Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
EVEN THOUGH WE have only used a small amount of this year’s garlic crop so far (with the rest hanging up in the corner of the kitchen), this week it was time to plant next year’s crop.
Though the tradition is that garlic is sown before the shortest day of the year in December and harvested by the longest day in June, getting them in to the ground earlier than that gives them the best chance of getting the cold weather they need to thrive.
Though sowing garlic is easy (see below), it generally requires some bed clearing and a bit of forward thinking about next year. In particular, I have to consult my gardening diary – although it’s a nonsense to call it a diary really, for it is only used once a year to consult the crop rotation I follow to see where things should be grown each year.
So, for 2020, the onion family (garlic, leeks, onions) will be going where the brassicas (cabbages and mustard plants) are this year, alongside the small tunnel at the back of the veg patch.
Some clearing was required first to get a bed ready – some past their best radishes and kohlrabi and a mat of chickweed. The radishes and kohlrabi had gone too far to eat them fresh, so they will be pickled instead to try and salvage them, which usually works (see recipe below).
Once the bed was cleared, sowing the garlic only takes a few minutes, with our eldest child tasked with measuring out the rows and placing the cloves on the ground.
I sowed around 100 cloves in total, which is probably way too many, but I am allowing for some of them not to grow and others to be on the small side. Around 50-60 decent bulbs would be a great result.
There are still some other brassicas growing in this area of course – which need to stay put for now.
I invested in a decent bionet cover earlier this year which has been brilliant – earlier in the year to keep the cabbage white butterfly away, and later in the year to keep hungry pigeons at bay.
So things are looking healthy here. The Brussels sprouts are starting to produce little buds and purple sprouting broccoli plants that won’t be ready to eat until next spring.
The Basics – Sowing Garlic
Most GIYers sow garlic in early winter (October – December, but before the shortest day of the year – 21 December) as the bulbs benefit from a cold snap. Some varieties however can be sown in spring but they won’t grow as big.
Pick a sunny site, with good fertile, free-draining soil. Apply an organic fertiliser (seaweed dust and poultry manure pellets) or add a thin layer of compost after sowing. Sow each clove so that the tip is about an inch below the surface.
Space them about 10-15cm apart in the row, in rows 30cm apart. If your soil is very wet, sow the cloves in module trays instead and transplant them when sprouted.
As with onions, garlic hates weed competition so keep the bed weed free. Hoe carefully around the bulbs every week or so. Water occasionally in dry weather but don’t over-water.
Recipe of the Week – Pickled Radishes
Pickled radishes are great in sandwiches and salads. I like to pretend that we’re making a batch for storage for the winter, but they never last that long. Unopened, it should last for three to four months in the fridge but once you open the jar use up within a few weeks.
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the radishes well and remove the leaves and stems.
Slice the radishes thinly with a mandolin and pack them in to a sterilised Kilner jar with the garlic and chilli-pepper.
Heat the vinegar, water, honey, spices and salt in a saucepan until boiling then pour over the radishes.
Close up the jar and allow to cool.
Allow the radishes to pickle for at least five days before eating.
Michael Kelly is an author, broadcaster and founder of GIY.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Do we elect our TD’s to appoint advisors ! Why not elect the advisors and forget about these entitlement sisters.
Cut out the middle man. It would save a fortune
In Finland for example they are responsible for expenses out of thier salary but that’s about 4 million but the best people are head hunted for the job . Former chief executive of Nokia is in communication and they have one of the best communication systems on the planet. What do we have …. An embarrassment .
True statement alot of good sound intelligent people turned off by the hollywood fake smiles and handshakes crap that goes with elections. Vast pool of talent not prepared to do that nauseating stuff.
Good government should be not seen and not heard it should just function and if your doing a good job the people will leave what is alone to continue its work on their behalf.
Sure look at their holidays, 5 months a year from Dail and reforms needed. Just shows, what a bunch of greedy fraudsters they are and why do we keep electing them?
And then look at the allowances even just to show up at work. Not far off 100 euro a day for Dublin TD even.
Major overhaul is required of both transient and permanent government.
