Happy 2014!

Wishing you have a peaceful and productive New Year in the garden!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Too much to eat, not enough time

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Happy Christmas!

Hoping your Christmas Day is filled with cherished memories and tasty delights!

Pictured above: Pecan pie and old fashioned apple stack cake made by Egretta Wells.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

To make or not to bake

Even though I usually burn (or over bake) the first batch of cookies I do love holiday baking! Every year I make sugar cookies from a Betty Crocker recipe book, cut them out into festive shapes and decorate with icing made from icing / confectioners sugar, a tiny drop of water and a little food colouring. Fun and yummy! They keep for weeks and are delicious with a cup of tea! They taste much better than store bought versions!

Hoping your holiday cooking and/or baking goes smoothly!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Potato Salad

Taking stock of my potato sack stored in a dark kitchen cabinet, I can see I barely have enough of the home grown ones for Christmas day. Now I'm thinking roasties or mash? And I may need to buy extra.

I think Irish and British generally have roast potatoes on Christmas day and Americans often have mashed potatoes. I love both. I haven't decided which to have. Do you have roast potatoes or mash on Christmas?

I can also see my potatoes are just starting to send up little shoots which isn't bad since they have been in storage since October.

Other areas of interest in the garden....

Above: Corn salad 'Cavallo' seems to be growing steadily and ready for some eating.

Above: Mizuna, an oriental type salad - the leaves can be harvested for long periods and look rather interesting as a garnish.

Above: This is the result of a seed pack called Salad Leaves 'Winter Blend' which contains kale, rocket, mustard and mizuna seeds; it was sown in August direct into the ground. It has been slow growing. The mizuna seems to be the strongest plant. But good to have salad this time of year.

Hope your holiday preparations are going well!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Beetroot and Kohlrabi

There are still a few veggies growing in the garden, however, I've been a bit slack in harvesting these. I'm wondering if they'll be edible as some are looking a bit 'rough'.  For example, the beetroot (left) looks a bit woody Suppose there's only one way to find out if it tastes of anything - I should pull one out and do a taste test.

Other veg growing - I've loads of kale, some Winter salad, a few spring cabbages, chard that looks past usable, tiny leeks and a few other bits and pieces.

Above: Beetroot that definitely isn't edible!

The Kohl Rabi looks a bit tough too. I harvested one, cut in in half and discovered something had eaten most of the inside of it! On the plus side, they're really pretty and I like seeing them in the veg plot.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Cabbage 'January King'

My cabbage called 'January King' is growing nicely and I can see the heads developing. There's some pest damage on the leaves - I think this is mostly caterpillars from Aug-Sept (maybe even Oct). I'm sure slugs and snails are nibbling a bit too. However, the plants are looking good. These were grown from seed in a glasshouse in June and then planted outside.

The seed pack says,

"A very hardy variety with distinctive purple tinge to the leaves, and really solid hearts that hold for long periods in the cold weather."

I'm thinking they'll be ready to eat in March? I adore the flavour of cabbage and looking forward to eating my  own organic home grown results! Fingers crossed they turn out well.

Cabbage 'January King' 

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Still Feeling Like Autumn

It's less than 3 weeks to Christmas and apart from gales and one or two frosts, it's still feeling rather like Autumn - with leaves still falling from trees, pine cones on display and Autumn colours in the garden. 

I celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend and cooked with home grown potatoes (Maris Peer and Charlotte) dug up in October and stored in cotton sacks in a dark kitchen cabinet. I think I have just enough for Christmas and then they'll be used up. They have stored well this year.

I just love all the Autumn colours - beach trees are great for this!

Above and Below: Birds are feeding on sunflower seeds and berries in the garden. (A few bird feeders with nuts and seeds help out too!)

Above and Below: Variegated holly and red tinted leaves remind me its getting close to the Christmas holidays!

Hope your holiday planning is going well!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Herbs in December

This year I've started a little herb garden with rosemary, lavender, mint and thyme. Pictured left you can see two lavender plants and a rosemary bush (centre). I grew the lavender from seed about 2 or 3 years ago and the rosemary I bought in early Summer. Slugs and snails don't seem to bother much with herbs (thankfully). I hope to grow more herbs from seed and add them to this area each year. The wood log was washed up along the local shoreline and I thought it would add some interest along with some slate rock. A work in progress really.

Above: Some of my seed packs - I really enjoy growing things from seed.

Above and Below: Thyme grown from seed this year. It started off so very tiny (above) however,  it has ended up a decent size by the end of Summer (below).

Above: Mint has had its ups and downs over the Summer. It had some sun scorch on the leaves - I suppose from watering at the wrong time of day. I have this plant sunken into the ground in a plastic pot in the hopes that it won't be a thug and take over the bed.

