Allotment - First Early Potatoes

The first vegetable to be sown this year are our First Early Potatoes. We only planted 10 seed potatoes as there is just the two of us we should get a good return. Also early potatoes do not store well so we pretty much have to eat them as they are harvested. This will be the first year for us growing earlies so I am looking forward to seeing how well they do.


We planted these the usual way, dug a small trench about 6-8 inches deep and added some manure and a sprinkling of Blood Fish & Bone, a balanced fertiliser to help them along as Potatoes are a hungry crop. We placed each tuber (sprouting eye facing up) about 12 inches apart in rows approx 24 inches apart. 


Just to help protect them a little from a late frost we added some straw dense manure on top to keep the soil warm, when the plants are poking through the soil we will earth them up on top of the manure which will add additional organic matter to the potatoes. See image below. 

Allotment - March 2012 (New Beginnings)

Well its a new year (I know the year started in Jan) but in terms of the allotment March is the beginning for me this year. 


I will admit over the winter I have not been to the allotment even half as regularly as I should have been but this year I am back and armed with a plan.


The aims for 2012 are fairly straightforward:

• Improve the quality of the soil.
• Improve on the crops that grew well last year, be it size, quantity etc.
• Do not waste space on vegetables that realistically will not crop well outdoors (especially true for my allotment given its exposed location).
• Grow more typically 'Irish' vegetables. 

I like to think we learned a lot last year, I was not in truth, altogether happy with the return of vegetables we had but that was down to our own mistakes. I have learned however and this year I will be aiming for a much better return.

Half the fun is in the learning experience so I will accept it and move on. 

One mistake from last year was the crop protection from pests, we lost or had a lot of damage particularly to our turnips, cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower plants from various pests. Lesson learned: protect crops adequately

Hardening off was something that we didn't understand enough about until it was too late. We had a lovely variety of strong plants at home in a nicely controlled environment. Once they were exposed to conditions in the allotment however they (mostly) either withered and died or had severely stunted growth and failed to crop entirely or cropped miserably. Lesson learned: Start everything off in the allotment, under cloches / protection if needed but at least it will be stronger for being outdoors from the start of the year, additionally wait a little longer to sow to allow weather to heat up sufficiently. 

Compared to this time last year we are way ahead of ourselves, instead of building beds and filling them with soil in a mad panic I was turning over soil and adding manure (something I didn't get to do last year) so hopefully improving the quality of the soil.

I have also spent a few quid (£15) on a garden planning software to better help us plan what to grow, where to grow it and most importantly what to plant after it has cropped for succession growing. Last year for instance once the potatoes were dug up in August we just left the ground empty when we could have been growing something else making better use of the space available. That hopefully will not happen this year.

So I am full of beans, raring to go and almost impatient as most of the prep work is done, now all I can do is wait for April so I can start sowing.

Allotment - Harvest 2011

Looking back on 2011 in the Allotment I wasn't overly happy but on seeing some of the pictures again I don't feel too bad, we did manage a good crop of a lot of vegetables. I felt a little disappointed in the returns overall but that was down to my own mistakes as much as anything else. Not protecting vegetables from pests was a major faux pas that we wont be repeating in 2012. 


Below are some pictures of the harvests from last year. 

Digging up the first of the Main Crop Potatoes. 

A good selection of veggies for dinner. Left to right from picture, some Alpine Strawberries, Butterhead and Cos Lettuce, Peas, Potatoes, Runner Beans, Carrots

After we harvested all our Main Crop Potatoes, we set them on some newspaper in the apartment to dry before placing them in a large plastic container to exclude light, we left the lid slightly ajar so the air could circulate . They stored in this manner until Just after Christmas when all we were left with were the small potatoes we were too lazy all along to peal. It does not look like many in the picture but for our needs they were ideal. 

Some of the carrots harvested, we generally harvested them as we needed them until October when I lifted them all, cleaned, peeled and froze them for later use.

The first Turnips were harvested in early July. These ones are a variety called 'Purple Top Milan' and were harvested a little bigger than tennis ball size. The Turnips following on from these suffered from a lot of pest damage due to not being covered during their growing season. Also in the tray was some Rocket. We were not short on Rocket for our salads during 2011 at least, it grew quicker than we could harvest it. That said we did plant about 10 plants so we were knee deep in Rocket before long. It really is a prolific cropper. 

Allotment - Sowing the first seeds

We began sowing seeds in late March with a view to planting out in the allotment once we got the keys so to speak. Our aim was to try and plant some of the fruit and vegetables we eat regularly and also a few more exotic types.

We bought 2 propagators, basically a covered seed tray that traps heat inside, some seeds require a lot of heat to germinate which cannot always be guaranteed in March in Ireland. We also purchased a plethora of small to medium size planting pots, trays, compost etc for all the other seeds we planned on starting off at home.

Seeds sown in Propagator for moving to allotment at a later date were as follows:

Tomato - 8 seeds total, 2 seeds per pod so 4 pods

Cherry Tomato - 3 seeds total

Peppers - 24 pods planted (we never realised before hand that 1 seed equals 1 plant and each plant can produce 6 - 10 peppers - we will learn for next year)

Strawberry - scattering of seeds per pod, 15 pods total

Leeks - 20 seeds in total, 2 per pod so 10 pods

Cucumber - 3 seeds total

Seeds sown in pots or trays, placed in Cold Frame to germinate for moving to allotment or finishing off at home were as follows:

Basil - 8 seeds total, 2 per pod so 4 pods

Butternut Squash - 3 seeds sown, 1 per pot

Sunflower - 2 seeds per pot, 3 pots total

Seeds sown in pots or trays, left on a sunny windowsill to germinate for moving to allotment or finishing off at home were as follows:

Sweetcorn - 9 seeds were sown individually in 3 inch pots

Broccoli (Autumn - Green Calabrese) - Sown in a seed tray, approx 24 seeds in total

Carrot (Autumn King 2) - After reading up on the internet I tried sowing 12 in peat pots to be grown at home and transplanted to the allotment - very much so experimental

Parsnip - After reading up on the internet I tried sowing 12 in peat pots to be grown at home and transplanted to the allotment - very much so experimental

Runner Beans (Scarlet Emperor) - 5 seeds were planted in 3 inch pots

Baby Beetroot - Sown in 3 x 5" pots, approx 9 seeds per pot

Allotment - Getting Started

We had been thinking about growing some veggies at home for a while and we finally decided to take on a plot in an allotment. We considered growing some on our balcony but

While living in Navan waiting to close the sale of our new apartment in Stepaside, we began looking at options but eventually decided to take on an 80m2 plot in Glencullen, very near Johnnie Fox's pub. It is a private allotment so there are no waiting lists unlike the council plots where you could be waiting years for a plot. The only downside is the cost, €305 euro per year is steep but we view it also as a pastime and not a money saving exercise.

Before we actually took on the allotment we went a little crazy in Garden centres, spent a small fortune on seeds, pots, trays, compost, propagators, tools and even a garden shed (we did get a really good deal on it however). The allotment site itself comes rotivated which is great, means you can start sowing straight away and it cuts out a lot of weeding, hoeing and shovelling that would otherwise have to be done.

We had a fairly grand plan in mind for the plot which involved building raised beds from used scaffolding planks, a mini polytunnel, erecting a shed and getting it to be the best looking plot in the allotment (all cosmetic of course but once all that is right from the start, in the long term it will make for less maintenance and a better sense of achievement)

The shed was the first item to be constructed, the first thing I did was to dig down to subsoil level where the soil is a little more solid than topsoil, then I placed 6 concrete paving slabs on a level base before topping them off with a layer of hardcore for added drainage and increasing the level of the shed off the ground. It took some help from Laura's Dad to hold the sides together while I screwed it all together but we eventually got it standing and assembled. I wasn’t impressed with the number of screws supplied with the shed so I went ahead and used about the same amount again to be sure it was well connected. It still feels a little lightweight though so I will have to look at something else in the near future to try and improve the overall strength.

I sourced used scaffolding planks from a scaffolding company who were looking to offload some, I got 30 x 6' planks at €2.50 each and 6 x 4' planks at €2 each. It was a little expensive but having read all the benefits for having raised beds I think it will pay off in the long run. The beds themselves took the best part of a full day to firstly paint with a non toxic wood preservative, secondly to connect together and lastly to fill with soil to the required level. The paths in between the beds will be covered with a black anti weed layer and topped off with a thick layer of bark mulch once we get around to it. I got some metal brackets in Woodies which did the job of connecting each plank together brilliantly and was definitely a cheaper option than getting timber stakes for each join. The added benefit of course being we can if we want to in the future simply unscrew the planks from one another and make a bed bigger, smaller of split them.

The next job was to construct a frame for a covered hoop house (I don't like calling it a polytunnel as it is a little on the small side but will hopefully have the desired effect) The intention of this is to grow vegetable that like the warmth and protection from the elements such as Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Butternut Squash, Broccoli and Strawberries. It comes from reading info online and hopefully will work out; this year is very much about experimentation.

I got some 1/2" household PVC pipe to form the hoops, there will be 9 hoops covering one of the beds and strengthened using bamboo canes as the support frame, over this I will place the plastic and hopefully it will be able to stand up to some strong winds given that the location of the allotment is on the side of a mountain. I fixed the PVC piping using some bendable steel bracketing to the scaffolding planks of the bed itself, I also used timber support columns at every second hoop. The bamboo canes were tied using gardening string covered in duct tape and lastly will be tied with cable ties. It feels pretty strong at the moment but we will just have to wait and see over the next few weeks and months. I have yet to put up the plastic covering but will be doing so in the next couple of days.

