newly disturbed soil, they are so lovely and not a bit afraid of us humans.

Some of the vegetables that are currently growing still and ready for eating.

And some of the flowers that are heralding spring, they seem to brave the wind and rain so easily!

And these above are some of my more wild plants which I treasure too, some for cooking, and some for the enjoyment of the flowers when they show later in the summer. They all grow so easy and start to grow very early in the year, such a joy, so green and healthy looking. In fact most of these plants overwinter here as the climate is mild, we did get some frost, even a little snow, but mostly temperatures are a few degrees above zero during the night and in the day they vary between 8 and 10 Celcius.

During the past three years I’ve added several shrubs to my collection, and this year I’m thinking of buying a Mahony shrub, I see them growing in tubs around the town and love them. Their honey scented yellow flowers are beautiful and also flowering early in the year. The leaves turn a lovely colour in autumn. Inside I’m starting a Ribes plant from a cutting, and I’ve got a Skimmia sapling still sitting on the kitchen window-sill ready to plant out soon, it is a male plant so I will be looking for a female to join it, it is the female plant that develops the deep red berries. I have sweet pea seedlings on my bedroom window-sill, a bit too soon those plant out. It’s time to sow a selection of summer flowering annuals inside, but the marigolds I’ll be sowing outside during the next week, they thrive very well in our garden. I’m also setting a myriad of gladiola bulbs.

Years ago I planted this Forsythia so that we would have some colour early in spring, this year is the first time that it blooms so lovely!

I am not your regular gardener, though I love the physical work that gardening involves, mostly I like to experiment and I like to see what comes growing into my garden without me planting it, I like the element of surprise and discovery. I like taking note of what my soil needs and so testing the soil, taking its temperature, making note of how much light a certain plot receives, how acid the soil is, and much more. I also like to propagate plants, grow from cuttings etc… It’s something I’ve done all my life. And I like to provide fresh vegetables for my family… well, my husband and myself that is, I love cooking with fresh produce that I’ve just plucked from the garden whether it’s wild or cultivated, a combination is great. Right now the wild plants that are plentiful are three cornered leeks, succulent tops of cleavers, young dandelion leaves and tender nettle leaves. The earth gives abundantly!

Gardening can be such a pleasure.

agoyvaerts

To observe, to be enchanted, and to enjoy the simple stuff in life, is truly a delight.

Observations