We here on Monster in the Corner always like a challenge, and never more so than in maintaining the Monster’s mantra of reducing, reusing and recycling. When first we encountered the overgrown eyesore that was our allotment plot almost 4 years ago we knew we’d have our work cut out in trying to clear and cultivate it, but once we had achieved this we started to think on how to develop a character for our plot. Where other plot holders had bought metal plates and wooden plaques with numbers on, or, as in some cases still had the original 12” corrie-board plot number signs pegged in the ground by the council to demarcate each allotment, we decided on something different. For three years we used a large log, sourced from a tree felled by winter storms, and onto this we placed the Monster’s call sign i.e. 49, and for good measure – and also because my daughter bought it as a gift to the plot- we had a small bug hotel pinned to the log. This ‘rude mechanical’ as we called it, was always one of the talking points of the larger walled garden and helped set the early scene for the way the Monster in the Corner would develop over the years.
The Monster’s Original Mechanical ON PLOT 49
However, three wet and stormy winters always take a toll and this spring the Monster’s mechanical was looking forlorn to say the least. It was time for a change, and as such a challenge. Sooner than simply replace like with like, we decided we’d try to plant-up the plot’s designation, a living floral mechanical if you like, but also to incorporate –as is our practice- some element of recycling. So, with a spare wheelbarrow, a large hole, 4 square yards of dirt and a slow but steady supply of Dimpled Golfus (golf balls from the adjoining park golf course see post of 6th May) we set about this year’s rude mechanical…
Burying the Barrow…Spilling the Barrow…Time to Tag with the balls…Setting the balls…
We’ve had to wait for some of the initial bedding to fill-out in order to mark the template, and the deterioration in sunshine levels together with increased rain the last 20 days have slowed the blooming scheme a little, but here’s hoping it will colour up by mid July…
Chelsea, Chatsworth and Malvern have come and gone, as has Bloom in the Park, and gone too are all those plans we had at the beginning of the month to make postings on all the aforementioned festivals and events. June arrived and on its tails came the air of summer with all its latent promise: warm bright days, summer festivals, ál fresco lunches in short-sleeves and daily blight warnings. We’ve made busy on The Monster in the Corner, so much so we actually lost ourselves in the doing of things on the plot, and it is only now that we have all things bedded, supported, weeded and netted that we have the time to recap and sketch out the late summer and autumn plans and finally post them here. All of the plot’s beds are flourishing: the gladiator parsnips are growing very well and now that we’re at mid-summers the Centurion and Stuttgarter onions are finally beginning to bulb but, as expected, about one in six has bolted. The Karmen reds, not surprisingly, are still lagging behind but all the summer bunching and salad onion are now ready for use. We’ve been pulling rhubarb stalks on each visit to the allotment and have jammed and jarred the first flush glut with some finely grated stem ginger. This store never lasts very long as it’s generally shared with extended family, friends and work colleagues, but the Victoria stools seem to be sprouting well enough yet and we should have ample for further desserts, crumbles and that second flush glut for more jam. The shallot tips are beginning to colour down so these shall be rudely unearthed in the next fortnight or so. A great deal of effort the last 3 weeks has been spent battling the squirrels, blackbirds and magpies for ownership our rapidly ripening blackcurrants and gooseberries. We’ve always acknowledged foregoing nature’s share, but there’s only so much we’ll allow the wildlife to covet. Having decided against a strawberry crop the last three summer seasons this year we planted up a small bed of 20 plants (a new variety called Malling Centenary) and we’ve had some of these. As with all first year crowns, the pickings were slim, but the berries themselves are of a very good size with that great taste of summer… The early sown radishes, lettuces and rocket have gone over, so we’ve made more sowing for later in the summer, and the first beetroot sowing is just about ready for some baby-beet pickings. The Broad beans were well and truly walloped with black-fly, and on more than one occasion, this no doubt down to the warm and humid conditions which proliferates their spread, but that said we have fared better than the other plot holders across the walled garden whose potato crops have all been badly decimated with blight. The red Kale sown in May has now been planted into the open drills, as have the pumpkin and ornamental courgette plants, and as usual the herb and floral border which is one of the main focal points of the Monster in the Corner is once again in full bloom and generating the annual conversation piece with the passers-by. We’ve decided to change the Monster’s ‘rude mechanical’ this year. Since first beginning work on the allotment our ‘play’ has been a large chestnut log with bug hotel and carved wooden plot number in situ. But given the effects of three wet and stormy winters it was looking a little forlorn. This year we’ve gone for a spilled-barrow effect; a living mechanical if you will, the Monster’s designation and number in living floral form. Originally conceived in red, white and blue– giving a nod to the EURO’s 2016 event in France- we’ve adapted a little at the last minute to facilitate incorporating another of the elements of the walled garden into the design, and with a little luck we should be putting the finishing touches to it over this coming weekend.
