The Common Frog (Rana temporaria) or Frog in Irish is widespread. Both male and female frogs have recently woken from hibernation in stone walls, under logs, compost heaps, ditches and ponds and are now returning to the ponds or ditches in which they were born (1). Males arrive first and start croaking to attract females….
Alder (Alnus glutinosa) or Fearnóg in Irish is displaying its developing reddish, male catkins now as well as its developing female flowers which are green and oval shaped (1) The male catkins will turn yellowish when they are ready to release their pollen. The catkins appear before the leaves to get the full benefit of…
Hazel (Corylus avellana) or Coll in Irish is displaying its catkins to the wind so that when they open pollen from the dangling, yellow male catkins will fall on the short, stubby female flowers and so start the lengthy process of producing hazel nuts (1) The female flowers have red styles emerging in short spikes…
Now is a good time to start chitting first early new potatoes so that they can be harvested in June (1). Chitting potatoes gives them a head start so that they can be planted around St. Patrick’s Day and harvested about 80 days later. Make sure your seed potatoes are certified which means they are…
