June 2025 - Phew!
Mixed weather and lots of creativity
It seems like no time since I was writing my May newsletter, so I guess that means that I was pretty busy in June!
A few key items to bring to your attention :
The draft Westmeath Biodiversity plan is out for consultation - and you don’t need to live in Westmeath to give feedback. In this area, the people that are ‘agin’ biodiversity seems to be very noisy, so this is our chance to have our voices heard, and to support the excellent work that is bing done. I’d appreciate it if you would take the time to give feedback, however brief. Deadline is July 1st.
Here's where you can make the submission. You have to create an account but it's not painful.
Also, I’ll be talking about seed saving and giving away seeds at the Yoga Picnic - tickets still available here- it’s a great lineup, looking forward to attending some great events after my workshop.
So, the weather has been great for plants and flowers and there’s lots in bloom right now. I’ll be doing some event floristry for the Yoga Picnic with some of the other Westmeath Flower Farmers - looking forward to having some fun with that, watch my instagram for some getting ready content next week.
June began with the intensity of Bord Bia Bloom - it was brilliant to spend time with other flower farmers and florists and to meet members of the public who were keen on our Irish grown, conflict free flowers. But boy was it exhausting!
Brian and I took a walk around pretty early on the last day of Bloom - it was getting difficult to properly see the show gardens by 10:30am. But I really enjoyed the organic garden sponsored by DAFM - I particularly liked the potatoes with weeds :-)
Seasonal Activities
We are in major harvesting mode now, with loads of food, herbs, fruit and flowers coming on stream. Potatoes in the towers are giving a great yield, while some of the ones in the soil - even with lots of donkey manure, compost and TLC are still struggling to produce foliage.
I’ve been drying nettles for my winter restorative tea, and this week I picked some rosebay willow herb that I’m going to ferment for tea also. I was interested to read that it was a major Russian export to the UK before the East India Company did a lot of marketing of their product…anyhow, looking forward to tasting it. Lots of calendula petals also drying for soap making and other uses.
I think that I have most beds planted now with half hardy annuals and some late planted hardy annuals, and I’m moving on to planting biennial seeds like sweet william, foxglove, honesty and hesperis. It will be a struggle to find space for them when they are ready to plant out, but worth doing as they are such good producers.
Blackcurrants, red currants, strawberries and gooseberries also need to be picked, it’s a good thing that it’s bright out both early and late!
Coole Meadow
The garlic is almost ready to be harvested - I was able to pick some scapes last week. We have emptied all of last years compost bins of hay, except for the ones that are growing potatoes, and we have used that material to mulch trees. At this point, we are trying to keep on top of the grass on the paths and around the caravan, and mowing between the tree stands - the rough grass there is becoming softer and more manageable.
Wild orchids are blooming, and the field is full of butterflies and bumble bees.
Workshops
We had a few Crafty Yellowship workshops in June - Home Sweet Home, Get the Flax, and Going Underground.
A few food waste workshops took places as part of food waste week at the start of the month - Edible flowers and herbs in Mullingar, and Let’s go Bananas in Moate and Athlone. And Nadia ran a fermented food workshop in Castlepollard. Thanks to the libraries for being so welcoming and appreciative of us! Give Nadia a follow on her new flower focussed account.
Cruinniu na nOg in Water St, Castlepollard was a great success with flower crown makers and musicians.
Flower Farming
There was a fair bit of admin post Bloom, not flower farming exactly, but associated. And time consuming. We are nearly there with all of that, I’ll be relieved when it’s finished.
I have sweet peas in the tunnel - not a huge area, but keeping on top of cutting them is a (pleasurable) but full time job! I got behind on my weeding around the end of May, and have kind of given up at this point, in my home garden at least. Every year I swear that this won’t happen, and every year it does.
We are seeing the benefits of our loose coalition of Westmeath Flower farmers - Nadia was contacted by a local florist for some Irish wedding flowers, and working together we were able to meet her needs. I think that we would all enjoy doing that more often - much less stress and pressure than trying to do it all yourself.
Learning
Our forest was used by ProSilva to run some oak thinning training for forest owners and foresters. Professor Ted Wilson delivered the training in Kilteel hall and in Fox Covert wood, we attended for the second day. It was lovely to share our space with like minded people. ProSilva is a great organisation for advancing continuous cover forestry (i.e. no clear fell) in Ireland. Anyone can be a member, worth joining if you love trees.
I attended the Talamh beo agm, this is a fantastic organisation, doing great work practically and politically and with a strong social justice foundation, focussed on food sovereignty. Expect to hear more about them here. Any one can join, you don’t have to be a farmer, and under 30s can join for free! As you might expect, the food was exceptional…prepared by the Gourmet Offensive
Upcoming events
No much on in July after the Yoga Picnic yet - and I’m looking forward to a bit of a break!
There’s a Sourdough workshop organised by Cavan Community Development in Blacklion.
There’s also a Kombucha workshop in P3 cafe. Lisa who runs the cafe reached out to me and I’m delighted to collaborate with her on this, and to reach a new audience in Cavan. Wish I lived closer, I’d be dropping in to the cafe for yummies on a regular basis!
I’ll be teaching Soapmaking in November in Coolamber Gardens - quite the posh venue and a wonderful day out if you wanted to treat yourself or a friend.
August will be busy with lots of heritage week events, and some more Crafty Yellowship workshops - watch this space.
Links
A section for stuff I read or watched that I think is worth sharing - still on hiatus till September . Not spending much time inside reading!
Music
And here’s an oldie, from someone who is performing in Ireland this weekend. I’m in Malahide on Sunday, so I may get to hear her. :-)
Lovely interesting newsletter, as usual. Don't know where you find the time in your busy schedule but thanks! Really enjoyed the event in Mullingar library on editable flowers. Also, the recent very successful solstice supper in Water St, Castlepollard! They were so lucky with the weather that way which was unreal as well as the home made pizza!