KNOW YOUR ONIONS I love growing onions. They’re fresher, more flavoursome and generally give your eyes a good watering far more than their supermarket sisters. Like carrots, onions are a staple in our house. We love them and have them in everything. Again it’s not about saving money as onions are cheap to buy – […]
Author Archive | G. Jolliffe
Growing Peas in Raised Beds
Growing peas in raised beds is surprisingly easy and the great thing is that you don’t have to buy ‘real’ raised beds you can use containers, tyres, old boats – anything that will hold soil. I started the peas and some broad beans you see below on the window sills in the sunniest room in […]
Rocks and stones
In my Galway garden there are more rocks and stones than soil. Some people say that during the Celtic Tiger period, soil was taken away from sites and sold, then sold again – back to whoever bought the same house and site a year later! Could this be true? I asked myself… stupidly. Of course […]
Stoney Grey Soil
STONEY GREY SOIL BY PATRICK KAVANAGH * O stony grey soil of Monaghan The laugh from my love you thieved; You took the gay child of my passion And gave me your clod-conceived. . You clogged the feet of my boyhood And I believed that my stumble Had the poise and stride of Apollo And […]
Slugs don’t like beer
Slugs 10 – Beer 0 Remember last weeks post when I was happily planning how to get rid of slugs? Well, you heard it from me. I have caught not a single slug with my carefully laid out beer traps. Is it the wrong beer? Don’t those fussy little slugs like cheap Lidl lager? What do they […]
HOW TO GET RID OF SLUGS
How to get rid of slugs? That’s the next big question now that I’ve got my peas and spinach planted. You see, I just know there’s an army of them hiding behind the rocks watching me work and waiting for me to go indoors so they can get stuck in the way they did to […]
The War On Weeds
Ask any gardener and they will probably tell you that when it comes to fighting the war on weeds, you might win a few battles here and there, but weeds are a formidable foe. The front will keep moving around the garden and you will never, ever win the war. Most gardeners never stop trying […]
THE WILDFLOWER MEADOW THAT WASN’T
WILDFLOWER MEADOW In my first post about my barren, Burren wildflower meadow I mentioned my disappointment at the lack of growth in the flower department, the speedy growth in the weed department and the lack of any replies in the email department from Gerry, the professional and ‘passionate about gardening’ gardener who prepared the ground […]
The Wildflower Meadow
WILDFLOWER MEADOW AND OTHER DREAMS The first thing I planned to do when I moved to our new home in Galway was to grow a wildflower meadow. The section directly in front of the house, which faces east, was an unruly grass-covered mess that apparently used to be a lawn. My husband, M, is not […]
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