Also, looking at my seeds from last year, and I still have some seeds for San Marzano Tomatoes and they are well within expiry date... if anyone wants some, let me know. I can even plant some up, so they´ll be ready for our first GIY meeting. Important to share seedlings, I think... as there are always too many seeds in a pack.
Setting up an account this week for the garden. Many old classmates have suggested that they´d like to support the garden, and when the account is up, Joe and Stephen will be setting up a fundraising website. That´s all for now.... heading to the polytunnel now x m
Gardening not easy... Just went out to check on my beetroot in polytunnel only to discover that mice/voles have been having a field day. Also checked on Winter cabbage and outer leaves have a fungal leaf spot thing going on..... Quick fixes might be: poison for the mice and a chemical spray for the cabbage, but loathe to do either. The mice will have to go the old fashioned way, but if anyone knows of an organic approach to ridding my cabbage of ´Alternaria leaf spot, pls let me know. On the upside, my neigbour who has a horse farm has just landed with tons and tons of well rotted horse manure. Spring is just around the corner :)
Thank you Mary :) I will have a look now!!!
Hi Mary, there's a brilliant website called Homesteading.com & they have tonnes of fab (natural) solutions to get rid of plant problems & pests. Happy Gardening 😉
Growing your own garlic is as cheap as chips.... Just make sure to buy French or Spanish Garlic (local Supervalu garlic will do just fine!). White Chinese garlic is bleached and therefore full of toxins!!
Just follow these 5 simple steps:
The first step is to break down the garlic bulb into cloves. You need to bury them a couple inches deep in loose and damp soil.
The pointed side of the clove needs to face upwards.
When the garlic sprouts, you should know that you need to water them when the topsoil feels dry. However, do not overwater because the garlic does not need big amounts of water.
In order to preserve the garlic flavor, cut off any blooming flowers.
The garlic plant is ready to be pulled out when it has 5 or 6 leaves.
Tip: Plant garlic in Winter.... it needs a bit of cold and frost :)
Funding...We´re going to need as much funding as possible... To this end, I´ve just applied to the GIY Get Ireland Growing Fund in association with Energia. I´ve applied for the maximum amount of 2,500 euro. Fingers crossed x
On behalf of the garden, I previously entered 2 other competitions and for those who don´t know, we won 5 fruit trees (waiting to be planted) and 40 packets of seeds (fruit, veg and flowers) waiting for a polytunnel, a bit of sunshine, a drop of water and they´ll be ready for the soil.
regards, mary mc
One of our new members has kindly offered his services to plough and rotavate the new garden. Am absolutely THRILLED with the response and enthusiasm from the locals.... I see ´green shoots´for our future :)
Thanks to everyone for your support and lovely words of encouragement ... We will be organising a Grow It Yourself launch night in Spring and I look forward to us all meeting up. We´ll share a cuppa and a few bikkies!!! In the meantime, keep the conversation going... the more members and/or volunteers we have the better. I´ll keep ye posted... mary mc
So last month it was that Courgettes were going to be in short supply.... some crisis or other with courgettes!!! Now it´s iceberg lettuce and that´s going to extend to broccoli and cabbage. Between veggie crises and political instability worldwide.... there´s no better time to consider growing your own !!!! Spring´s just around the corner :)