Garlic Prep and Planting

It's that time of the year again - light till over new rows on west side of the 'veg' field, then a bit of compost on top which helps suppress weeds, followed by small row mounds roughly 30cm (12in) apart where the garlic seed cloves are put in.

Each row in this area is 16m or 17m (52ft - 55ft) long rather than 20m (~65ft) long because the field narrows on this end. Even so, it took roughly 1.5 skip bags of compost per row to cover them - 5 rows meant roughly 7.5 cubic meters (nearly 10 cubic yards) of compost moved with shovels and wheel barrows, and then raked smooth before mounding up for planting garlic.

These rows are near one of the bee hives which has not been moved to the apiary yet, and this particular hive is pretty cranky. We both got stung despite starting quite early in the morning while the bees were still waking up. Hopefully the hives can be moved in a couple weeks after getting everything ready (see below).

Marisa planted three rows already, but we ran out of seed garlic. The rest will be planted in early October.

Mowing, Mowing, Mowing

We mowed the east half of the 'rush' field last year and have kept it maintained as covered in earlier posts. The west half was started a couple weeks ago in this largest single area of rushes on the farm, but I ran out of time. The chopped material is left on the ground to decompose. Another cutting in 4-8 weeks will cut closer to the base and chop remaining material into smaller pieces which breaks down faster. It took a couple days to finish the first cutting with our flail mower, and complicated by the Kioti tractor over heating after about 6 hours of running without a break.

The herb field has been mowed a few times so this was primarily cutting back around the edges now that blackberry season is over. Hopefully we can cut back and expose the ditches which need cleaning out before it gets too wet to bring the tractor into the field.

The 'Round House' field is due west of the 'veg' field and the kids are leading plans to build a rath (ring fort), traditional round house and sweat house, and coverings - a communal area for gatherings and such. It's a bit of experimental archeology, traditional building, and craft space. Previously we had mowed a path up to and around the rath area, and finally had time to mow the rest of the field which was about 1/3rd tall rushes - some of the thickest encountered to date.

Apiary Improvements

The west of Ireland is known for strong weather - primary rain and wind from ocean storms. It isn't called the Wild Atlantic Way for nothing...

The apiary walls built a couple months ago were not heavily braced and with summer storms (generally lighter than winter) the east and west wing walls had bowed significantly from winds (west to east) battering them. So we've done a bit of an upgrade - leaving small spaces between the siding boards so wind can go through, and adding bracing at top and upper corners of the south side (open front).

Also, skip bags were cut open and laid down to supress the grass, and boards added around the bottom to hold in gravel which will be nicer than sloshing about in the mud during winter.

And here is the new structure ready for hives to be moved in: