February 2024
Imbolc is here. Spring is stirring.
So here we are at the end of February. After a January that seemed very long, February flew by. And in spite of the vast amounts of rain, and generally miserable weather, there is definitely a stirring in garden and the meadow. That Imbolc feeling - in the belly - is very strong. In my polytunnel, seeds planted and forgotten have started to germinate. Autumn grown hardy annuals need to be moved on to more spacious homes.
The snowdrops have gone over, and I have a few tulips blooming already. It’s very early for tulips, so I’m putting this down to the fact that they are naturalising under a tree, so they are nice and dry in the summer. Also the road and footpath close by are making things warmer. if your garden is waterlogged (as is mine) consider colonising your hellstrip!
Another project this month has been the creation of some decking. Previously we had 2 adjacent decks1 that were at different heights, so that was a trip hazard for me - I’m a great one for tripping in the garden. I don’t lift my feet properly apparently. (According to my younger son). So we are making one contiguous deck, which will free up a previously covered space for some planting. I’m excited to get stuck into that when it’s no longer submerged….A great place to put all those plants that I bought and planted without any place specific in mind for them. (Does anyone else do that?)
I’m also curious to know what workshop to plan for later in the year, so I have designed a survey - please let me know what you’d be interested in!
Click here to tell me what workshops you’d like to attend!
Seasonal Activities
So you could start thinking about planting some hardy annuals at this point - some good ones would be cornflower, nigella, poppy, calendula and sweet pea. If you haven’t bought your seeds yet, get cracking! Most hardy annuals are planted between March and May - if you’re growing something like coriander, consider succession planting - they go to seed quickly if we get hot dry weather (I can hardly believe that such a thing exists). So planing a new batch every 3-4 weeks ensures that you will always have lots of leaves. Another tip for growing Coriander (or cilantro as it may be called in your part of the world) is to soak the seeds overnight before planting them. And be patient! They take a good 2 weeks to germinate.
I’m also participating in the Pepper in a can challenge although 2 weeks in, I’m not seeing any germination happing. I am curious to see how a pepper will do in a can, so I may have to transfer some previously germinated peppers to the cans, although that will make me ineligible for the competition part.
Microgreens are also good at this time of the year - a hefty nutritional punch and speedy harvest too. I have been getting some frozen deliveries (butternut box dog food) and it comes wrapped in this sheeps wool. Makes the perfect water absorbing layer for the microgreens, and is fully compostable afterwards.
Coole Meadow
We expanded the orchard this month, adding plum trees, medlars, whitecurrants, honey berries, and blueberries. Whatever fruit we could find on Future Forests. It’s going to be an interesting harvest in a few years!
The 100 trees that we planted last year, and the native hedge that we planted way back also needed a bit of TLC. We weeded the hedge, and mulched it well with newspaper and some of the composted hay that Brian mowed with his beloved scythe last year. Same for the trees, though they didn’t need weeding - we mulched with cardboard and composted hay.
A small percentage of the trees didn’t make it, but I had some spares to plant in their place. One of the tress I added last year was a willow that has pinkcatkins (Salix gracilistyla Mount Aso). It’s very small still, but I look forward to seeing a much bigger display next year. So cute!
Workshops
A few workshops delivered this month - Soapmaking in Magico in Athlone - a lovely Sunday afternoon in a beautiful setting. We had some tasty sourdough pastries and loads of tea and chat. I really appreciated the convenient parking and proximity to the door - it seems like a small thing, but carrying equipment up and down stairs, or over a long distance gets pretty old.
The following week, it was no-knead sourdough again in Mullingar - here’s a delightful video captured by Rachel. As always, entertaining interactions and tasty bread with homemade jam to sample. And while you really shouldn’t cut open bread until it’s well cooled, we did exactly that on the night…
(Also, if you are in the midlands, check out Rachel’s creative social circle, starting this Friday)
Finally, I helped Nadia Pickersgill from Rathcam farm with a fermented food workshop. We made sauerkraut and kimchi, and then tasted a wide range of fermented foods and pickles - 8 month old kimchi, various kombuchas, sourdough bread, fermented beetroots, hot sauce and pickled turnips - 3 ways. An entertaining, aromatic and delicious night with lots of questions and discussion.
Flower Farming
The East Coast Flower Farmers took the opportunity of meeting up before we all get ‘Marchitis2’. We met at the beautiful home (and farm) of Susan from The Vintage Rose company. A great crowd showed up, lots of opportunities to chat and plan some public facing events (watch this space). It’s wonderful to be around people who are equally if not more obsessed with growing flowers, and to delve deep into the highs and lows of our chosen profession.
