April Is The Month For Dividing Phormiums.

Phormiums or Flax are native to New Zealand and Australia but they arealso very common in West Cork.  

Their leathery leaves are salt resistant and ideal for coastal gardens like mine in the countryside next to the sea.  They also make a good architectural feature in a border.

They are also quite expensive and can range from a fiver to forty quid for nice large specimens.  

Being a tightwad smallholder/gardener I don't pay those garden centre prices and I make my own plants by dividing the plants at this time of year 

You take the plant out of the pot or dig it up if its in the garden and take out a trusty old bread knife or old saw or even use your spade like I did and made myself 10 new plants.

Anyone want one?  I will sell them for five Euros each to you.  That's deferred gratification of 50 Euros from a carboot sale in a few weeks.  Not bad for less than an hours work dividing and replanting them in pots filled with my homemade compost.

"Who Lives In A Smallholding House Like This?"

 We have two piglets living in the Conservatory with us at the moment.  

An old sow we bought in piglet farrowed the other day.  Sadly some of them were born dead but these two below survived.  There's an old country saying:

"Where there is livestock there is always deadstock".

So very true!

The sow who I named Florence and the Pig Machine had no milk so we decided to bring them in an put them under an heat lamp in a cage. I remember my dad telling me that my Grandmother use to nurse young lambs and pigs next to the range in the kitchen.

We are giving them Lamblac powdered milk in baby bottles.  They same stuff we feed the lambs.  They are flying it by the way and feel heavy when you pick them up.

Number one son rigged up an Heath Robinson system of propping up the bottle to make a 'self service' drinking station for in the night and during the day. 

It's early days but they seem to be doing fine now.

"On Their Way Up!"

 No I am not talking about football teams getting promoted.  Although I do follow Middlesbrough this season after a certain ex MU player became their manager.

I am writing about the seed potatoes growing in the compost filled potato bags we planted recently.

It's great to see that Summer is on the way and we will be eating our new potatoes before the outside ones are ready to dig.

We will be eating before we say : "It's too hot for potatoes" and "Is it hot or is it me?"

I covered up the potatoes shoots with the last of my Lidl John Innes compost.  I go through compost like nobody's business. I went for some more today and they had sold out.  

Oh for my fym to decompose and I will have tons of free compost.

Are your potatoes 🥔 shoots emerging yet?

"It's Not A Garden Centre Though Is It?"

 

We went selling at a carboot sale for a change instead of just purchasing stuff.

We took turns to have a look round and I managed to escape from wifey and  made some purchases foe myself like two trugs for weeding and carrying firewood and an old soil sieve and a sack truck.

I even sold some of my perennials and an interested lady took our phone number and she wants more plants taken to a carboot sale for her.

The sun was shining for a change and a lady asked me how much was a bamboo plant was for sale?  Giving it my best sales pitch I said:

"If you wanted the same bamboo in a garden centre it would be at least 27 Euros'.

But I will let you have a plant of it  for two Euros. 

The lady replied:

"But it's not a garden centre is it?"

Then she walked off leaving me with my cut-price car boot sale bamboo plant!

Life.  If I could only purchase one!😊

Spring Flowers.

 I took these in a heavy shower this afternoon.  Apparently the rain is from that French named storm Mathis  - "When a storm is born".

It's supposed to be 18 degrees here next Easter weekend on the Irish Riviera.  Yes and I'm the Lord Mayor of Munster.  We'll see.

Here's a few pics of Spring flowers 💐.

Geranium macrorrhizum.  It's got a gorgeous  perfume aroma.

Ransoms or Wild Garlic.  You can eat them raw in salads.  Like all Alliums they are very good for you and keeping the vampires 🧛‍♀️ away.

Bergenia or "Pig Squeak" or Elephants Ears.  They originate in China 🇨🇳 and Siberia and are tough as old work boots.

Osteospermums or Cape Daisies.  They originate in South Africa.  I grow them from cuttings.  The Geraniums are made by division and cuttings.

What have you got flowering at the moment?

I am hoping to sell some at carboot sales over the Spring and Summer.  Anyone want some cheap perennials?

A New Knife And A Furze Attack!

 The wife brought me a tree knife from you know where the other week.  It was less than 6 Euro and it folds in half.  The blades got jagged saw like teeth and looked just the ticket for one of pernicious weeds projects.

My new tree saw knife.

I spent a morning and more cutting rogue Furze,Gorse or Whin vegetation down in a field.  No-one else volunteered to help but the ponies and donkeys do browse graze the flowers sometimes.

I wore work gloves and still suffered some prickly spikes stuck in my gloves and a few bloody scratches on my hands.

Some people would get some kind of paste or weedkiller to spray or paint on the stumps.  But I will come back another year and cut them back.  The Gorse wood can be made into cutlery handles.

Gorse or Furze was grown for firewood and sold in bundles in Galway.  It's also got medicinal uses and it's called the "Pioneer" plant in New Zealand.  

It's also taken over vast areas in parts of North America.  Pioneer Europeans took Gorse seeds there and they thought they were spreading a little bit of "ould Ireland 🇮🇪. 

I like the flowers and like the Dandelions they provide much needed nectar for the bees and other beneficial insects early in the year.

There's an old country saying:

" When Gorse is out of blossom, kissing out of fashion".

It begins flowering in February to May.  It's flowers smell like coconut or sun tan cream.

It's beautiful but can be a nuisance!  The wife said I made a fantastic job.  I did something right for once.  Must ✍️ it the diary.

What pernicious weeds trouble you?

Filling Up Quickly.

 'PORTUGAL' my torn and ripped polythene cover that's still a functional polytunnel is starting to get very packed with cuttings both perennials and shrubs.  

Propagating plants is a great way of making a garden without spending a fortune.

You don't need money just patience and a love of plants.  But you can have a garden of delight.

Are you in the mood for a bit of Goth Rock?

Here's The Mission.  I have been fortunate enough to see them play live at Manchester Apollo a couple of times.  What a splendid band!