So it is good to know weeds are doing some good next time someone casts a disapproving look at your ‘wilderness’. Mind you I do like a fairly tidy garden so I can see what I need to see growing and so I can reach plants, water them and pick crops as they ripen. So I weed as necessary.

It is good to hear some agricultural advisors speak well of some deep-rooted weeds. Plants such as dock and dandelion take up  and make available again nutrients which have been washed down out of reach of shallow rooting grasses and clovers etc. Dr Charles Merfield, Organic Agriculture Research Scientist when he worked in Johnstown Castle for Teagasc spoke in detail about the biological feed back systems at work in fertile soil. Roots excrete  what soil needs to make food for roots. So while weeds may be a problem in one way, in another they are helping maintain a healthy soil for the plants you actually want to grow strong, tall and tasty.

Not so tall but very tasty are the radishes which I have begun to sample this week. The crisp bite and peppery flavour is undoubtably best when picked , washed and eaten fresh from fertile soil. However if I had let the weeds go unchecked, I may not have seen these new season radishes.

While I will not panic if I see a few weeds, I am geared up to keep the kitchen garden manageable and as tidy as it needs to be. I have between now and the 10th June 2010 to put my words into practice and I invite you to come then and see if I have succeeded or not.

ON THURSDAY 10th JUNE AT 7pm, THE GROW IT YOURSELF NAUL GROUP AND SOME GIY-ers FROM SWORDS AND DUBLIN  ALONG WITH NEIGHBOURS ARE DROPPING IN TO SEE THE GARDEN. I’LL BE TAKING BETS ON THE NUMBER OF VISITORS WHO SAY ‘IT IS SMALLER THAN IT LOOKS ON THE U-TUBE VIDEO CLIPS’! IF I HAVE ENOUGH CUPS YOU ARE WELCOME TO A CUP OF ‘REAL TEA’ (AS PEOPLE SAY) OR SAMPLE AN AROMATIC BREW MADE FROM FRESH PEPPERMINT WHICH IS GROWING PROFUSELY  UNDER THE APPLE TREE BETTER THAN ANY WEED I KNOW RIGHT NOW!  CALL THE CONSTITUENCY OFFICE IN SWORDS ON (01) 89 00 360 FOR MORE DETAILS AND DIRECTIONS.

The seedlings have been hardened off. Pots and windowbox are lined up filled with good soil. Watering can, trowel and small fork are at hand.  I am planting the salad rocket plants side by side with the not so edible flowering plants. The likes of Nicotiana (Affinis), Night-Scented Stock, Calendula, Nasturtium and Gypsophilia will add pleasant aromas, a splash of colour  and welcome food for the pollinating insects, including the honey bees I have been minding up the road in a friend’s orchard.

Some of these plants also have interesting backgrounds. Nicotiana, for example, was named after Jean Nicot, a French consul in Portugal, who introduced the tobacco plant to Portugal and France in the 16th century. Although related to the big tobacco leaf plant, the variety ‘Affinis’ looks more like a rockery plant but I’ll see how it grows in the weeks ahead.

Arthur the cat keeping an eye on the seedlings

With more legumes and brassicas planted and the alliums looking a bit dry, there is a need for a watering schedule. With below normal rainfall, I’m watering before breakfast each morning this week. I find a ‘scuaine’ of six watering cans lined up under a garden bench works in my 20′ by 40′ garden. No hose pipe means I waste less water hopefully. I fill the water cans before going to bed. This allows the chlorine to evaporate overnight. Before watering at dawn, I add comfrey tea as a liquid feed to each container. Just a dollop makes for a very diluted solution. Two litres between six watering cans is the rate which works for me.

In the morning I also take out the 12 seedtrays from greenhouse and lay outdoors on path to harden off ready for planting out as each plant is big enough to withstand slug attacks hopefully. When the more seasonally warm temperatures return, I’ll leave hardy seedling in trays outside apart from the more cold sensitive plants like basil, coriander and tomatoes which will fill out in the greenhouse over the summer.

So the job this week is to lift the remaining leeks before they go to seed and clear the patch to make space for the 2010 legume family. I was surprised how many leeks were left when gathered together in a bucket (see picture of former allium patch now legume patch plus bucket of leeks). Too many leeks for a meal so they must be stored somehow.

Having cleared the ground, dug in some well rotted garden compost and erected the supports so peas can indulge their penchant to climb up in search of the best light, it is time to plant out the seedlings  from the confines of their seed trays. You may recall the peas and bean seeds are planted in empty toilet rolls filled with damp seed compost. This allows 24 plants per seedtray. The depth of each roll has enough space for a good root system to develop. I use an old scissors to cut and peel off the cardboard sleeve and the cylindrical root ‘ball’ is planted intact so roots are hardly disturbed in the process. A few more twigs and small branches are stuck in beside pea plants as additional support. Then  I use a couple of  full watering cans to settle in the new plants. All that remains is to be protective of the young plants and remove any nearby slugs or snails at night and water the patch in the morning if dry.

