New Year’s resolutions sometimes get a bad wrap, because they seem to represent the folly and flightiness of the human spirit. We start off the year with grand intentions to eat only salads, walk/run/swim 100 miles a week, and to do Bikram yoga in a sauna until we weigh as much as a baby sparrow…. Read more »
This year I managed to fill three large hessian sacks with spuds for storage and we’ve been tucking in to them every other day as required. It’s very handy to have them there, waiting patiently in the garage for their moment of destiny in the kitchen. I have to admit however that we’ve lost more… Read more »
With Halloween soon over, the countdown to Christmas is truly on, and as a result we have turkeys back in our garden again. Each year we rear about four turkeys, with one becoming the centrepiece of our Christmas Day celebrations, and the balance jointed and put in to the freezer. It’s an arrangement that has… Read more »
There’s always a moment in every GIYer’s year when things pivot from a focus on the current year to preparing for the next. It always amazes me how suddenly it happens (and how early—I mean we’re still in peak produce mode from this year’s growing). I was clearing a bed the other day in which… Read more »
It’s hard to fathom, but it’s already August and the seed-sowing year is almost over—this month is the last opportunity to sow seeds and marks the end of seven months of fairly intense seed sowing activity that started way back in the dreary days of February. May and June were the busiest seed sowing months,… Read more »
I know that sometimes I can be guilty of hyperbole, but recently I visited a garden that I think could transform Ireland. One of the recipients of a community food growing grant from AIB via the GIY Get Ireland Growing Fund last year was the Headlands Community Garden. Headlands is an attractive housing estate in… Read more »
Could soil be the new Prozac? This is a question prompted by a recent research study, which found that treatment with a specific soil bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae, can alleviate the symptoms of depression. Scientists set up an experiment whereby mice were put in a beaker of water and watched to see how long they would… Read more »
Each month, I try and think about my seed sowing in two categories. The first category is those veg that we must sow pretty much every month to guarantee a consistent supply (without gluts)—so for example: lettuce, spinach, oriental greens, calabrese etc. Between March and August, I sow a little of these at the start… Read more »
The luck of the crop rotation draw and bad design in my veg patch means that particular veg families tend to have what might be described as off years depending on the area they are destined to spend their growing season in. There’s a particular part of my veg patch that is hampered by being simultaneously… Read more »
Horkan’s Irish Shamrock is from the true Irish shamrock species, Trifolium Dubium, and has been carefully grown here in the West of Ireland using our native shamrock seed to produce a quality Irish shamrock plant which can be worn proudly on St Patrick’s Day and planted in your garden to grow on for next year…. Read more »
Though we haven’t quite reached hungry gap territory yet, I think it’s fair to say at this stage that we are beginning to pass the point of plenty as far as last year’s harvest is concerned. We still have plenty to eat in the veg patch and in stores, but things are a little scarce and… Read more »
Over 25,000 kids all over Ireland have dug in and are now sowing and growing with thanks to innocent & GIY. The sow & grow project aims to get kids growing through a fun, free learning experience that will show them just how easy it is to produce their own greens and eat their crop…. Read more »