The rosemary thrives even now in December. I used some of it for Thanksgiving Day cooking! I suppose it has been the star herb this year!

Happy Late Thanksgiving wishes to American bloggers!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Forest Flame and the Irish Garden

One of the most common plants in Irish gardens is the Pieris evergreen shrub. Not sure why these plants are so popular, maybe because they're inexpensive and fairly hardy. I see it in garden after garden; I have three in my own garden. It's one of those plants that changes appearance throughout the seasons. I used to think these plants were all 'Forest Flame' but looking on the internet there are different varieties such as 'Bert Chandler'. I still think I have the 'Forest Flame' variety which is probably one of the most common Pieris type.

Above: Photo taken Oct 2013 - The little white flowers are an added benefit in the garden - although the flowers aren't particularly noticeable from afar.

Above: Photo taken May 2013 - the young leaves are starting to turn bright red.

Above: Photo taken June 2013 - the young foliage goes from bright red, to pink, and cream. Then to green.

Above: Photo taken October 2013 - I find the shrub slightly difficult to shape, therefore, they can look a little untidy (as in this photo). I believe this shrub only takes light pruning after flowering but I usually forget.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Inspiration on Growing Veg

Photos taken 26 Oct 2013.

Our volunteer gardening group went to visit some gardens to look at how we might develop our own gardening project at Antrim Castle Gardens. We went to a volunteer run gardening project in Cloughmills, Northern Ireland at the end of October and it was a day full of ideas and inspiration.

Left: The group's communal area, with gardening areas, yurt (round tent) and tires used to grow herbs like sage, lemon balm, mint, etc.

The group have many raised boxed in areas of different shapes and sizes to grow veg and fruit. The one above has leeks down the middle with green manure plants growing to add nutrients to the soil over the Winter.

Above and Below: The group have a Mongolian yurt (costing £4,000)- this is  a large tent with a lovely furnace in the centre of it, which is great in the Winter - warm as toast! The group use this for events and for serving their homemade soup and other food made from the organic veg and herbs from the garden.

Above and Below: The benefits of a polytunnel are huge - the growing season is extended and plants grow much bigger and seem healthier. Below are some of the lovley organic veg grown in the large polytunnel. 

What a day it was! And probably the biggest and best looking organic veg I've seen!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Community Garden Update

Our volunteer garden group have planted up our 8 new veg boxes with winter vegetables including: scallions, perpetual spinach, two types of kale, winter salad, and winter calabrese/ broccoli. The organic plants were supplied by a local market garden whereas next year we hope to grow our own from seed. We are likely to sell our veg to fundraise for the group, however, this is still to be decided. Our group had the help of an experienced veg grower who suggested the layout of our beds.

This photo shows the veg boxes at the far left before they were planted. The two planting boxes above are for fruit - strawberries and rhubarb. Earlier in the month we planted a range of fruit trees - apple, pear, gooseberry bushes, etc.

Above: some of our members planting  fruit trees. One of the apple trees had about 5 apples on it, which the group were delighted about. However, they were stolen before we could harvest them. Suppose this is the slight downside to gardening in an area that is open to the public every day. 

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Late Salad Trials

This year I'm trying to keep a supply of salad leaves going through early Winter. I've sown a few different varieties. However, one salad veg has caused me confusion over the months - Radicchio 'Palla Rossa'. The seed pack photo (see seed pack below) looks more like a cabbage. 

Left: my Radicchio, 5 months into growth, looks more like a lettuce; pretty but it tastes very bitter and inedible. (I kept waiting for it to look like the photo below before harvesting.)

Above: The seed pack description of Radicchio 'Palla Rossa'. I sowed seed again in late July and they too look to be developing the same way as my top photo. Every year I try to grow some new veg, some a success and some not a success. I suppose I would have to say my Radicchio looked pretty, but was disappointing.

Above and Below: On a more positive note, in early August I sowed seeds called 'Winter Blend' and they seem to be a mix of mizuna, mustard, kale and rocket to make up salads. They're doing well and hoping they'll keep me going a bit longer in salads.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Winter Veg

My winter veg consists of three types of kale, Spring cabbage, chard, winter lettuces, leek, broccoli spring onion and bits and pieces still holding on from the Summer. 

Left: Grown from seed: Kale Dwarf Green Curled and Cabbage January King

Above: Kale Nero di Toscana with Kale Dwarf Green Curled.

Cabbage January King - I think I finally got all the caterpillars picked off; now watching out for slugs.

Above: Broccoli I've been told will grow over the winter. Not sure of its name.

Above: A few beetroot grown from seed at the end of June. 

Chard 'White Silver 2' has been a staple diet for caterpillars all summer. 

Amongst the Autumn leaves are a selection of late summer salad leaves 'Winter Blend' which are slow to grow but looking hopeful.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.