With all of the important summer work done on our farms, like silage, hay and harvesting, farmers’ minds soon turn to that big farming event, the Ploughing in Tullamore. Some will be getting practice trying their hand at competition ploughing.

When I was a young, energetic teenager, I thought ploughing was so easy I used to spend all day watching my father ploughing with his faithful horses. One day I decided I would have a go.

My father started the sod and I took the reins and urged the horses on, but they would not move an inch. They were so used to my father’s orders (yup and woh).

Eventually I did get going, but I did not realise it’s not overly easy to hold the plough and turn a straight sod at the same time. My sod would not turn and looked straight up at me and that was the end of my ploughing.

I’m sure Danny and Daisy, our two horses, were happy to see the back of me. I went back to harrowing the ploughed ground, which was much easier.

It’s a great time for shows around the country and our local one-day show in Tullamore was a huge success this year and a great day out for young and old. The sun shone all day and well done to all as an awful lot of work goes into the organisation of such a big show.

Then in our little kitchen garden it was a really good year with all vegetables and flowers still doing well. We are still harvesting onions. We leave them to dry out on stands in the garden before storing in an airy loft for later use.

Our early crop of potatoes also did very well in the garden. Members of the cabbage family needed constant watching from the dreaded white butterfly that lays eggs on the leaves, thus creating the population of caterpillars.

Watch out for the nests of yellow eggs and squash them straight away.

I would like to wish all of the ploughing people well in their competitions and, unlike in my case, that all the sods turn properly. I hope to see some of my readers at the Irish Country Magazine section of the Irish Farmers Journal stand. Have a great day and do pick up some of Breda’s country butter on the ICA stand.

Email me lilysgarden1 @gmail.com