The worlds most expensive indoor clothes line!

It all started just about a year ago, when Ron met our SlowFood friend - Cáit Curran at the local market here in Galway. They were talking veggies and growing when she made the statement 'well surely you have a polytunnel by now' and he hung his head in despair stating he had not! Thus began a year of convincing and pleading for Ron's new toy!

Over the course of the last year I have heard all the best reasons (and some of them are great) to make this considerable investment - not to mention the fact that my handsome Chef has never been without a vegetable garden in his life, and in addition to his passion and flair for cooking he has the greenest of thumbs too!

Twelve months growing of all my favourite salad leaves, onions, garlic etc. Better quality and increased yields on all his plants due to the fact that you can control the level of pests quite easily by keeping the doors closed!

The ability to grow 'incredible corn' what we miss the most from our life in America (Farmer John - please send us some seeds or deliver them in person!!!).

My Blueberry bush will be protected from botrytis it's number one enemy as it will live in a safe, dry and hot environment most suitable for a 90% yield on this one!!

Tomatoes...................nice, juicy ripe red tomatoes and if anyone out there has some heirloom seeds to share we would be delirious to have them!

Peppers - especially chili peppers of all kinds which for some terrible reason cannot be sourced here in Galway at all - you can barely find the dried ones!

After all this reckoning and reasoning and convincing we finally decided to take the plunge and invest (heavily might I add) in this new office for my darling husband.

Shortly after he arrived home from work the day it was installed and ready to 'grow' he finally sold me on having this monstrosity sit right outside my kitchen window when he hung a lovely clothes line in it for me! I gotta say - around here with all these leaky clouds - I love it!!!

After all the excitement of digging and nipping at heels to make sure everything went according to plan, an evening of snoozing by the fire was all little Pearl was able for.

Stay tuned on the Polytunnel - we have just put in our first load of rotted seaweed (excellent organic fertiliser) and after a few weeks we will add in a few loads of horse manure to prep the soil for perpetual growing!

That is all the WiseWords I have for today!

WiseMóna

Happy in the garden, fighting with his weeds!

My handsome Chef has been gardening organically for as long as I have known him and I am sure for quite some time before that. His gardening skills have really started to show here in Ireland as he can grow 12 months of the year. This is a very cool concept for Ron and he is a few weeks away from getting his very own poly tunnel! (plastic dome that hopefully will not blow away).

One of the many challenges organic growers are harnessed with is trying to come up with clever ways to dispose of the nasty snails/slugs, caterpillars, bugs etc. that want to share the delicious veggies he has labored so hard for.

Luckily for my Chef, he has 2 avid helpers. He has taught Jack how to pick and smash the snails or caterpillars with his bare hands (aaaaagh - yeuch!) and even Ms. Rory Belle is trying her hand at picking off the bugs and tossing them! The garden is in full bloom right now, and we are eating most of it as it comes into season. Lots of rainbow radishes, green onions, salad greens - Rocket, endive, chard and some beet greens too! Potatoes and Cabbage are coming on strong but not in season unitil late next month!

He has even planted a few tomato plants in the hopes that he will get a ripe one or two, but without a poly tunnel it would be highly unlikely for this to happen. However, they sure are thriving!

All in all, the growing season has gotten off to a great start and there is lots more to come!

That is all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna