The Good Life meets the future

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Philosophy of a weeds

Today was my first visit to allotment #146 in over 2 months. I was expecting weeds but not the unrecognisable weed jungle that was waiting where my lovely allotment used to be. Had it not been for my trusty beanstalks waving desperately from the center of the plot I think I would have turned on my heel and run off home to hide.

I tentatively entered the plot the smell of lavender drew my attention to the two plants that I had put in months ago. I have never, until now that is, grown lavender successfully it always seems to give up on me no matter how hard I try. Maybe that was where I go wrong, maybe I try to hard. These two lavender plants were certainly proof that they are not high maintenance or indeed delicate plants, going forward I shall just leave them to it.

I waded further into the plot familiar stalks catching my eye off to the right, Leeks! I was surprised to see that the stalks were green not withered and brown with suffocation. I cleared the weeds from around them; they're small but healthy. I'll leave them to carry on for a while yet. I did vow to them (yes I talk to plants) that I would keep the weeds at bay from now on, after all they are the National Emblem of my home land.

Off to the left were the most enormous cauliflowers. It's quite a site seeing something like this growing in the plot. Sadly most of them had succumb to rot, possibly caused by recent weather conditions (and neglect). I took up all of them for the compost heap, saving the one good one to take home as my bounty and the leaves for Dorris and Daisy my pet bunnies.

Next to be checked were the beans, they looked so healthy and as they were growing up the cane frame I had put in for them they had not yet been drowned by weeds. The beans were mostly ready for harvesting and were absolutely massive. So far dinner is cauliflower and beans.

I spent 6 hours clearing weeds and eight trips to the compost heap with a wheel barrow full of dock leaves and creeping buttercup (do not be fooled by it's name this is an evil weed). All that and I've only managed to clear this much...

Before I left I spied the remains of potato plants in the debris of weeds which could mean one of two things. Either the spuds had got blight and dies a nasty death or they had done what they could and there were brand new spuds waiting to be unearthed. I was lucky, there were spuds, not many and not massive but spuds all the same. One last chore before I called it quits for the day and that was to tackle the weeds that stood tall where the tomato plants used to be. There were small yellow tomato flowers peeking out through the weeds - they were alive? Yes, there was one tomato plant strong, with fruit but sadly also with blight - it had to go. Good news though, there is still an aubergine plant that I had completely forgotten about - Happy days.

So, having come away with quite an unexpected bounty I have reached the following conclusion:

Sometimes we can't always give a garden the attention that is needed. Then when we realise that it has become neglected we sometimes choose to bury our heads in the sand and hope that it will right itself. Generally it won't. It's best to take the bull by the horns. Sure the garden will be overgrown but don't dwell on this; dig in, clear away the weeds and rubbish and take a look at what you have left. Then start again. You live and learn.

"Je Suis un Petit chou-fleur" - That's about all I can say in French. That and "Merci Beaucoup" which is what I'd like to say to the lovely people at Mondadori who were kind enough to include my Bloom entry in their magazine l'Ami des Jardins et de la maison.

Merci

Voice of a community

The lovely people over in the Community Voice were kind enough to write a follow up after their original article about Bloom. Click here to read the follow up.
Click here to read the original.

Get what you want out of life

This isn't particularly related to anything on this blog other than doing "your thing" (yes I'm quoting a diet coke ad) of which I'm a big believer of.

A friend of mine told me about the site 43things.com so I checked it out took a quiz and it turns out that I'm a Self-knowing healthy builder whatever that means. So if like me you're hurtling towards 30 ( 1 year, 7 months, and 23 days to be precise) why not log on to 43things.com and write yourself a list of goals that you hope to acheive before the big birthday bash!

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a

Self-Knowing Healthy Builder

News from Architecturenow.ie

First carbon neutral international convention centre

The convention centre Dublin has announced that it is the first carbon neutral international convention centre as the net impact of its construction on the environment is zero. This is the result of low carbon cement and by offsetting unavoidable carbon emissions by investing in carbon credits.

