New lawn

Old lawn
For some reason male gardeners are often tagged with the ‘lawn obsessed’ label, certainly growing up in my parents’ house the division of labour went as follows: Father = lawn (and at one stage, potatoes), Mother = everything else in the garden. I liked having the small green space (approx 17ft x 15ft) in the middle of my own garden, but tolerated some weeds and moss, it was only when the lawn disappeared that I realized how much it contributed and … It wasn’t a Keith Barry/Paul Daniels type of disappearance, instead I just got a largish rescue dog almost two years ago. A combination of her pee and large digging paws over the course of 9 months gave the lawn a bad case of mange. I tried re-seeding some spots but had no success. Bereft of ideas I covered the entire area with weedblock fabric and bark mulch and kidded myself it looked OK.

Back to grass
A year later, fed up with the hideous brown stain in the middle of the garden (and let’s not even mention dog poo!), I decided to give grass another go. But I knew that neither I nor Dolly (the dog), would have the patience to go the lawn-seeding route, so had to find a lawn turf supplier. Thankfully, the local garden centre, Kiernans in Douglas, recommended a supplier, KMC Lawn Turf, based near Kinsale. After a number of phone calls I had a quote (198 euro) and detailed directions. Kieran was so concerned that I wouldn’t get lost that I’d to phone a couple of times en-route on Saturday afternoon (I don’t know where previous customers have ended up), but as it turned out I found them pretty easily. Kieran has 25 acres set to lawn turf; we’d just missed an artic going off to the Old Head of Kinsale golf club. We’d two vehicles to collect the turf, my small estate car and a small 4 x 4. The car was laden down with the weight and it was only when I got home and started to unload that it hit me how much work would be involved in simply manoeuvring each sod, rolled out each one measured about 4ft.

Preparation
Usually I like to do all the recommended prep work, but I really needed to have everything done over a weekend, I figured that any soil left rotovated and bare was just inviting Dolly to go digging and rolling in it while I was at work. On Saturday morning I removed all of the bark mulch and weedblock fabric and put the bark in the borders, and then just raked some bags of Brown Gold into the soil. Fingers crossed that the earth isn’t so compacted that it causes problems for the rooting of the turf. I was wrecked on Saturday evening moving the lawn turf from the front to the patio, the turf was so heavy that two sods loaded into the wheelbarrow almost deflated the tyre.

Turf laying
In answer to someone’s question about whether I could lay turf, I replied that I’d seen Alan Titchmarsh do it so many times on Ground Force that I could do it in my sleep (in theory). Therefore, out came the plank, to initially butt the first row of turf against a straight edge and then to kneel on so that my weight would be distributed as I worked on the lawn. In reality of course I kept hopping up and walking on it as I fetched another sod or needed to move the bucket for stones. It’s not easy pulling and jerking heavy sods of turf to make sure they butt up together snugly – my red knuckles and stiff limbs testify to that!

Result
I was so thrilled and happy with the end result, it was like having my old garden back again. I’ve fenced it off temporarily (giving the turf two weeks to root), then Dolly can have a go at it again. Fingers crossed we can all enjoy it this time.

Indoor seed update

Seeds sown 4th March
21 x T. Supersweet 100
5 x T. Green Sausage
10 x T. Ildi
10 x Cosmos
12 x Calendula ‘Porcupine’
12 x Broccoli ‘Early Purple Sprouting’

Seeds germinated 22nd March
21 x T. Supersweet 100
5 x T. Green Sausage
10 x T. Ildi
8 x Cosmos*
6 x Calendula ‘Porcupine’
9 x Broccoli ‘Early Purple Sprouting’**

* 10 or 11 germinated, but 2 or 3 were in with the tomatoes, so got rid of those and put 1 in with the potted Penstemon also on the windowsill.
** 2 or 3 seedlings are falling over, so don’t know if they’ll make it.

Seed sowing galore

On February 11th I got around to my annual order of Thompson & Morgan seeds, they arrived on the 19th. As usual, I was drawn in by the names and pictures and have probably ordered too many, maybe someday I’ll have that half acre! The order was:

Tomato ‘Green Sausage’ (30 seeds)

Tomato ‘Supersweet 100’ F1 hybrid (8 seeds) x 2 pkts
Tomato ‘Ildi’ (40 seeds)
Carrot ‘Parmex’ (2500 seeds – c’mon when would I use all of these?!)
Lettuce ‘Colour Shades Mixed’ (800 seeds)
Lettuce ‘Cassandra’ (350 seeds)
Lettuce ‘Little Gem Pearl’ (750 seeds)
Beetroot ‘Wodan’ F1 hybrid (200 seeds)
Broad Bean ‘Jubilee Hysor’ (50 seeds)

Sunflower ‘Moonwalker’ (40 seeds)
Sweet Pea ‘Matucana’ (25 seeds)
Sweet Pea ‘Wiltshire Ripple’ (25 seeds)
Cosmos ‘Sensation Mixed’ (200 seeds)
Californian Poppy 'Monarch Mixed’ (600 seeds)
Lathyrus belinensis (12 seeds)

I started the seed sowing last Sunday (4th March) – later than usual, but then again the tomato plants usually have to brave chilly winds when I put them out too early, so the later start might prevent that setback.

I’d bought a polystyrene cell tray last year but not used it. It was a little fiddly, and claimed that the cells were designed in such a way that the growing medium wouldn’t fall out of the bottom of the cells – my arse – as soon as I lifted it up compost fell out (though not all of it). In the tray I sowed:

21 x Supersweet 100
5 x Green Sausage
10 x Ildi
10 x Cosmos

My usual focus is the tomato growing, the excitement of trying new varieties and the eventual sweet juicy rewards make it worthwhile. I grew Supersweet 100 in 2004 and they were definitely the best flavoured and juiciest variety I’ve tried so far. Green Sausage looks interesting, wasn’t sure how you’ll know it’s ripe, but looking into it I think they turn yellowish at that stage (see pic).

In another, 6 cell, seed tray I sowed 12 Calendula ‘Porcupine’, and in a second 6-cell, 12 Broccoli ‘Early Purple Sprouting’ – of the few Broccoli seeds I sowed outside last year nothing appeared, so trying to get them established first.

In my root trainers I sowed:

Lathyrus belinensis (4 seeds)
Sweet Pea ‘Cupani’ (8 seeds)
Sweet Pea ‘High Scent’ (8 seeds)
Sweet Pea ‘Wiltshire Ripple’ (8 seeds)
Sunflower ‘Moonwalker’ (8 seeds)
Broad Bean ‘Jubilee Hysor’ (8 seeds)

As well as tomatoes, my other favourites are sweet peas, so I’ve sowed plenty this year, including Lathyrus belinensis, which is new to me, non-scented, but with an attractive flower.

I put the root trainers out in the cold frame. The broad beans I sowed in the earth last year did grow, but I got no crops. I think it might have been a bad year for bean crops, possibly too dry early in the summer, so will keep a close eye this year.

Wednesday 7th March: checked the seed tray in the back room - 3 Supersweet 100 seeds have already germinated and emerged!

Disconnected

I've been neglecting this space for the last couple of months, trying to help the bro out in his Web 2.0 venture: LouderVoice. But I've started my yearly seed sowing so I'll add a couple of posts here over the next few weeks.