Six on Saturday

So for my final “six on Saturday ” for 2019, which special thanks to the Propagator for hosting.

1. Some of you may have already noticed this robin cropping up in my previous posts. It is a very brave little fellow and is now regularly taking food from my daughter’s hand.

Robin

Robin

2. Bargains – I love bargains. I got a big bag of Japanese onions for just one euro on sale. I know it is late to be putting them in, but I have planted quite a few in polytunnel and I am hoping they will do there. It is just too wet to get anything outside.

Onions

3. My second bargain was some bulbs – I got daffs and these which weren’t labelled (but I am pretty sure they are crocus). So it will be very much pot luck as to what comes up.

Bulbs

4. And in the garden daffodil bulbs beginning to show. While it has been a very wet winter here, it has been pretty mild most of the time.

Daffodils

5. In the polytunnel some of the pot marigolds are still in flower.

Pot marigold

6. And finally my new hot composter called a hotbin composter. It is an insulated compost bin that is supposed to be much faster than traditional bin as it heats waste by  up to 60°c. We’re setting it up in the greenhouse for the winter at least.

Hot composter

Thank you to all those who have followed my six on Saturday garden posts during the year. Here’s to a great gardening year for 2020.

 

 

Harvesting onions and autumn salads

With September fast approaching it is a time of harvest, but also time to get the polytunnel ready for the autumn/winter. I’m really please with my onion crop. I have never had such big specimens. I think it may be a combination of a good growing season and the new ground they were in. Today, I gave up waiting for a nice sunny day and started to dig them up. I have laid some out in the hope of a bit of dry weather this coming week. But the kids also helped me transport (using a little wheelbarrow and toy tractor & trailer) some to the greenhouse and polytunnel. There isn’t much space in either but where we can we have left them drying. Once dry, we’ll hang in an open woodshed for use throughout the autumn and winter.

Onion harvest drying

We also cleared out a couple of the less productive cucumber plants from the poly and planted some stir fry greens, winter purslane and rocket. The salad crops I set a few weeks ago are doing well. We’re harvesting them everyday for lunch. I think they may have benefited from the cool temperatures we’ve had this month.

Polytunnel – autumn salad crops

While out with my camera I noticed that despite the cool, cloudy day the thistle flowers were still attracting butterflies (and just a couple of bees) though not as many as that sunny day a week ago as in my previous post.

Red admiral on thistle