July 2024- sunny spells and scattered (torrential) showers.
A more comprehensive review of the month.
After a rather cold June, I was hoping for a bit of warmth in July to get things growing. Some interesting data here for Mullingar from Met Eireann - looks like the temperatures are below average so far for July. But there’s definitely been growth, and lots of flowers are enjoying the weather it would seem. Like this yucca in my hellstrip which doesn’t bloom all that often - a rare delight.
We began this month with an overnight stay at the tree farm in Kildare - and had a dry and pleasant stay, although there’s always more work to be done. The scythe is proving to be a great addition to the tool set. Sitka spruce is regenerating like crazy. Anyone want some free sitka spruce trees? i’m going to have to try cooking with spruce tips next year…
I met lots of people last Sunday at the plant fair in Belvedere, many who had come to my courses. I had one conversation that made me realise that I need to mention my flower subscription offering - €55 for 4 weeks of flowers - to be collected from the Refill Mill or from Greenpark Meadows where I live and grow a lot of my flowers.
As well as being great deal, this is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint. A UK university has worked out that a typical supermarket bouquet had a carbon footprint of about 30kg- to put that in context a flight from Dublin to London is about 90kg. So 3 supermarket bouquets = a flight to London. So if you like to treat yourself to flowers every week, buying flowers with a tiny carbon footprint from someone like me is a much better option and supports a local business.
Seasonal Activities
We are in full flow with harvesting and eating first and second early potatoes. Having tried freshly picked potatoes quickly cooked in an airfryer, I bought one (specifically one without teflon), having been a sceptic previously. We have used it every day since. I don’t think that we have eaten potatoes 3 times a day yet, but definitely twice a day. It’s a large device, but replaces our pressure cooker and slow cooker. And I used it to make chutney, and ginger syrup, so it’s most useful.
Lots of black and redcurrants picked and frozen. I have been making a rhubarb and blackcurrant jam that is proving very popular. And quick to set without any added pectin or jam sugar.
My tomatoes are just becoming ripe . And there are tiny aubergines on my experimental aubergine planting in Coole. Any recipes you’d recommend?
We were invited to a wedding celebration mid month - I was delighted to bring loads of flowers to decorate and liters of Kombucha. The Lemon Verbena kombucha was excellent as a lemonade replacement in Pimms. And here’s some of my flowers beautifully set off by a Lithicworks sculpture.
Coole Meadow
We planted some trees that had to be moved urgently - a frustrating and stupid tale, so we now have a few more trees in the woodland. Not certain that they will be able for the move at this time of the year, but fingers crossed.
There are loads of flowers growing - the scything has to be improving the conditions. Note- we didn’t plant these, the plants or seeds were there, just waiting for a chance to bloom. I expect that we will see the mix change every year. Here’s a selection.
Brian has been scything around the trees, to get them a bit of breathing space to grow for the next few months. The espaliered apples on the fence got similar treatment so we are looking forward to some nice looking apples soon.
He will move onto the main meadows soon, there are some rough bits that didn’t get mown last year at all. They will be the first area to attack.
We emptied all the compost bins from last year, just in time to begin filling with this years arisings. As you might remember we tried growing spuds in one of this bins. Well there wasn’t a great haul, but the ones that did grow were beautiful and really easy to harvest, so I think we will be trying that again last year. And maybe put more in the middle and not so many on the edge - those ones didn’t survive.
Workshops
Nadia taught a wonderful fermented food workshop early in the month. There were lots of delicious samples and to bring home - comprehensive and clear instructions, kim chee, sauerkraut, pickled rhubarb, turmeric pickled onions.
The Kombucha workshop last night was equally fun, as we waited for the tea to cool down we snacked on cheese and crackers and sampled lots of different Kombuchas - including one made with coffee rather than tea. Lovely chats, lovely participants, and hopefully all will be successful at home, inventing new flavour combinations!
Flower Farming
I was delighted to do some event floristry for the Yoga Picnic - as a flower farmer, I don’t alway get to see where the flowers end up. And it was great to be given free rein creatively to make some stage decoration for this event, in some clever wooden boxes that accommodated recycled glass jars, so a very sustainable display.
Here’s a setup video - I really enjoy working with Nadia on this and other projects.
I have been playing with flowers in the flower bricks that I made in my ceramics class. Some weeks I struggle to find time to bring flowers inside. I had this arrangement in front of me on my desk, it was really lovely to look at and to smell.
Some flowers are doing ok with the not so summery weather, but the dahlias are really behind. I have been stricken badly with leafy gall, and I suspect that some of the non-thrivers may be infected. I have a particular area that I like to grow dahlias in my garden - this infection means that I can’t use this area for dahlias of several years. Some beds in my tunnel are also in quarantine, so I’m mostly growing in big pots this year. We will see how that works out.
