Gearing Up for Gardening

I've been in a deep Winter slumber and haven't been into the garden for several months. However, March is here and I've got the 'gardening bug' so I'm itching to get back out into gardening. Over the weekend I started my garden 'spring clean'. Lots of tidying to do.

I've been looking through magazines and old photos to get some inspiration. A few photos taken last year that give a bit of inspiration this time of year...

Pallet projects seem to be really popular in the UK and USA. These photos were taken last year at gardening shows and at a community garden. What a great way to recycle and have a bit of fun. Pallets are often free of charge so this is a great low cost way to add some new pieces to the garden!

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

Apple Harvesting

It's almost apple harvesting time, and this is a very exciting year for me! I have a bumper crop of 43 apples!

Six years ago I bought a self pollinating apple tree that I have grown in a pot. Over the years, I've averaged 13 apples each year (expect in 2013 when I had 0 apples). This year I've taken extra care; I've ensured the tree didn't dry out; I was careful in Spring and throughout Summer to take off leaves infected by little green caterpillars that ALWAYS infest the tree and eat the apples. I have fed and fertilized. (And I pruned last year).

A view upwards. It may be hard to believe there are 43 apples but there are. However, some are going to be too small for eating. I just couldn't bare taking any off. This year is a bit of a quantity competition!

These apples have fallen from the tree naturally (not counted in my 43). The tree has shed quite a few apples over the Summer, a natural process. Of course, I'm not sure what variety of apples they are, as the label is long gone and I never recorded what variety I bought.
So looking forward to eating my organic apples this year!

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

Summer Harvests

Its been a busy summer and I've had lots of good eating from the garden! 

I'm involved in two community growing projects and have my own garden to look after so most of my spare time over the Summer has been gardening!

The community growing projects are great in that they involve other people who have an interest in gardening, and we've been able to share our crops. The veg in the first photo is from the community growing scheme. In our first year we've had lots of salad crops, spinach, chard, runner beans, courgette, cucumber, broad beans, parsley and potatoes. 

Two varieties of potato were harvested from my own garden - Pentland Javelin and Red Duke of York. I dry them and store them in a cloth bag in a dark, dry place. They usually keep through to December.

More veg from one of the community growing projects. Lots of salad crops this year. I also grew garlic for the first time and had reasonable success.

My tomatoes were grown from seed and kept in a plastic greenhouse facing South-East. They grew well, however, the fruits have been slow to ripen.

This large Summer Squash was given to me by a fellow grower, and has been turned into soup and put into the freezer for eating when the weather is colder!

The weather has been good and I'm hoping for a late frost!

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