December Gardening Newsletter

Dear Fellow Gardeners,

I hope you all had a wonderful and peaceful Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Since our move to Newport in Mayo last year, we haven’t had a vegetable garden but luckily this will change next year. Our small red-bricked walled garden with a beautiful greenhouse in Tilled Earth is nearly ready. Unfortunately, the soil in this part of Mayo is just as difficult as the Leitrim clay. It looks much better, crumbles much easier, feels like the perfect soil, but yet the water just sits on top of it and refuses to drain away. We put in a drainage system under the walled garden but still the water refuses to go down.

We decided to build up the soil instead. We collected seaweed from the local beach and spread it over the wet soil and covered this up with about 20cm depth of organic mushroom compost from Claremorris Mushroom Farm. Our daughter Elsbeth was a great help filling and moving hundreds of wheelbarrows into the garden. Then Natural World Products – New Leaf Compost promised me a lorry load of fantastic compost in January to put another 20cm on top of that. We really can’t have an excuse next year! Everything should thrive – the soil will be rich and fertile and with this depth it should remain completely weed free – maybe with the exception of an occasional dock plant pushing through.

Our plan is to have it open in September 2025 for courses, tours and events. The garden will be ready earlier but the classroom and kitchen will take a bit longer. From next year onwards we will be better with our social media and will share the progress of our new project.

Seed Potatoes

We will have an exciting range of seed potatoes available from January 2025 onwards with First Earlies (Sharpe’s Express, Red Duke of York and Solist), Second Earlies (Charlotte, Vitabella and Irish Gold) and Maincrop (Alouette, Sarpo Mira and Damask). There will be more detail in my next newsletter and we’ll let you know when they are in stock.

Other exciting seeds and tubers

We will have a small amount of mashua, oca and Jerusalem artichoke tubers available in late January.

I was so inspired by Blanche – a grower in Ballyneety, Co. Limerick who specializes in African and Asian vegetables. She had an amazing range of crops including amaranth which is an important crop throughout the world. We will have seeds from green and red amaranth available next year. It grows outside in the summer months and can be used like spinach. During their open day a couple of months ago I was lucky to have seen and tasted these new crops. Isn’t it great that we can learn something new every time we visit a new garden!

We’ll also have an exciting new tomato from Bulgaria called “Bull’s Heart”. I haven’t tried it yet but a Bulgarian friend of mine highly endorsed it, just like the Zagorian leek which has revolutionized leek growing for me!

All our seeds are available on our website and the Gardener’Gift offer of the Self-Sufficient Garden and 15 seed packets is still available here: Christmas Gift 2025 – The Self-Sufficient Garden & 15 Seed Packets – Green Vegetable Seeds

Online videos

A couple of years ago we filmed some online organic gardening videos in Bundoran’s Community Garden – Glor na Mara with Assumpta Butler and myself. If you’d like to watch some of the videos – here are some taster videos. Copy and paste the link into a search engine.

Day 1: 8^th January 2022

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/663486155/2c28502070

Day 2: 17^th January 2022

https://vimeo.com/668615430/4637f37617

Day 8: 14^th March 2022

https://vimeo.com/689433612/1263dedfba

Day 9: 21^st March 2022

https://vimeo.com/694549546/33143924a7

Day 15: 6^th June 2022

https://vimeo.com/718805895/478a69e4c3

Day 16: 3^rd July 2022

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/729184179/d5eaf11eca/privacy

They are arranged in chronological order starting from January to December. There are 23 videos each 45 to 60 minutes on what to do in the garden this week. If anyone is interested they are available here: Course: Complete Online Gardening Course – Green Vegetable Seeds

Gardening Course in Ballymaloe Cookery School

I’m really excited about this course in Ballymaloe. The title is “How to grow your own produce”. The course runs throughout the entire growing season starting in February until October and covers everything you need to know about growing your own food. The course participants come to Ballymaloe every month and can replicate what they learned in their own gardens and ask any questions that are relevant to their own set up. Obviously – one of the highlights of the course is the most delicious lunch on every course day. Also we can experience the beautiful and productive gardens at the cookery school. There are still a few places left for this course. Have a look at the link below for more details

https://www.ballymaloecookeryschool.ie/courses/a-year-of-organic-growing-with-klaus-laitenberger

Diploma in Organic Medicinal Herb Growing

This is another amazing project I’m involved in – The Irish Herbal Medical College – Core College. Helen and David who run the college bought an old convent in Castlecomer in Co. Kilkenny and I joined them two days per month to teach their herbal medicine students (from all over the world) about soil, composting, vegetable and herb growing etc.

They have just launched an amazing course – a Diploma in Organic Medicinal Herb Growing. It’s a one year online course with a practical element every month. The course starts on 17^th February 2025.

Heiko Klee and myself will facilitate the practical days which are on Thursday and Friday approximately once a month.

Students living and working in Ireland can avail of a 30% grant through the National Organic Training Skillnet.

Link: https://www.corecollege.com/courses/medicinal-herb-growing

This is the first pioneering year of this course and these pioneering years are very often the most memorable.

Upcoming courses and talks in 2025

Date: Wednesday 8^th January 2025

Talk: Grow Your Own Organic Vegetables and Fruit

Venue: Station House Hotel, Clifden, Co. Galway – 8pm

Contact: Breandan

Email: connemaragardenclub@gmail.com

Date: Monthly Day Gardening Courses in Ballymaloe – starting in February 2025

Course: How to grow your own produce

Venue: Ballymaloe Cookery School

Contact: Karen on karen@ballymaloefarmschool.com

This course is suited for anyone who plans to start a food garden. It is filled with practical tips and demonstrations on how to prepare the soil; compost making session, seed sowing demonstration and how to avoid pests and diseases. The course is held at the productive and beautiful gardens in Ballymaloe.

https://www.ballymaloecookeryschool.ie/courses/a-year-of-organic-growing-with-klaus-laitenberger

Date: Tuesday 11^th February 2025

Talk : Grow Your Own Organic Food

Venue: Carrigtohill Gardening Club (evening)

Contact: Caroline Horgan

Email: caroline.a.horgan@gmail.com

Date: Thursday 27^th February 2025

Talk: Growing food in healthy soil

Venue: Kilkenny (evening)

Contact: Lucy

Email: to be confirmed

Weekend Course in Renvyle House Hotel