They can claim up to 30 euro for breakfast! How many slices of toast is that? I mean is just crazy when you think some families dont have much more that 30 euros left after bills are paid.
Sorry for jumping in here but is anybody having any trouble the past day or two with likes/dislikes?
Mine are not registering at all.
And civil servants too, sure isn’t miriam ocallaghan on the payroll of advisers for enda.
She’s just falling out of a boat , serves her right …
Not that anyone would be surprised by this but why have this Government brought in these salary caps voluntarily and then routinely breach them? An open goal for the opposition.
But Joan will say he’s worth it ! Look at the economic recovery people, I’m offering 25 euro to all the pensioners if I’m in power next election, cause your all worth it !!
Over 5 yr mind !
50 k over payment I’m not surprised working for that B !! No money is worth listening to Joan
Ah good on you Joan. A true labour leader. Minding your buddies while screwing the little people
Sean.. They introduced them to keep the masses quiet and assure us they were going to put manners on these kind of people who operate on a ‘because I’m worth it ethos’ but all along Edna, Moany and Co were doing it with a nod and a wink to them. Another example of the worthlessness of FG/LAB
This woman has flagrant disregard for the regular Irish folk
What hypocrisy Joan. You make a big deal about giving pensioners an extra €3 a week . yet you give an advisor an extra €1000 a week. Shameful.
I wonder did he get a free I-phone too
as FG know well that’s about the price of a facetube advisor for one vip in castlebar
all on the states tab, wonder how fast they would spend money if they had to fund the spend themselves
agreed sean,, labour give themselves 40 to 60 euro a week extra from jan 1st and a pensioner gets 3 euro a week, a person an dole gets nothing,, sums up the disconnect of labour and the people their supposed to serve, the labour party have morphed into the bourgeois party
comment of the week just right!!
Government corruption and manipulation of the trough system is rampant, from An Taoiseach’s and An Tánaiste’s Office , all the way down to the most Junior , of Government Party TD’s and Senators.
Election on the 25th February, hopefully, will sort out a lot of it though ?
I’m looking foreword to the Criminal Proceedings against them , to follow !
Sean your making an huge assumption that these politicians are intelligent people .
They are not stupid Sean they just dont give a feck . They have had the two fingers up since forming a government.
@Dave the people who continuously vote for proven corrupt politicians and parties are the stupid ones!!!
260k above the cap over 5 years. Incredible work. And yet everytime she opens her mouth she doesn’t give the impression she is on top of her brief.
Why cant TDs,ministers,etc use the expertise that we are repeatedly told exists within the civil service?..
You are joking right? The levels of competence at the top end of the civil service are falling further and further behind the private sector as the years go by
It doesn’t. And the civil service love external consultants because they can point the finger at them when it goes wrong
Because the civil service has been decimated by the fawning idiots at the top of it.
Instead of moaning at this why no use social media to organise people to be prepared for them when they come canvassing. To be ready to give them the surprise of their thieving lives
Please repost this story on Jan 4th and let it get the profile it deserves.
Th defence that FF did it as well is no defence…you were elected to rise about this gombeen politics..they just don’t get it..this drives people mad…we don’t care about what cut in salary he got…heres a job at 92k take it or leave it…lets do a “green party” to labour at next election..
Agreed! Sometimes the hypocrisy of FF diminishes the point being made, even if it was valid. The reality is both of these parties have been in power cyclically and are in their own bubble. They have no actual clue of reality. Unfortunately bouncing them out, whilst doing some good, won’t bring the point home as they all have their hefty pensions to fall back on. Bunch of self entitled clowns.
Watch when the election comes around it will also be their main selling point. They all could merge tomorrow seamlessly.
All part of a big game to them.
When FFs Jack Lynch won the 1977 GE by promising to abolish road tax, rates etc all of which would be paid from ‘central funds’ he set the template for the centre left government that has ruled Ireland for the last 40 years based on the belief that governement is some mysterious entity which is capapble of paying out more money than it collects in taxes. FF, FG and Labour have all played by this rule book. If FG or Lab had been in power from 2002 instead of FF we would still have had the same crash – the banking inquiry showed that if nothing else. We need an altenative to 40 years of centre left political mismanagement based on the financial equivalent of the three-card trick.
