Few cultivated plant species’ have their wild original ancestor living in Ireland, beet is one of them. Just like this: beet. The species include leaf beet or chard, beetroot, sugar beet and fodder beet, or poetically said: Mangel Wurzel. The first is grown for its leaves, the other three for their enlarged, carbohydrate-rich roots – but of course all leaves are edible. And so is the wild original: the sea beet.

As the name suggests, this is a seashore plant, found all around this isle (and pretty much anywhere from Norway to India). Typically it’s found on sand dunes, at the higher splash-zone, in between rocks, pebbles, and even in piers, wedged in between masonry stones. The leaves are shiny, thick and crunchy, and slightly salty. (As the plant has no choice but absorbing salt, it balances it out with taking in extra water.) once you see it, it easy to recognise, and so is the flowering/seeding stem. The seeds, in fact the dry pods, are exactly like the ones of beetroot or chard. (Or, indeed, Mangel Wurzel.)

Anybody who tried to grow beets, knows that they are an easy crop, but have one annoying habit: they go to seed if the weather is warm, especially in tunnels/glasshouses. Beet normally is a biennial plant (produces seeds in the second year of its life – then it dies), but cultivated beets get sometimes confused. Not the sea-beet, though.

I was playing with the idea of trying to grow sea beet as a leaf crop, and after a bumpy start (missed seeding time, lost seeds) finally planted a crop in March 2011. My beets grew like mad, producing masses of shiny leaves – funny, but they are thicker and crunchier than chard, despite the lack of salt. And what I found the most pleasing: none of them went to seed. Even now, they don’t show any sign of wanting to – although I know they will, when time comes.

Then I will dig them up (all but one), and re-plant them in Raghley. They should flower and seed there, contributing to the up-keep of the native population. And in August I will be back for seeds.

Author’s note: this is the second version of the post. There was nothing wrong with the first one, at least in my view. Bill Gates, however, had different ideas. Bless him, left and right.
L.K.

Further note from the author: Bill also dislikes the idea of photos being attached to the article. You can see them on Facebook: Knockvicar Organic Garden and Cauli Flower. L.

We like raspberries and raspberries like us. Well, they like the boggy soil, they like being fed, and as it seems, they don’t mind being neglected. A bit.
It begun some five years ago. Philip Draper had some raspberry canes for sale. I didn’t actually know what variety they were, which type – all I knew was that they were certified organic, cheap, and most importantly: that they were good enough for Philip. So I planted them, enjoyed the first crop in late July – and the second one in September. Yes, they turned out to be an autumn variety.
If you look in any gardening book, you are advised to prune and maintain summer raspberries in one way, and autumn ones in a different way. Summer raspberries fruit on last year’s canes, while the autumn types on that year’s growth. Therefore the general pruning advice for summer types is to remove the canes that have cropped as they won’t crop again, and keep the young growth: they will. For autumn cropping you usually are advised to cut down all canes, and let the new growth produce the crop towards the end of the growing season. However, and I learned this through not knowing what sort of plants I got, you can treat autumn raspberries like if they were summer ones: cut off the cropped canes: to ground level – they will bring new shoots that will crop in the autumn, and even younger ones that will in the following year, but leave the ones that hadn’t yet: they will give you the summer crop.
Producing two crops plus vegetative growth is straining for the plant. To utilise its potential, it is necessary to feed it. The best for this is perfectly rotted down garden (weed) compost. Perfectly rotted: it won’t have a bumper supply of Nitrogen which would induce excessive leaf growth, and make the plant prone to diseases. Weed compost: you can mow around the bushes/in between rows, so if weed seedlings come up from the compost – they are welcome. Mower-resistant weeds have not yet been invented.
Raspberries can be invasive. A happy plant lets several runners just under the soil level, and they pop up new canes on every half a meter or so. If you dig these up, they can be re-planted, in your garden, or anybody else’s. I found at least ten youngsters today – and yes, you are welcome. We are open from 9 to 5 on weekdays, and from 11 to 3 on Saturday.

Lazy beds – it depends, where you approach the subject from. Lazy, if you compare this method of (primarily potato) bed making to a full digging, removing all roots and bits and pieces. Back-breaking, if you are doing it. Anyway, what are we talking about?
This is the method of turning a previously not cultivated piece of ground into raised beds by turning/folding the soil over the grass, and possibly some manure. You essentially chose a strip of grass-covered ground, and cut a stripe of turf on both sides of it, so you can fold that turf over the grass. Imagine a piece of paper that you fold from both sides so the edges meet in the middle. What you get (of the grass, not the paper) is a bare soil surface, slightly raised, with all the grass buried under. Plus you get two shallow trenches on either side, that can be dug up and the soil can be placed on the top of the ridge. You may want to place a layer of manure or compost on the grass before turning the turf over, but in many cases the fertility held by the root zone of the grass is enough to support a season’s crop.
Doing it right, the ‘hinges’ in between the sod turned over the grassy strip and the grassy middle itself remain connected. If you manage it, there will be no or very little grass growing up on the side of the ridge. If the sod breaks, the grass will come up. It is unavoidable where slices of the sod meet: you can’t turn up more than a foot width of sod in one lift without the risk of breaking it – which would be contrary to the concept.
Lazy beds were widely used in the past, mostly for potato growing. The farmer allowed the soil to build up fertility during years of grazing, made lazy beds to grow a crop of spud, then moved on and let the ground return to grass. Primitive and sophisticated in the same time, this method reaches back to the time of the slash-and-burn agriculture, and works on the same principle as the most carefully planned organic rotation systems.
The beds created can be kept in cultivation for years: from season two we just treat them as ordinary raised beds. There are a few problems that may occur if you create lazy beds. Wire-worms, the larvae of the click beetles live in grassy sod, eat roots, but they absolutely love potatoes, so some of the crop may be spoiled by them. Weeds, of course, will be an issue too – that’s one of the reasons why is it spud we usually grow in lazy beds: the lush foliage is good at suppressing uninvited survivors of the meadow flora.
In our new orchard we are in the process of digging lazy beds in between the young trees – happy to dig into the permacultural concept of mixed cropping.
(the editor’s note) I wanted to upload photos to explain the concept, but I can’t. You can either see them on our Facebook page, or come to Knockvicar Organic Garden on Saturday (10. 03. 2012) to see a demonstration. We are open from 11 to 3.