Keeping an eye on the spiralling costs we bought a cheap compost bin in LIDL, it will do for the short term. Looking at it all at the moment we have spent a small fortune but hopefully it will be an investment into the future and next years costs will not be as high. As I mentioned above it is more of a pastime than a money saving exercise, we could have just got the plot and planted some seeds but we wanted it to be somewhere to come, spend a few hours working, relaxing and just enjoying the outdoors. Let’s hope for a nice summer

Equipment / Gear Reviews - (5) Scarpa Thunder rock climbing shoe

This was my very first purchase following on from my first rock climb at Dalkey quarry, I discovered that if I wanted to progress and do some more challenging climbs I would have to invest in a proper pair of rock climbing shoes.

I tried my best to read up on the internet about the best pair of shoes to buy, lace ups versus velcro, half size too small, two sizes too small etc. There is a raft of information out there and I was a little unprepared for the task of going into the shop and trying a pair on, after all how will I know which ones are right for me?

The first element I can comment on is the price, just short of €95 euro for the pair. There are cheaper options out there but these are few and far between, also the brand Scarpa is well known to me so it had a bearing on my choice.

I chose a pair approx a half size smaller for my foot on advice from some members in my mountaineering club, other advice (such as the net) suggest the tighter the better, this may be true but if they are so tight that they restrict blood flow then there will be no fun in it whatsoever so for some sound advice, go a half size for beginners.

A major benefit I found with these shoes (although I have to admit I did not do this on purpose) is the carrying loops on the back of the shoe, these allow you to hook a Carabiner onto the shoe for attaching to your harness for the sometimes long walk back to your gear (This will make sense to climbers) The main advantage of these however that I love is it makes it so much easier to put the shoes on, just grab a hold of the loops and pull.

The friction that I noticed compared to the runners I had been using was almost unbelievable. I still sometimes wonder just how the smooth sole sticks to the rock but all I know is it works and the performance is super. It has been mentioned to me that the soles are not as flexible as shoes from more experienced climbers, this is the case but in all honesty I am so way off that stage yet so for now the Scarpa Thunder will do me fine

Rating 4 out of 5

Equipment / Gear Reviews - (4) The New EastWest Maps - any good?

I have bought all three of the EastWest maps available at the moment, 'Wicklow Mountains West', 'Lugnaquillia & Glendalough' and 'The Dublin & North Wicklow Mountains' at a cost of €9.95 each. This is slightly more expensive than the equivalent Discovery Series OS maps which retail at €8.60 each but you do get a whole lot more map for your money. On a recent walk with my Hillwalking club I took both versions along for a test run and not being familiar with the route we were taking that day it was an ideal experiment.

Firstly the level of detail presented on the EW maps is impressive, the scale of 1:30,000 allows for a lot more detail than the 1:50,000 scale on the OS maps, however to balance the argument most compass roamers do not have a 1:30,000 scale making route planning, distance measuring etc. difficult. Yes you can get roamers at 1:30,000.

The EW maps are aimed more at outdoor enthusiasts than general mapping and the inclusion of many well known trails at last mapped is a welcome sight, often times when route planning from home in unfamiliar surroundings such information is very useful. Yes the OS maps have some trails marked on them but the level of detail on the EW maps is nothing short of miraculous. A nice touch is naming some of the more popular trails such as the popular Zig-Zags trail when approaching Lugnaquillia.

Another feature that I like is the up to date inclusion of forestry and associated trails. Often when walking you see a forest that is not on the map or vice versa, of course one should not be relying on these features for navigation purposes but for the recreational user this information is useful. The most beneficial element of the EW maps I have found is the small 'p' markers on the maps, referring to a small roadside lay-by for parking. Again for route planning this is extremely useful information and a big advantage over the OS maps as parking is a key issue for hill walkers and walkers alike.

So much effort, time and energy has clearly been expended in preparing the EW maps, features such as Cliffs, Crags, Scree, Rocky areas, Sandpits, Peat hags, Turf cuttings, Gorse and Undergrowth (to name but a few) have all been clearly and separately marked on the map. I am a nerd when it comes to maps and the more information presented to me the better, I love to sit down and look for interesting features, places of historical importance or natural beauty and plan on going there on a walk.

I do prefer however to have the OS map in my pocket on a day's hillwalking. While the EW maps are on water resistant paper I still feel they will succumb to a truly great Irish soaking and disintegrate accordingly, time will tell.

Overall I love the EW maps, they have all the information and more that I could possibly want and are clear and easy to read. I think I will still be using my OS maps for navigation purposes but I will certainly have the EW map beside me at home when planning the routes, spotting features etc.

Excellent maps and worth every penny

Rating 4.5 our of 5