I would have thought those three parties were center right.
If they are, they’re probably the only centre right parties in the world which believe, amongst other things, that a government should devote 40% of its spending to social welfare! By the way, it was Celtic Tiger FF (viewed by the centre left consensus media as Ireland’s most right wing party) that gave us this unaffordable social welfare spending all in its wreckless attempt to buy electoral popularity. You’ll notice that FG/Lab have done everything in order not to change this statistic which, given an ageing demographic, will eventually impoverish anyone under the age of 40. This country doesn’t have any right wing parties – certainly not by international standards.
And Joan is getting paid exorbitant sums of money too, for what, talktojoan, Ashbourne Annie, and stupid videos telling us we can go on dates again. We’ll she’s great value for taxpayers money, isn’t she!
Here’s a peice of advice. For nothing.
Dont hire an advisor for 52,0000 euro over the cap who can’t see both how unethical that is and that it will sooner or later be found out. If he can’t advise you of this, don’t hire him. He’s no good.
Ah the oul trough. Oink oink…nom nom nom nom nom……glug glug nom nom nom nom nom….BRRRRRRRRRTTTTTT……pfffffffffffffffffffffffffftttttt…
That woman and her ilk needs to be dropkicked through the goalposts to oblivion bloodsuckers the lot of them
Do as I say not as I do the slogan and mandate for the coalition
So we don’t join the rnu ?
Do as I say, not as I do, Well you all know where to put your mark on February 26th,
Openly conning the people, and sitting back laughing at us.give all votes to R2C candidates, and wipe these traitors outvin GE
Fat calf
Liar
And she’ll still be a TD come June, as will the majority of them, whether in government or not. And that’s just wrong but that’s the electorate in this country
Hypocrisy from Burton. Howlin also kept it a “secret”. No preference vote of any sort for Labour.
Enough is enough.
Joan defending the indefensible….typical of labour and fg throughout their term in power. They have no problem wasting revenue on themselves and their cronies but god forbid they put money to good use for the people that they rob blind year after year.
One day I asked a ff politician standing at my door looking for my vote. ” can I see your cv ” ” what credentials have you got “. He turned and walked out the gate , b@stard didn’t even lock the gate behind him.
As Min for Social Welfare for the last five years, Burton has viewed the social welfare budget as a sort of ATM machine to buy votes for her doomed party. Pathetic efforts to buy pensioner votes and now revelations that she pays over the top money for spin doctors and advisors. This is your money she is spending on trying to save her own political party.
Unbelievable not!
Shisters
Stuff the pockets.. Extinction soon..
Good old Labour party. Looking after those that need it. James Connolly would be proud of them. This guy was earning this kind of money in a recession. Imagine what this is going to rise to in these good times that Labour proclaim are coming. He’ll get his annual grade increments and I’d also like to see his DB pension details please ie what’s the full package here? I would estimate about 200K at present but will rise now with union (labour party) demands for increased public sector pay in the next few years. Hypocrites is right.
Boot them out and save money. A pay cap is a pay cap.
Why don’t we stop electing liars and idiots and start electing the advisers? They are the ones making all the decisions and doing all the work! We would save a fortune not putting these worthless individuals in these positions to begin with!
Loreal
Breaching the pay cap for special advisors was done in the first few weeks after being elected and was done in equal measure by both parties. The first of many election promises broken by this government, not taxing the family home and no water charges were election promises by FG and Labour respectively.
No difference whatsoever between the current government and the last one. The taxpayer is still the cash cow for their junkets.
There is a very simple solution to all of this. It was touted at the height of the fiscal crisis but was conveniently buried. Legislate for ALL public servants, politicians, and their ‘special advisors’ (read – spin doctors) have a maximum salary of €100,000, with NO exceptions. That includes judges, senior Gardaí, and Secretaries general. You would weed out overnight the people who work in service to the state for the wrong reasons.
Ah the good aul special advisors what are their qualifications and what do they actually do?Take Leo mate/special advisor he was the PRO for the Irish pharmaceutical industry. So what would he have known about about transport matters when Leo was in that department. Also with Leo in health now would there not be a conflict of interest with his friend being involved in the pharmaceutical industry. Also what type of contracts are these so called advisors on do they get a termination pay,After the 5 years of government is it capped at 2 weeks a year etc.