I’m planting lots of biennial seeds- sweet william, wallflower, foxgloves, clary sage, daucus carota . Orlaya is still to be I need fresh seed for that, so I have let my plants go to seed and wait till they are ripe to plant. So that’s a few weeks away.
I have been clearing beds with last years biennials - and replanting with (somewhat late) half hardy annuals. Trying some plants in the tunnel - snapdragon, Larkspur , celosia, thanks to Sarah for some marigolds and millet grass.
We excavated the Johnson-Su Bioreactor - having filled it in June 23, and left it to sit for a year. It had produced some very nice compost, which is supposedly very high in lots of beneficial microorganisms. I really need to get to grips with the microscope that we bought last year. I’m trying it out for seed growing - it’s mostly coffee chaff, so very few weed seeds. I have planted up 2 container with the same seeds and different compost to see how that works.
Learning
As well as doing a Kombucha demo and tasting at Yoga picnic, I managed to attend a talk about business sustainability. It was great to hear Pat Lalor of Kilbeggan oats speak about his journey into growing oats organically. He made a comment that stuck with me - he characterised conventional farming as chemical farming and organic faming as biological. And he had been very successful in working with the biology to create an excellent product.
One of the readers of the newsletter and a long time friend and gardener gave me a great tip this month that I’m happy to share with you. (Thanks Aideen) She recommended the mesh veg bags that you can easily buy in most supermarkets to protect some of your fruit from birds. I slipped a few bags on my ripening redcurrants, and the birds were not able to get them before me. Much cheaper and easier than bird cages or netting, and the birds don’t get caught in them.
These bags are also useful for seed saving - to store seeds that are not quite dried out. I will also use them for picking herbs on a dry day, once we get a dry day…and they can be washed in the washing machine, so all around a great tool for a gardener.
Upcoming events
Next up: A Flower Mandala workshop on 21st of August at 8pm in the Refill mill, a fundraiser for research into Multiple Myeloma- DM Ally to book your place. It will be a beautiful, mindful, colourful fragrant evening. If you have been on one of my mandala events before, they have been a bit rushed. This one will be much slower paced, and being indoors, you will have the opportunity to really focus on the beauty of the flowers (without worrying about them being blown away). I’m very excited to be collaborating with Ally and for a very meaningful cause.
My ‘Gardening for Biodiversity’ event in the Refill Mill is sold out, but I’ll be running a similar event on 3rd September in Athlone library , 6pm-7:30. It’s not listed for registration yet, but if you are interested get in touch with Athlone Library or keep an eye on here.
As part of the libraries Sustainable Development goals week, I have a seed saving workshop in Athlone on 26th of September at 6pm. I’ll be in Castlepollard earlier that week talking about Food waste (so there will doubtless be something to taste) - thats 24th September, 11am. Both of these will require registration, but they are not online yet.
The Jams and chutney workshop in Cuige is also fully booked, let me know if you want to be on the wait list for that.
I’ll be teaching a soap making workshop in the beautiful and productive Swainstown farm on Aug 10th. I have been busy making soap well in advance that will be close to cured. We will unfold and cut this soap up on the day, for participants to bring home - alone with some castle soap that they will make from scratch on the day.
I’m also running 2 (free) kids workshops as part of the Wild Child events during Heritage Week - August 24th
I have done some planning with my lovely Cuige partners and we have planned no-knead sourdough baking on October 16th, and adult and child flower crown event during the mid-term (October 30th), soap making on November 20th ( in time for you to make lots of lovely gifts) and a wreath workshop in December. Once I get these listed on my website I’ll send out an interim newsletter, or maybe it will be the August epistle! At any rate newsletter subscribers will be front of the queue for booking.
Finally, just to remind you all that I grow and sell flowers. It’s a little less convenient than dropping into a florist, I need a day or so notice - but considerably better for the future of the human race :-)
Subscription - €55 for 4 weeks. Collect on Thursday from the Refill mill or Greenpark meadows
Bunch of fragrant seasonal flowers - €25
Large Seasonal Bouquet - €50
And if you’d like a bunch in an enamel jug - a better option if the flowers will be travelling or sitting around (small jug €25, large jug €50), drop me an email.(bigskyflowers@gmail.com)
For the music choice this week - I’m sharing this short - I thought that it was time I shared some more current music, and of course delighted that Kamala is the Democratic Presidential candidate…
Another action packed newsletter Anna 🙂
Thanks for the tips!