Garden update

If someone said it was Ireland's driest Spring since records began, I wouldn't immediately call Rubbish! Lack of rain hits our food-growing capacity harder than some, because almost all the productivity is inside a 9m x 17m polytunnel. At the end of May, we had a delegation of Hickeys come by from the US for lunch. As best as we can tell, their family owned our farm up until ~1873. Many years ago, the whole family returned home to their Patrimony and I rendered them some trifling service. I was happy to do that because you couldn't meet a taller, sunnier, kinder bunch of people. I was adopted by the recently widowed matriarch and included in her Xmas round-robin Annual Report. Over the subsequent years various septs of the clan came by for tea and scones, most recently on St James's Day 2021. When my foster-mother died over Christmas 2014, I had a Mass said for her in our Parish church and was able to double the audience at early mass on my way to work in The Institute.

Mais revenons nous à 2025! #1 Son and #5 Son and their spouses came for lunch. Na mBan Hickey had a tour of the garden afterwards and were delighted to be presented with the first two fat pea-pods for dessert. As well as peas [free from the Library last fall], we've also planted some saved haricot beans [which are taller than me already, but have few blossoms]. Also tomatoes of several different (named but unknown to me) varieties: so that will be a pot-luck bonanza. Actually half these tomatoes are growing up against the sunny front of the house, in the biggest pots we own: where they will get free watering [rain and kitchen rinse water] and a thermal boost from the in🌞ated wall behind them. No pressure to produce, Toms!

I have described the 1 tonne IBCs which act as rainwater reservoirs in and around the polytunnel. I wrung every drop out of these back-up reserves during the Spring 2025 Drought and had to keep things going with water pumped from 35m below grade through our domestic plumbing system. I'm really reluctant to do this because our bore-hole water is really acidic . . . and also because it's really cold. Whatevs, I rinsed out the external IBC and moved it away from the ash-dieback dead ash Fraxinus excelsior to a new, shadier position as ◎ L. It is also 0.5 m higher than before, which should make irrigation run faster. I was ready when we had a drought-breaking storm which delivered steady rain for about 6 hours. It took that much time to ¾ fill the IBC by pumping from the water-butt which takes all the water from the gutter running along the S edge of the polytunnel. 10 days later, it was brimful from drizzle and showers. 

In contrast to [solar] electricity, you can store water against an [un] rainy day!