Orla is a second early (July-August outdoors) that can be kept further and harvested in the autumn as a main-crop. Tubers are round, white, not very floury, but really tasty. Blight resistance is reasonable. That is the variety we grow every year since 2001.
Colleen is a true early, can be harvested from late May in a tunnel or late June outdoors. Tubers are white and round, the taste is mild – as in all earlies.
Sharp’s Express is on the waxier side of the scale. A second early, it is tasty and trustworthy: I heard Klaus Laitenberger praising its merits. Tubers are white and elongated-oval.
Queen (British, since you asked) is a second early, but definitely on the floury side. Tubers are round, skin is white.
Setanta is a main-crop (September-November), and nothing less than an improved version of Ireland’s favourite potato: Rooster. Tubers are rounder than Rooster’s, blight resistance is reasonable (a significant improvement compared to its venerable ancestor).
Record is a large, white, mid-floury potato with outstanding flavour. Main crop; blight tolerance is OK but nothing more.
Charlotte is a true waxy potato: its followers are usually from the far-away, exotic continent of Europe. As a waxy, it has a reasonable level of blight resistance; tubers are white, crop varies from decent to heavy. Charlotte can be grown as an early.
Robinta is a baker: tubers are large, round, red-skinned. Heavy cropping main-crop, it has some half-decent bight resistance.
Sarpo Mira is the most blight-resistant potato on the market. Heavy cropper, it produces large, elongated tubers with red skin. Mira is a reliable, solid spud with not an awful lot of flavour.
Arran Victory is probably the prettiest potato in our selection: the thick skin is lilac, contrasting a snow-white flesh. Tubers are large, round-angular (is there such thing/), taste is good. Arran Victory is a floury baker, it has some blight resistance.
Golden Wonder is an outstanding potato: it has the highest dry matter content of almost all varieties, and that makes it the prefect chipper. Crops are not particularly high and blight resistance is virtually non-existent, but everything has a price.
Sante is a reliable, heavy cropper. Tubers are elongated, white, taste is decent. It has some blight-tolerance.
Lady Balfour (named after the founder of Soil Association) is new on the market. Tubers are white. It is praised for its blight resistance.
Hunter is the other novelty. Tubers are white, bright resistance is on the medium level, according to catalogues. Praised as a potato for poor soils.

Our plan for indoors: Orla and Colleen. For outdoors: in the Garden we will plant Orla, aiming for continuity when the indoors crop runs out. Also, we will plant a few Hunters and Lady Balfours to see whet they are like. In the new orchard we will grow Mira, in ‘lazy beds’. For more about this old Irish technique of ridge-making check the knockvicargardener.com later this week.

A new training centre is about to start near Knockvicar. The trainings are very interesting, and the trainers are even more: smallholders and top-notch ecologists. Here is their programme for this year:

“Harmony Farming – Farming in harmony with Nature

Smallholding courses in the West of Ireland

Harmony Farm is a family run, 12 acre mixed farm in County Roscommon. We manage our land using ecological principles. Our ethos is to create wildlife habitats while becoming as self sufficient as possible, keeping happy animals and a colourful, productive garden.

If you wish to grow your own food, try your hand at small scale farming, keep some livestock or just experience the life of a smallholding, join us on one of our courses. The courses combine theory and practice, and are based on demonstrating real farming. You will have hands-on experience and we will try to answer all your questions. If you cannot find the exact course you would be interested in, please contact us and we will try to accommodate you.

Please contact us for further details:
e-mail: harmony.farm13@gmail.com
tel: 086 3972819
www.harmonyfarming.wordpress.com

Please pass this leaflet on to others who may be interested in our courses. Thank you!

Up-coming courses:
(all courses are for a maximum of 8 people, with two tutors, with both indoor and outdoor sessions, lecture notes will be provided)

19. March – Introduction to keeping chickens
Aim of the course: to equip participants with basic and practical knowledge to successfully keep chickens, for pleasure, eggs and meat. For beginners and improvers.

1. April – Smallholdings: a taster day
Aim of the course: to introduce the participants to the smallholding lifestyle, by practical talks and detailed visit to a working 12-acre family farm. Also suitable for people who want to connect with best practice food production and farming with wildlife in mind. For beginners and improvers.

15/16. April – Poultry keeping (two days)
Aim of the course: to equip participants with basic and practical knowledge to successfully keep various species of poultry for eggs and meat production and to use poultry to help with work around the garden.

29. April – Introduction to running a smallholding (two days)
Aim of the course: For those who wish to have a smallholding, are starting up, or need help with the logistics and the work on a small farm, designed to show participants how a family-run smallholding works. We will explain and show participants the whole farm, the animals, garden, woodland, wildlife habitats, and describe realistically what you need to take into account.”