If you have a wet site or would like to grow plants and vegetables but dislike weeding, then raised beds are for you. They can be built quickly and cheaply without being too sore on your back. The back garden here was a marsh, because of the area was built on rock and the water had nowhere to run to. This meant that there was no soak away for the water. Initially a 1metre soak away and the water just sat in it and didn’t drain away. So we had no choice but to build up the garden. Here is… Read More »

A new television series that will follow a group of rookie gardeners as they learn how to grow their own food on an allotment will be introduced by the Green Party’s Minister for Food and Horticulture, Trevor Sargent tomorrow.. The first episode will be at 8.30pm on RTE1 tomorrow evening (Tue 21 April 2009) Corrigan’s City Farm will follow 24 volunteers as they strive to transform a plot of derelict wasteland in Cork into a lush and fertile smallholding. It will highlight and compliment the Green Parties ‘Get Ireland Growing’ campaign. Get Ireland Growing has been set up to encourage food growing at… Read More »

Sprouting seeds   We had a big fight in our garden yesterday.  It was a big one as the twenty friends who were at my lad’s party split into two rival gangs…..It was time for Julie and I to divide and conquer.  Julie sent the shed gang off into the woods and disarmed the trampoline gang of the hazel rods they were using as weapons.  (We need them intact for the beans and peas when they grow.)  I just went around shouting at everyone….. Two of Michael’s friends  had a sleepover and I decide to take the seed sprouter outside to show… Read More »

I’m out in the garden, getting some nettles to put into the pot.  The first young shoots are the best, but nettles can be cut regularly from springtime for a regular supply of fresh leaves.  They can get a bit insect infested during the summer though….. If you have never tried the soup, here is the recipe. Don’t worry – they don’t sting when cooked…. NETTLE SOUP Nettles are very nutrient rich and of course – free… Try not to gather them beside a busy road where they will have been contaminated by traffic fumes. Ingredients: All optional-apart from the nettles…… Read More »

We’re down in Westport with Noeline Haylett getting some advice on how to look after chickens.    Noeline runs the Mayo Animal Welfare Centre and knows a thing about our egg laying friends.  “How long do chickens live?” I ask as we make our way past the barking dogs.  “They usually live up to eight years.” Noeline tells me. Noeline was brought up in the South African bush. She tells us one of her famous stories;   Noeline’s famous story “When I was about four, my job was to hold the chicken while my father chopped the head off.  One day… Read More »

I’m staring at a line of bare seed trays in the shed, concentrating hard to make green shoots appear. When I was young I thought I could move objects by psychic forces.  It was the days before TV remote controls and my imagination didn’t stretch much beyond changing the channel from Magpie to Blue Peter. It never happened, but I haven’t given up….. A week ago, Julie and Michael planted tomato, sweetcorn, peas, beans, squash, pumpkins, sweet peas, lupins, nasturtiums and a few sunflower seeds into multi cell trays.  Nothing has appeared, but if I stare long enough…. The post… Read More »