Gravity defying carrots !!

A ha !! I can grow carrots after all ! Call it egotism, call it swagger, even call it vaunting. But here I am shamelessly showing off my carrots after my pride was badly injured as a consequence to the previous post. These lads were swiftly dispatched to the dinner plate accompanied by an unsuspecting chicken ( dead of course ! ) Duke of york potatoes and shallots ( which I still maintain give me excessive wind ! ) However regardless of the smell the taste is second to none .... the shallots that is. The smell of the wind .... not so good and thankfully I haven't been unfortunate enough to be caught in a back draft so therefore have yet to do the taste test !!

Now I won't be boastful and say I'm becoming green fingered but LOOK !!

Disaster strikes.

It can never be all plain sailing now can it and it's by our mistakes we learn right...... Ah balls !! I prefer the easy life as can be seen in my " relaxed " style of gardening. It all started back in late February when I decided to cheat and start some carrots off in trays to have an early crop. " It can't be done, they must be sowed direct " the experienced gardeners crowed. " Ha me arse " I thought " I'll show em " and now I'm showing you.

The unmitigated disaster that is my early carrots. I reckon that while transplanting into the ground I must have curled the roots and somehow created these mutants, lets face it they're probably still edible, but would ya ?



" To the compost heap Giles and don't spare the horses ", or in this case the carrots !!



Then to add insult to injury the wind flattened my already wavy borage.



And then much to my now mounting pile of dismay my cornflowers got such a twisting from the storm that when I went to right them up they came away in my hand !! In a vain attempt to salvage my dignity I quickly bunched some together, put them in a vase ( actually a jug, but I'm a man ) and presented them to the lovely Mrs Foxylock. She criticised my flower arranging skills ( I'm a man ) said " twas fierce mean looking " and poked fun at the floppy ones. I became highly insulted, a tad embarrassed and vowed never again to flower arrange. From now on it's only manly stuff for me......

I start my crochet class next week !!



The casualties.



Just to end on a happy note my poor neglected roses are putting on a good show. Why are they neglected pray tell ? That's a whole other story. But I will indulge, maybe not today , maybe not tomorrow, but soon.

The Dukes are coming to dinner.

There's something rewarding about growing your own potatoes, something that can't quite be explained. Maybe it's an inherently Irish thing to want to grow your own spuds, can it be traced back to famine times ? Maybe there's part of our psyche that doesn't want to get caught out again !! For me it's a family tradition there has been generations of families fed by this patch of earth and now mine are carrying on that tradition. But enough sentimentality ...... What about the spuds ?

A Queens blossom or a blossom fit for a Queen.



This is the crop in early June with the maincrop on the left and the earlies above on the right.



One month later and the Golden Wonders in the foreground are showing a lovely blossom.



This is it the moment of truth, ready for the lift, all that hard work .....



Alleluia...... A fantastic bounty the Duke of York are absolute beauties.



Oh and as for the taste, I do not have the words to describe. But I'm one damn happy potato head with this crop. I just hope the rest are equally as good.

The first of the sunflowers.

Of all the flowers in my garden it's the sunflower that captivates me the most. It's sheer dominance, not just in size but in radiance seems to draw the eye like a magnet and I cannot leave the house any morning without pausing to admire this years first sunflower. Plus there's the suspense and anticipation since sowing on the 26th of February, the worry about pests, drought and more recently wind .......... Yes I know, I don't get out much !!



Heading for the seven foot mark and yet only four and a half months old, the second sowing has almost caught up with the first despite a four week interval.



Here's a strange looking fellow " Spilanthes acmella " or toothache plant also known as eyeball plant or peek-a-boo. Apparently it helps to improve digestion, eases nausea and has strange numbing properties if sucked or chewed. I shall try to trick the wife into trying it, will keep you posted !!



Here's a fight to the life between some violas and some apricot shimmers, sounds like a showband from the sixties ...... Introducing .... THE APRICOT SHIMMERS !!! Technically speaking it's a " Mesembryanthemum bellidiformis " but that's a horrid mouthful ..... shimmers it is then. Interestingly I planted no violas this year and I am overrun with them. Mother nature helping out in the recession I suppose.



And this cheery little bunch are Mexican daisies again a mouthful " Erigeron karvinskianus profusion ". And profusion is quite apt as these lads just keep on flowering. The flowers start out white and then slowly turn pink giving all the colours in between on a single plant. Flowering until October they represent great value for money ( even though the packet of seed was a euro )



Nemophila menziesii var. discoidalis " Pennie black " quite a contrast to a sunflower !!

Flower power.

Here's a taste of whats blooming in my garden at the moment, the recent windy spell has played havoc with the taller flowers especially the cornflowers and the borage. I didn't stake them in time so the flowers pay the price !!

" Blue boy " cornflower



Calendula



" Alyssum " receiving a hug from " Naughty Marietta "



A tired looking borage in the top left corner with in bloom sweet william, snapdragon, naughty marietta and a long suffering geranium. On the way to flowering are a black eyed susan and some petunias.



A cornflower umbrella overhead some alyssum, sweet william and the ever popular snapdragon, with some African daisy to the extreme left



French marigold " Jester " with some lobelia peeping through underneath



Baby eyes or to the botanists Nemophila maculata " five spot " ...... I prefer baby eyes !



Snapdragon with the skeletal remains of an unfortunate alyssum to the left ( a skill in itself that ! )



I tend to go for the hassle free flowers but it never ceases to amaze how a dull spot in the garden can be made into a focal point with some simple planting.

Back in the saddle !! ......

........ Well sort of anyway, life has taken a turn for the hectic and the last few weeks have zipped by almost unnoticed. Illness and weariness have taken their toll, accident proneness has brought new injuries to add to my almost broken body and at the age of thirty three I could put any arthritic pensioner to shame with my list of complaints !! Add to all this the GAA championship, the World Cup and Wimbledon and it's no wonder there's no blogging being done around here !! But with the aid of some sticky tape and a good squirt of WD40 I shall soldier on and quit the whingeing, nobody likes a whinger, are you listening Brian ? ..... Brian ?

So here's a quick update to get back on track. The veggies are flying out of the ground with impressive growth rates in all beds. Summer cabbage, spring onions, lettuce, Swiss chard, baby carrots and shallots are all being eaten and enjoyed at the moment. The only downside to life at the moment is the wind ..... herself reckons it's the shallots and I think she might be right. Not being a previous eater of these little volcano makers I can't be quite sure. Anyone out there experienced this ? Or are ye all too polite to comment ?



The onion bed in all it's glory !



The carrots were a little slow up until last week, they seem to have copped themselves on a bit. There's some unruly parsnips trying to muscle in on the foreground of this shot !



The leeks, I thought they would be bigger by now. A common complaint round here !



My monster sprouts !! I don't even like sprouts ....



" January King " A bit of a show off if you ask me.



And the nicest cabbage I've tasted in a long while " Golden Acres "



That's it for the moment, sleep beckons, take care now.................