The Monster’s Mechanical Spilled Barrow almost completeAlmost Completed…
Madame dirtdigger is somewhat incapacitated at present, but there’s no slackening-off with this particular one armed weeder & feeder; still showing up for plot duty, still making the most of the weather, and reminding me that as of today the days are no longer stretching. Today, and for another day or so, the season’s daylight is fully taut. Midsummer’s mindfulness abounds, filled with birdsong dawns and those slow receding half-light dusks stretching almost to midnight; young starlings learning the principles of murmuration formation flying and beech nuts and hazel nuts now setting on the branches; cosmos, lilies and lupins beginning to open; sunflowers reaching into the broad light with basil and coriander pots scenting the plot and the outdoor courgettes showing signs of bloom…and to top it all off, great sporting nights like last night that will live long in the memory as the low lying fields of Athenry worm their way into the French psyche’s association with the Green Army…COYBIG
Fallow Deer in the Phoenix Park (while en route to the Bloom Festival)
After a long cool spring, summer actually arrived on time this year and with it came that five day hiatus at the end of May when the RHS puts on its annual showcase in London, The Chelsea Flower Show, while across the pond here in Ireland we’ve just had our Bloom Festival, celebrated each year during the June Bank Holiday weekend. Always chock-a-block with amazing plants and planting schemes, the Great Chelsea Spring Show has consistently managed to combine old-worldly traditional charm with contemporary cutting edge garden design and all the latest trends in horticultural development. We’ve never been to the Chelsea Flower show, and as much as we’d love the experience of visiting the truth is we’ll probably never get to visit and for many diverse reasons prime of which is we live in a different country. But, the hay was saved once again as the BBC did what it does best each year when it goes into saturation coverage mode. So although we’ll probably never get to go to Chelsea, at least we still get to take part in this annual floral extravaganza from a distance, and we still get to see The Great Pavilion and the Show Gardens. We also get the Behind the Scenes looks at things, and can even take part (viewers in the UK) in the voting of The People’s Choice Awards not to mention the spin-offs, repeats and more fringe adaptations than you’d have seen on a 1964 episode of Top of the Pops. And we had Monty, and Carol, and a breezy looking Diarmuid; and there was Gold and Gilt galore, dashed hopes and career-breakthroughs, new cultivar debuts and Bests in Show. And there was good food and banter, sunshine and showers, expert gardening tips, and before the presenters could shake a brolly at a passing downpour or we could set our Smartphone reminder to alert us to the live daily updates and streams… it was all over. Done and dusted. And as Saturday’s plant sell-off got under way the meticulously planned planting schemes were suddenly and unceremoniously thrown into reverse, as the process of uprooting and moving the show’s gardens to some other more permanent elsewhere had begun and the Royal Hospital’s ground beds were cleared for another year.
The period from mid May to end of June is (in the northern hemisphere at least) the high point of the gardening year, and so it is no accident that most of the big gardening fetes and floral festivals are timed for this period. We here in the Emerald Isle purely by dint of geographic proximity and a shared cultural history of over 800 years get to watch this great British summer tradition every year, and it was no great surprise when12/13 years ago, one of our own quasi autonomous governmental organisations decided we here, in Ireland, needed Our Own Chelsea! Okay, so it wasn’t the most auspicious moment in slogan development, but rather naively and frustratingly that’s how the idea was originally pitched. And so it was that in the summer of 2006 the Phoenix Park played host to, and we attended the very 1st Bloom Festival, Ireland’s premiere food and gardening fair… However in the ten years it has been in operation our BLOOM festival has developed its own unique identity and dare we say that it is only in the last year or two it actually seems comfortable in its own clothes. In our desire to keep the experience fresh (and our pockets in good health) we attend only every other year, and as this year marked the tenth anniversary of the festival we were certainly going to do so again. Of course our daughter was also involved with talk and discussion sessions through the GIY organization on three of the five days, so of course we were attending this year..
As with all outdoor events the weather is the one uncontrollable element that no amount of planning can legislate for and many’s the time it has put a dampener on things, and although at present there seems to be an extended band of unsettled weather right across mainland Europe with record rainfalls and flash-flooding, we here in Ireland have enjoyed a welcome period of relatively settled and sunny weather which has not only helped the event planners and the Show Garden designers prepare, but has also enthused the public to attend in greater numbers than normal. So over the coming days we’ll embark on a hindsight excursus or two here on Monster in The Corner as we post the odd photo from Ireland’s premiere food and gardening festival…so, here are some for starters.
Out The Other Side: Hope Garden designed to offer hope to Breast Cancer Survivors (hammock made from women’s and girls bras)Yi Garden (friendship garden) Gold Medal winner,,(my personal favourite)
This time four years ago, I planted my first perennial plant on the allotment, asparagus. Asparagus is notoriously tough for vegetable growers, not because it’s difficult to grow – it i…
Monster In The Corner... 