After a full moon last night, the morning is beautiful.
As I write this the sun has illuminated the interior of the cottage and blue skies are making themselves known.
I’ve just snapped this pic…it’s the view from my desk, so you can see for yourself!
It’s been busy here over recent days as I attempt to bring some of the enormous harvest home.
It helps to have a veranda to sit where I can prepare the blackcurrants for the freezer.
This is a home-made drying rack for the fruit, after it’s been washed in the rainwater barrel.
I have lined it with a piece of bridal veil, sourced from an old dressing up box .
As the weather has turned out so fine, I am making the most of the day by mowing and harvesting some of the grass on the many paths here at Bealtaine Cottage.
This path to the tunnel and compost area is well worn as you can imagine, so I’ve laid a little leftover gravel onto the bare areas.
It stops me from slipping, as I make a dash to the compost with the bucket of waste!
Talking of compost, this was the beautiful sight that greeted me today…Poppies in the compost heap and lots of growth on the potatoes!
This is just the beginning of the harvest.
It will continue for several months and is a very busy time…in fact there are days when the stillness of midwinter seems awfully appealing!
But even as the harvest is brought home, sowing and planting continues as the most of the long days are appreciated.
I have recently sown these, swedes and beetroot…they can be planted outdoors or in the tunnel and make tasty additions to meals later on.
Lastly, a pic of a rather successful and very easy way to get perfect strawberries…I planted these in the hanging pot about two years ago and have had good crops of strawberries with no input what so ever, other than a feed in late spring! I will be planting and hanging lots more here on these Blackthorn tress…a good way of using the vertical garden approach!
Potatoes.Last year I grew them successfully on straw and manure spread on the ground on top of cardboard.The ground was in perfect condition afterwards for digging in a new Rhubarb bed.
Swiss Chard.A cut and come again crop. It just keeps on giving!Here it is growing outdoors during the winter.The frost may set it back but it grows again quickly from the root.Swiss Chard in the tunnel today…Ruby ChardEat young leaves as salad or cook.You can sow directly into the soil, but I prefer to start almost everything off in pots to give them some strength to resist the slugs!Dark Ruby Chard has over-wintered well in the tunnel
The stalks are marvellously coloured and can be white, as above, yellow, red, and orange, so they can look great in flower beds too!
Beetroot grows easily and stays in the ground over winter, so can be harvested without fuss.If left in the ground until the following spring, you will be able to harvest some young leaves from the plant too.Great in Juices too!Parsley…a biennial, so will over-winter perfectly and not be set back by frost if protected just a little, like above, using an old bottom-less bread tin.
Pumpkins…grow the same as Butternut Squash…the more enriched the soil, the bigger they grow…so, watch out! Pumpkin and Butternut Squash…I grew these from saved seeds from the previous year.Just make sure that the soil is enriched with lots of well rotted manure, or good compost, for they are hungry plants!Apples…invest in a few apple trees…fruit trees will never let you down! I have planted around forty fruit trees of all varieties here at Bealtaine Cottage.When in blossom, fruit trees are a wonderful source of food for the Bees…Blackcurrants…the gardens at Bealtaine are infested with them! I have grown all of my Blackcurrant bushes from seed or cuttings!I have a surplus of Blackcurrant cuttings at the moment and these are offered for sale at this link…http://bealtainecottage.com/seeds-for-sale/
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“…the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.”
― Wendell Berry
Over the last few months I have been gradually clearing the compost heaps…5 in total.
The ground under the heaps is in lovely condition, as you can imagine, so I decided to use this area to plant potatoes into tyres.
The chitted potatoes are pushed deep into the earth and the tyre place on top, then gradually filled with compost, from, you guessed right, the nearby heap.
It’s a bit like growing potatoes in the heap, but they’re much easier to find!
There’s quite a few chitted potatoes left, so I am doing the same thing in whatever spaces I can find!
Last year, many of my neighbours lost potatoes to the blight, but mine came through just fine.
I think this may be due to planting the potaoes irregularly…here and there, with no uniform rows, so blight does not get the chance to spread!
Crops in the tunnel are coming along well, with all the sunshine!
The stone edges hold the heat of the sun and release it at night…the perfect passive solar collectors.
As I walk in the gardens, there is the most tremendous hum of bees and insects…going in a mad frenzy around all the Ribes blossom!
As you can see from the pics, the weather today is marvellous! The temperature is 21c…!
Just a small section of the Ribes…this grow like a weed here and is a stunning bush, windbreak, source of kindling for the stove and, of course, restaurant for the bees!
Early summer! It’s hot in the gardens, so lunch will be served outside!
Saint Patrick’s Day! The middle of March in the West of Ireland…and there is much to celebrate! For we have enjoyed a mild winter and fast warming Spring.
According to the old Irish annals, Patrick died in AD 461 on March 17.
And so, it is today that we celebrate the greatest non-Irish person as the greatest of the Irish… for it is in Patrick that the Irish nurture their sense of national pride.
Much of the landscape of Ireland is awakened into Spring at this point in the year as you can see from the photographs taken this morning here at Bealtaine Cottage.