The building was designed by Pritzker award winning Irish Architect Kevin Roche and is situated at Spencer dock and cost €380 million. The purpose built national conference centre can accommodate conference of up to 8,000 people in 222 rooms and includes a 2,000-seater auditorium, 4,500 metres of exhibition space and banqueting facilities for up to 3,000 guests.
Posted: 08/06/2009 10:53:27

News from Architecturenow.ie

Public Park will generate own electricity

A new public park which generates its own electricity from wind turbines has been opened in North Dublin. The 52 acre Fr Collins Park in Donaghmede has been described as Ireland’s first sustainable park. It will source all its power from five wind turbines worth €1.2 million.
The turbines will generate about 250kW/hr of electricity a year and it is hoped the turbines will pay for themselves by providing floodlights for the park, powering five dressing rooms, maintenance buildings and water features. The park is named after Fr Joe Collins who died 30 years ago.
Posted: 08/06/2009 10:32:56

RTE Nationwide June 3rd 2009 - click link to watch interview

A few of the people who popped by for tea...

Mary and I get ready for Nationwide - Wednesday June 3rd 7pm RTE1

My Nana Jean found the garden incredibly relaxing!

Pat Fitzgerald took a break from the MyPlant exhibit in the main pavillion

I'd like to say Thank you (in no particular order) to...


Javier, Anna, Jeanne, Claude, Sharon, Chris, Helen, Andriy, Sinead, Dave, Debbie, Joe, Mags, Gerry and Ger, Karol and Monica.

Janet, Albert and Dominic - brilliant Bloom neighbours and you were so generous to help me clear up! Thank you

Jer Doran, Pat White and the team at White's Agri - you've been amazing suppliers and supporters - Thank you

Pat Fitzgerald from MyPlant - With no plants there would have been no garden...Thank you for coming to my rescue!

Chad Gilmer and VAZUMO.COM - with no digger we would still be digging - Thank you

Peter Donegan - you advice and support has been invaluable - Thank you!

Paula Banks and Michelle O'Kane for your amazing photographs

Eugene Higgins for covering the story in the Irish Mail on Sunday

Fergus and Mary for the write up in the Community Voice

Everyone who popped by to say hi at the show!

Mum, Nan, Barry for letting me nick your tools and for your continued support.

A heart felt Thank you to each and everyone of you!

(If you think I might have missed someone off this list, infact if it's you I've missed - just let me know as it's not intentional)

The Big Bloom Blog


(I wrote this at 6pm Thursday May 28th 2009 - just adding to the blog today)

It's wind down time on site at Bloom 2009 as today was the opening day and it has been long, hot and emotional..and completely worth it!

I set out on my Bloom adventure to see what I could achieve, what my strengths and weaknesses are and I certainly did, I've learnt an awful lot in a very short space of time.

I'll bring you up to date with the last few days of the build:

The final build weekend went well; Pat from MyPlant dropped in the 3000 Carex buchani and with an army of, very lovely, volunteers, the plants were placed into position along with the Stipa. This weekend was also the weekend that I realised that the wooden seating area could be a problem. Monday flew by and despite the generous help of dome fabulous volunteers, who stayed way past bedtime to lend a hand, I knew that some aspects of the design would be unachievable in the time frame we had left. By Wednesday I was overwhelmed with crushing disappointment in myself; the seating area was a shambles and I was on site at 6am trying desperately to improve it...to no avail.

Granted a medal was never my goal but I had hoped that I could at the very least impress the judges. A predicted call to my mobile confirmed that the "judges were concerned with the safety" of the seating area and suggested that the woodwork be removed and the sunken area be lined with turf. Point taken - I did as they suggested.

Needless to say there was no medal awarded to 'In Amongst the Grasses' according to the rumour mill "the garden wasn't judged at all as it wasn't finished". Such encouraging rumours to add to the already sickening embarrassment that I have.

So I'm down (a bit) but I'm not out. I've achieved what I came to achieve. The judges also told me that I "shouldn't feel discouraged" and I'm not. In fact I already know what I'm doing next year.