From Sonairte
The plan was to take pictures of the winter flowers in the garden – forsythia blooming against the wall and the winter honeysuckle by the gate – but the weather thought otherwise.
Instead we make our apologies to customers who were hoping to buy from us either here in Sonairte today or at Dublin Food Coop tomorrow because those of us who were able to get here through the snow decided that we would leave supplying the coop to the Wicklow and Kildare growers who are snow free. With several volunteers trapped at home by icy roads it just didn’t seem sensible to risk damaging crops by picking in these conditions.
Of course many of our winter crops are completely snow proof – the leeks and Brussels sprouts looked chilly but happy and kale and spinach are fine too – others are only surviving because of the crop protection we have in place. You can see outside and inside views of the big tunnel to see how effective it is in weather like this and the fleece tents are protecting some experimental salad crops we had left over from the indoor plantings – it will be interesting to see how they come through it.
The broad beans we sowed at the beginning of November are six inches high and had a good covering of snow today but should be fine. I’m hoping to do some experimental winter sowing of spring vegetables next week – sowing hardy seeds in pots in the new propagating tunnel so that they will germinate as soon as it is warm enough and can get transplanted into the ground early. We only just had the new tunnel up in time – half of the old one has blown away over the last few weeks. We will be recovering the frame with shade netting to grow rooted cuttings and pot plants for sale here and in the Co-op.
I took several photos of the footprints in the snow this morning. We know what some of them are, but what are the others? I’ve thrown in a few from my own garden as well. A €10 veg voucher for the person who sends in the most correct answers by Friday February 8th – tell you friends
Happy New Year
Kathy
Footprints A
Footprints B
Footprints C
Footprints D
Footprints E
Footprints F
Footprints G
Footprints H