It has been traditional to plant potatoes on saint Patrick’s Day or thereabouts, so this morning, this is what I shall be doing, having prepared the beds at the beginning of the week, (and sliced through the water-pipe!).
Potatoes in Ireland were traditionally planted into mounds, a form of raised bed.
Potatoes are planted into the mounds as they have a lower tolerance to frost and this way of planting affords a certain amount of protection. Other more hardy crop,s are Peas, Beans and Cabbage, all of which can be planted out regardless of frost.
Permaculture planting takes into account these variants and straw is placed over the beds of potatoes as both a mulch to exclude weeds and a protection against late frosts, which can be expected right through to May!
All these pics were taken this morning and as you can see, it is a perfect planting day in the west of the country. The celebrations and parades will all take place this afternoon, so the morning is planned for a little light work, planting!
So, it just suffices to say…A very Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you all, with blessings and love to each and every one of you, from Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland.
A storm is making its way in from the Atlantic as I write this and a cold wind blows through the window. I took these pics earlier today when it was positively hot and humid. It’s strange how quickly the weather can change! The ground is very dry, the spring well runs low and lots of rain is needed, so I am happy to see the storm blow in!
Painted Mountain Corn, Poppies and Feverfew are jostling for space in the tunnel. Still high summer in many respects and flowers continue to bud and bloom.
Here in Ireland, Corn, or Maize is usually called “sweet corn”. Sweet corn is harvested earlier and eaten as a vegetable rather than a grain. This one that I am growing is from the Native American seed bank of Corn, known as “Painted Mountain.”Corn has shallow roots and is susceptible to droughts, intolerant of nutrient-deficient soils, and prone to be uprooted by severe winds, so growing it in the protective atmosphere of the tunnel makes good sense.
It has taken two years, but finally, the Leek has seeded, with multiple seed heads like this one…really ornamental and worth growing on as flowers I think! Leeks are easy to grow from seed and tolerate standing in the ground for an extended harvest. Leeks usually reach maturity in the autumn months, and they have few pest or disease problems. Leeks can be bunched and harvested early when they are about the size of a finger or pencil, or they can be thinned and allowed to grow to a much larger mature size. Really tasty in soups, so I’m inclined to leave them in the ground and pull them as needed.
Leek is typically chopped into slices 5–10 mm thick. The slices have a tendency to fall apart, due to the layered structure of the leek. There are different ways of preparing the vegetable:
Boiled, which turns it soft and mild in taste.
Fried, which leaves it more crunchy and preserves the taste.
Raw, which can be used in salads, doing especially well when they are the prime ingredient.
The veggie garden, all new and improved with the terraced beds…just waiting to see if the terracing directs the water when a storm hits…as it may do very soon!In the Andes farmers have used terraces known as andenes for over a thousand years to farm potatoes, maize and other native crops. The Inca also used terraces for soil conservation, along with a system of canals and aqueducts to direct water through dry land and increase fertility. This has become part of the approach for growing in Permaculture…conserving and adapting to the environment as found, rather than trying to change the lay of the land!
One of the Poppies in the tunnel today, all papery and delicate…
Potatoes growing by the east side of the shed. Did you know that there are about five thousand potato varieties worldwide? Potatoes do not keep very well in storage and are vulnerable to molds that feed on the stored tubers, quickly turning them rotten. However, I left potatoes in the ground over the course of last winter, when all was frozen solid for six long weeks…and they were dug out after the defrost and were perfect! I think it may have been the layer of straw that was atop the ground!
Throughout Europe, the most important new food in the 19th century was the potato, which, of course fast became a monoculture among poorer people… I strive hard to avoid planting all the tubers in one area, preferring to plant here and there in a positive way to avoid disease…and it appears to have worked thus far!
Now in its seventh year, Bealtaine smallholding has achieved new heights of growth, meaning that compost is plentiful. This is because there is so much to cut back and use to build compost heaps…I have made two so far and am still using the compost made last year, with loads to go!
At its most essential, the process of composting requires simply piling up waste outdoors and waiting a year or more. This is the method I use and it has benefitted Bealtaine well! The compost itself is beneficial for the land in many ways, including as a soil conditioner, a fertilizer, addition of vital humus or humic acids, and as a natural pesticide for soil. Any parts of the heap that have not degraded sufficiently can be added to the next heap…a process I indulge in!
Permaculture planting lends itself really well to bountiful compost production, so even if you do not keep animals for manure, it is still quite possible to maintain a high degree of healthy and fertile soil, using plant compost alone…however, a few hens are easy and happy and productive little workers to have on any smallholding!
Upcycling baked bean tins…making a few holes in the bottom and planting with sedums…these are two years old now and quite attractive when grouped together like this, don’t you think?
Lots of berries on the Hawthorn. last year was the same and I predicted a very cold and long winter…I forecast more of the same for the coming winter based on much evidence around me…
Crataegus,or Hawthorn is one of my favourite trees here at Bealtaine and I have grown all I have planted from seed. Hawthorns provide food and shelter for many species of birds and mammals, and the flowers are important for many nectar-feeding insects.