My god people. ..WAKE UP….
2016 = bye bye labour like the greens and pd’s b4 them, thanks be to all that’s good
The Labour mentality the mindset is there’s us then there is ye, and we look after we and you look after we no one looks after ye. The Leopard has changed its spots make no bones about it.
Is he qualified for the position,
And how is she related to him,these are more important questions,
Don’t mind people getting paid if they are qualified for the position,
I’ve a problem with nepotism within the government and civil service,
I’m a tradesman,but if I had a relative as a TD I’m sure id get a job as an “advisor” on stupid money,
Ah she deserves it they all do. Sure to do f**k all takes skill.
She pays these people for advice, they must be more inadequate than she is. Why are we paying for the country to be run into the ground?
@Fran..true but we need to get tweedledum and tweedledee ie FF &FG out too!!!!
How much is the new iPhone?
Don’t vote,let the political system fail.You’re wasting your time.Don’t you see that time and time again since the creation of democracy nothing changes?Is that not a wake up call?Are people just plain stupid in this country?Don’t vote for any of them and see what happens…you see things are never fixed because they’re not meant to be!Then you idiots vote again and again for chnahe thinking that this new politition will make a difference.They don’t Care about you,they don’t give a $hit.Never have never will.It that too hard to comprehend??Just like the idiots in the US when Obama was voted in…change change…they fell for that cheesy repulsive slogan…nothing has changed…rich get richer and poor get f u c k ed over …deal with it…what needs to change is the system not the politicians…And don’t say socialism…another creation of the British empire to make their subjects Believe the illusion of democracy…
Well said Sean, you’ll probably get a record number of red thumbs but you make at very valid point
One of Obama’s buzzwords during his first election campaign was “hope”. What does that actually mean? It’s a vague term that has no tangible meaning but alludes to positive change at some point in the future. This is the type of BS that advisor’s are handsomely paid for because it has been proven to work time and time again.
Look at all those people on their iphones….the neck of them and my poor staff only taking home a few grand a week.
Always with the ‘parity with the private sector’ excuse. Does nobody do anything anymore for God or for Country? 1916 commemorates those who died for God AND for country. 2016 celebrates those who won’t behave like patriots for less than a king’s ransom. Get with the real world people. For all your highly paid intelligence, you seem have misplaced very meaning of a republic: equality amongst it’s members, and power held by the people AND their elected representatives. If you truly must pay over the odds, please let us know so it’s not some backroom deal we are not intended to be privy to.
Hopefully they will be all out of a job soon. Joan if u had brains u would be dangerous. Lol crazy amount of money. Need to call the election. Give the country a new yrs present.
Aye but lets vote them back in again..typical irish people with no mind of their own…im voting these c^/ts out next GE..im voting for a change
I voted for change last time. I will do so again.
The arguement that he/she would earn a lot more in the Private Sector is a non-runner for a myriad of reasons. If the advisor wanted to earn more then he/she should go find that job that will pay them more than 150k in the private sector..plus can anyone think of a Private Sector Job that could be measured in any equal nature against that of advisor to the Tànaiste who never answers a question directly in the Dail and wont debate publically since getting into office!! Sure anyone could do that type of advising!! Plus..why arent all the public sector workers having their salaries brought in line with Private sector, after all the cuts just like Joan’s advisors!?!?! Surely good for the goose and lead by example etc !????! The last piece of the falacy is that there are plenty of good people, some who now have been forced abroad, who would take the advisory job at the supposed cap of €92k per year and be delighted to do the job at that level and do a bloody good job of it also. People of Ireland..this is just one more instance of 2 fingers in your face..by senior politicians….Wise Up!!! And Rise Up and bring about change!!
Muppets, the hidden costs, if they need advisors they shouldn’t be minsters, what are the civil servants in each department doing?
Isn’t the mass hiring of advisers tantamount to an admission of incompetence on the part of the government and civil service?