I’m eagerly anticipating the ranunculus blooming - there are already a few anemones showing their pretty faces. The question is - will there be any ready for Mothes’s day? Fingers crossed…
Learning
I attended Agroforestry within the horticultural system at CELT at the Slieve Aughty Center. Iain Tolhurst (Tolly) was the speaker, and as a person who has been growing vegetables for decades, without any (large) animal inputs, he was a fascinating presenter. There wasn’t a huge amount of agroforestry, but it did remind me about ramial chipped wood. His well-fed soil hosts 15 million earthworms (small animals helping with fertility) per hectare, something of which he is rightly proud. I’m keen to get out and take some samples and see what my worm population is. Here’s how to do it.
So what’s this ramial chipped wood? Well let me start at the beginning. When we moved here in 2006, there was a fence at the north side of the house. It didn’t seem to be of much benefit, and the grass around it had become mossy, so we removed it and planted a hazel hedge instead. A better wind break/privacy screen. Hazel benefits greatly from being coppiced (cut way down to the base) from which it regrows, and in the meantime, you get hazelnuts.
A coppiced hazel tree can live 200 years, a non coppiced tree last for about 80. It was time that this hedge was coppiced - it had maybe 4-5 years of growth, and really should have been coppiced last year. We have done this a few times since we planted it, passersby are shocked with the change, but the regrowth is very speedy.
The large diameter wood will be dried for firewood, the medium diameter will be cut into 6-8ft poles for plant support (Monty Don is a big fan) - more sustainable than bamboo. Whatever tiny branches are left are run through a chipper, and used to mulch trees and fruit bushes - unlike wood chip, they don’t need composting, and add greatly to the fertility. So everything had found a use, and in a year or two, the hazels will be back to full nut production. In the meantime, the other plants around them get a bit more sunlight, water and nutrients.
National Tree Week
National Tree week is March 3th - 10th. I’m a big fan of trees year round, but it’s nice that they get the focus for a bit. The Tree Council has lots of events right through the month - here’s a list. Some in person, some online.
One event in particular I’d like to highlight - it’s a free webinar hosted by More Trees Now (as mentioned in Irish Times article.). This is a successful campaign started in the Netherlands in 2020 where sapling trees at risk are harvested and distributed for free to ensure they get a chance to reach maturity. As you may remember, I did some harvesting with them in Ardee Bog last year.
Marga Witteman (MORE TREES NOW) The Netherlands) will be giving an online webinar at 7pm March 4th. Please feel free to join and share the links - gain some insight and tips on how to adopt this method on a large scale in Ireland, with free advice, online tools and materials to assist you along the way.
Click here to register for the More Trees Now webinar.
Also, on the topic of trees, but later in the month, I’ll be facilitating a (free) webinar for Prosilva: Forest Establishment Design for Continuous Cover Forestry.
The new Afforestation Scheme 2023-2027 from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine sets out a number of types of forests that are eligible for grant aid.
For the first time, there is provision and support in the programme for the establishment of mixed forests with CCF management in mind. Specification FT10 - CCF - Continuous Cover Forestry details what is involved with creating a mixed-species production forest that will be managed by CCF from the outset. FT1 (Native Forests) and FT2 (Forests for Water) are also expected to be managed using CCF.
Click here to register.
Upcoming events
Still some workshops in the pipeline, hope to see you at some of them!
Natural Cosmetics - March 5th (taught by Eibhlin)
Dried Flower Crowns - March 12th
And I’m really excited about a collaboration with Pure Space (fka Pure Camping) in Co Clare. on the Saturday of the May Bank holiday weekend, I’ll be teaching no-knead sourdough bead making. On the Sunday morning Brian will be doing a scything demo, and there’s a currach regatta in the afternoon. You can come for one event, or for many, and you can stay over if you don’t live close by. And it’s a Bank Holiday!
Sourdough Bread Making - May 4th, Pure Space , Co Clare
And in case you didn’t click on the link at the top of the newsletter, here it is again - please tell me what workshops you’d like to attend!
I’ll finish with some music as always- a Kate Bush tribute. this one stayed with me for a long time.
My deck is made of scaffolding planks, raised up on 4x4s. Chicken wire on top to reduce slipping. Very modular and easy to change when necessary. Not posh at all, but sure what else would you expect?
A fever of busyness, planting seeds, weeding, picking flowers, marketing, once the weather improves a bit.