Now to store the last of the leeks sown in 2009. I came across a good recipe ‘Potato Leek Soup with Lovage’ in a book by Mary Sheehan called ‘Coming Home to Cook, (Vegetarian Recipes Inspired by the Organic Gardens of Ireland)’. Check www.marysheehan.com for more about Mary who is both a chef and author, living in Co. Clare although born in Massachusetts, USA.

Lovage would be too big a herb for my garden so unlike Mary, I do not have it to hand right outside the door. Instead I can find a related herb Alexanders (Latin: Smyrnium) growing wild as a legacy from the monastery gardens in Lusk and the herbal garden beside the Norman Bremore Castle in Balbriggan. ‘Alexanders’ is named after the eastern Mediterranean region from where it was brought to Ireland.  Thanks to some monastic or Norman ‘foodie’, I can now add the lovage flavour  to this soup which freezes well, without needing to grow lovage in my own small garden.

RECIPE: 10 Tbl. butter, 8 cups diced potatoes, 3 cups chopped leeks, 1 cup chopped lovage, 12 cups vegetable stock, 1 cup light cream, sea salt and ground white pepper to taste.

In a heavy soup pot, melt 8 Tbl. butter. Add the potatoes and 2 cups leeks and cook until leeks are soft. Add lovage, stock, sea salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then lower heat and cook for 35 minutes. Blend soup in food processor until smooth. Return to pot and add light cream. Adjust seasoning. In a skillet, melt 2 Tbl. butter and cook 1 cup leeks until soft and brown. Add to soup.

Finally garnish with sprigs of fresh lovage ….. or go wild and forage for Alexanders!

The week has been an interesting one too, visiting a community garden in Rosscarbery in West Cork with Green Party / Comhaontas Glas candidate from Clonakilty, Bernie Connolly. Called in on a number of school gardens in the area including Gaelscoil Chloch na Coillte. Thug leanai rang a haon pictiur alainn dom. Taim an-bhroduil as!

Tuesday, I helped launch a Grow Your Own free seed project sponsored by Glenisk, the organic dairy business. The free seed project is to be run by The Organic Centre in Co Leitrim. Had a good chat with Andy and Hans from the Centre afterwards.

Back in Fingal, called in to Trinity House, Oberstown near Lusk to see their wonderful new fruit and vegetable garden. The youngsters are driving this development and I was delighted to plant a ‘James Grieve’ apple tree, the same variety as my solitary apple tree at home which gives me a great supply of juice to last a whole year. The Trinity House garden also has two other very tasty dessert varieties, ‘Katie’ and my favourite, ‘Elstar’.

Other garden jobs done during the week include weeding the front garden, cutting the grass. I used the clippings to mulch around the raspberries this time. Harvested comfrey and added leaves to comfrey liquid feed. Quare smell but great stuff or so organic growers tell me. I know about the smell and I’ll know more about the growing effects of the feed in due course after I’ve diluted it to water and feed my tomato and courgette plants.

To be honest, I’m too busy canvassing and attending to the day job for much garden work anyway.  At least with the rain I need not worry about watering, just keep slugs and snails at bay.

I needed a second pear tree to pollinate the ‘Conference’ variety I have been growing for about 10 years, so I ordered one from the Irish Seed Savers Association in Scariff, Co. Clare. Last Saturday the ISSA had a stand at the Irish Environmental Network exhibition in the Botanic Gardens, Dublin, where I launched Biodiversity Week, so happy day – I got to take my new pear tree home. I look forward to wholesome fruit and maybe even ‘holy fruit’ as the variety is called ‘John Wesley’, first recorded in Co. Limerick and apparently planted by the famous preacher when he was in the area.

Last Monday, I was electioneering in Galway and had a chance to see some fantastic kitchen gardens. First I visited Mr. Farrell’s Galway Educate Together School attended by Ex-Mayor Cllr Niall O Brolochain’s children. Their organic school garden had a great variety planted in rotation including Elephant Garlic. I was impressed, as I was with Shantalla N.S. where their organic garden had to be moved to make way for a pre-fab. However the new garden was going to be even better. I gave a small dig out laying a path at the construction phase of their new polytunnel. I particularly loved their willow dome classroom.

Before I left Galway, I dropped in on NUIG’s organic garden under construction on the university campus guided along by Organic Matters’ editor Cait Curran of IOFGA. Colm O’Dwyer along with staff, students and local neighbours are turning a neglected space into an organic 4 plot rotation. I hope other universities follow where Galway leads once again!

The priority during this period is to control the weed growth and slug and snail predations, atleast until the veg plants grow big enough to overshadow the soil and shade out the weed growth. Slug and snail activity also wanes as weather gets drier. (We live in hope!)

Late at night whenever I get home I venture forth often after midnight, torch in hand, around the garden to remove startled slugs and snails. Each morning, before breakfast, I again inspect, but this time with hoe in hand. Any weeds which have appeared are easily hoed before they get established.

An alternative to this routine would be to get a couple of hens.  Meanwhile however, the torch and the hoe are on hand near the back door for the forseeable future.

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