You could be right Sean o, riordan but I am going to give it one more chance. If nothing changes after the next ge I won’t be voting again.
I wonder if any of her advisors will even be getting the cap in a few month’s time?
Suprise suprise they shaft the public and then pay themselves bonuses ect , if we did a sniff of what the government do and get away with we would be put in jail!!!!!
Sure it is only tax payers money.
And she can justify giving pensioners a poxy €3 a week rise. She’s a tramp of the highest order.
@mrmeade: I’d rather deal with a tramp. At least they have ethics, unlike moanjoan
Fair comment Greg Power, you do have a point.
Pay peanuts, get monkeys.
92k would buy enough peanuts for most people and their families, but apparently not for the ‘I’m entitled to it’ brigade.
Vote for backward hicks get backward hicks into government.
Like the type of monkeys who set (generous) pay caps to impress the voters and then repeatedly break those pay caps?
This is corruption.
@Gordon…we GOT monkeys and paid them exhorbitantly…
I’m absolutely sick to my back teeth of hearing stories of this nature. What a bunch of corrupt fuxking bstards. Cannot wait until they knock on my door looking for a vote. I may not be responsible for my actions.
MaryLou is quick to comment when it suits. At other times has to wait for permission & a script…
Back to comparisons I see. What about the subject at hand. Why bring in a limit and breach by over 50%? The limit should be removed as it clearly is ignored. All optics.
Who approved this breach? Cabinet? Noonan & Howlin?
Gilmore for Taoiseach!
Why don’t we just let the advisers do the job they are telling someone else how to do. It seems that its 2 salaries for one role. If im getting paid to fix a car and somebody is standing beside me talking me throught it you wouldn’t want to pay us both…i mean these people are told what to say, wear, stand, sit, clap, smile, kiss the baby, wave to the minions. Just hirer the person who is doing all the telling. Keep the organ grinders and get rid of the monkeys.
Is there no end to the greed and duplicity of these brigands? There is honesty at least in someone holding a gun to your head and demanding your cash. This shower do it in secret and are uber sanctimonious into the bargain. Joan, the nation’s pensioners thank you for your promise of an annual increase of five euro over the next five years. Treasure me boys, treasure!
This is clearly a K Y B M S ad on ……work it out………
Another person (Brian O’Connor) has made the same point I was going to make, but I’ll make it anyway. A few months after March 2011, the first signs that the FG/Labour government were going back on the public commitments was the news that several advisers to senior government ministers were being paid in excess of the ‘salary cap’. I gave up trying to keep track of all the minor and major scandals and troubles this government had after the first 2 and a half years. It was just too difficult to keep the list in my mind/notes. A few months ago I read an article by a Sunday Business Post journalist (I can’t remember which and it probably was the regular uncredited Dail commentator) that stated the coalition had floundered from crisis to crisis in the 18 months after the exit from the Troika bailout, without any clear vision for what the government was going to do once it exited. This is Irish politics. I’ll be voting for independents and the PD candidate in my constituency in 2016 G.E, plus some left wing candidates, none of whom will have been in Dail previously (at least that way I can tell myself I made the best of the available options).
I’m afraid the people posting here will not effect what the next government will be .We all may not vote for labour or FG .The reality is the next government will includes these parties and we can complain all we want the Irish voter is like all voters he/she will vote for stability and fluck the less we’ll off.(they don’t vote) sad but true.
You should see who the DSP outsources their training to, a bunch of ex F.G. MEMBERS WHO HAVE SET UP COMPANIES OR WORK FOR COMPANIES to do work for Momentum programs / training etc…
Is he a carer for the elderly or bewildered as part of his job description?
What’s the alternative to Fianna Fáil Fine Gail Liebour Greens? Independents or Sinn Fein? I am voting Social Democrat even though I don’t trust Roisin Shortall.Will she turn out to be as Liebour as Moan Iphone?
The permanent government remain in place. They need to have their feathers ruffled. Who will do this? We know who won’t in the recent past.
Always the same when they get caught out lying. Bring the last Government into it as if after 4 and a half years they are to blame. Sick of the hypocrisy of this Government.
This would be a K Y B M S ad on……..Work it out………..
have your say