In Gaelic folklore, hawthorn ‘marks the entrance to the otherworld’ and is strongly associated with the fairies. Lore has it that it is very unlucky to cut the tree at any time other than when it is in bloom, however during this time it is commonly cut and decorated as a May Bush or Bealtaine…Irish meaning May. This warning persists to modern times; it has been questioned by folklorist Bob Curran whether the ill luck of the De Lorean Motor Company was associated with the destruction of a fairy thorn to make way for a production facility.
Hawthorn trees are often found beside clootie wells; at these types of holy wells they are sometimes known as ‘rag trees’, for the strips of cloth which are tied to them as part of healing rituals. ‘
When all fruit fails, welcome haws’ was once a common expression in Ireland.
In other words, intelligent planting, thought-out and planned along permaculture lines…
Planning Permaculture
Just a few shots of empathy for and with Nature, alongside good, basic common-sense, realising that Nature is poly-cultural and loathes monoculture in any form, so, be diverse!
Plant for maximum biodiversity, with pockets of plants everywhere in your garden…and don’t try to dominate!
Us humans seem to have an innate desire to dominate Nature, an idea supported by so many of the world religions!
Use Local Resources
Raised beds can be made from most materials.
Local is best.
I continue to use some tyres in my gardens, but am replacing them gradually with stone, local stone, as and when I uncover it or come across it.
Wood is good and sustainable.
All my compost heaps are made using old doors, up-cycled to a new use!
Look at what you have as a local and preferably free resource and start using it!
No-Dig
By far the easiest and best way of growing I have ever encountered…this is my template for a great garden.
These are the potatoes this morning, growing mightily on a no-dig potato bed.
Have a look at previous blogs to see how this was started…
Collect and Save Seed!
Fennel in the tunnel this morning, flowering and soon to seed.
Save seed…any seeds and grow them on and share them out and value this above all else that you do, for without seed we have nothing!
Bealtaine Cottage is also on YouTube…with over 85 videos about Permaculture, planting, growing and living.
These are the pears in one of the orchards this morning, continuing to develop. Good rainfall has helped enormously and the days are healthily damp!
The No-Dig Method of Growing.
It is possible for one woman as myself to look after 3 acres of poor land and make it productive, using the No-Dig method which is in itself an integral part of Permaculture.
Mulching…the Magic!
Making compost…the most important work you can undertake in the garden, for whatever you don’t want growing will be turned into this rich food for all you want to encourage. Start a compost heap today, don’t wait! I practise the cold-composting method, which is the easiest one to do…just heap it up!
Easy Potatoes…
These were planted onto a thin layer of cardboard that was placed directly onto grass. However, you could dispense with the cardboard, as I have done in the past and it works perfectly well! Used straw from the hen run is spread on the top.
As the potatoes push up compost is added on a weekly basis…I have 4 huge compost heaps, so no shortage of good organic food!
Animals and Bedding
I keep 4 hens. Their bedding is barley straw. This is changed often and regularly, giving the garden a continual supply of nitrogen impregnated mulch and fertilizer. I also spread generous amounts of barley straw around their outdoor runs as they love to scratch and I continue to collect the used straw. It’s a good method and works very well for me!
Mulch to Grow, Mulch not to Grow!
Srtaw is placed on the top of cardboard as a way of excluding growth and preparing the ground for the following year. This can also be planted into and is super for trailing plants such as pumpkins!
This is National Compost Awareness Week and I’m planting potatoes today, so, decided to break into one of the four compost heaps I started last year.
Here it is…
This compost is still quite bulky, but is perfect for potato planting and covering. It’s packed with goodness!
The method I use for composting is a simple one called Cold Composting…that means just stacking it and topping it up, no turning and eventually thatching it.
This protects it from the worst of the elements!
This is planting potatoes the permaculture way…
First I lay cardboard on the ground.
Spread compost on the top, followed by the spuds, then more compost!
Red onions and seeds dry in the heat of the afternoon sun at Bealtaine Cottage. 
The Permaculture harvest is on it’s way. 
I am saving lots of seed from the biggest, healthiest and tastiest plants! 
The rain came and has left a little water…not much, but enough to fill the tank in the loft! 
Herbs and seeds are coming into their own! 
Potatoes are appearing where none were planted…these have grown from seed dropped last year and have not been earthed up! 
Blackcurrants are taking over the gardens! 
Runner beans are seeking Heaven…
Raspberries are being eaten straight from the garden! 
Broad Beans are looking monstrous! 
And the Potager beds have received their second planting…
My brother Hugh O’Neill has made some very special Bog Oak pendants for the Bealtaine Cottage Etsy shop.
Hugh has carved some Rune and Ogham symbols on some of these special little pieces of Bog Oak.
The wood is carved and polished by Hugh into these amazing pendants, each accompanied by glass or wooden beads…
A little piece of Ancient Ireland to wear around your neck! 
You can find these on the Bealtaine Cottage Etsy Shop…
