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Sailchearnach

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Commenced:	01/01/1995
Submitted:	24/05/2012
Last updated:	15/10/2021
Location:	Clogher, Kilfenora, Co. Clare, IE
Climate zone:	Cool Temperate

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Sailchearnach

Kilfenora, IE

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Three Sisters Polytunnel - two months on

Project: Sailchearnach

Posted by Ute Bohnsack over 12 years ago

Photo-heavy update on the polytunnel in a seriously bad Irish "summer"

Another month has passed and the polytunnel/hoophouse is getting seriously crowded, at least with vegetative growth, flowers, and insects.

I had described the set-up and planting here and the first month of growth here.

The weather in July was hardly any better than in June. It continued to be unseasonally cool, very wet, and extremely dull. With only about 70% of the normal average sunshine hours throughout June and July the fruiting stage of vegetables such as courgettes, pumkins and especially tomatoes has been very slow. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen courgettes grow so slowly or tomatoes take as long to ripen.The wet weather only had one upside and that is the high groundwater level in the field the polytunnel is located in which meant I had to do very little watering.

Vegetative growth has been massive. I had to add some strong supports for the pumkins and have started chopping some tips of the vines (tasty stir-fried). Flowers and flowering herbs abound and attract an incredible diversity of bumblebees, butterflies, our own honeybees, wild bees, hoverflies, and wasps all fleeing the incessant rain or so it seems. The volunteer mustard (charlock) is a particularly favourite.

The beans have outgrown their corn (maize) hosts and if August isn't too bad we should have a nice little harvest of runner beans and French climbing beans. The corn is now mostly past flowering but the cobs look a bit small as yet. We've eaten plenty of chard but many courgettes have had blossom-end rot, probably because it's been so cool. Also their growth has been so so slow... Some of the tiny pumpkins have suffered the same fate. If the rest of the summer does not improve fast I think it'll be tricky to get any of them to ripen.

Here, again, is a corner by corner photo record of my little sancturary. Sometimes I go in there in the evening just to enjoy the wonderful nighttime fragrance of the Nicotianas. Keep fingers crossed for better weather in August and above all, some sunshine!

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