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I’m a big fan of any vegetable that you only have to sow once each year and that stores well – carrots, onions, garlic and parsnips are a great example of this. This week I did my annual sowing of parsnips in the veg patch. Most books (and seed packets) will tell you to sow parsnips in February, which I did for a few years – not surprisingly I had very little succe...
Asparagus is in season again and this recipe from our old mucker Jamie Oliver is a really simple way to cook them – and with a great ingredient like this, you really don’t need to tart it up. Ingredients: • 800g asparagus, washed and woody ends chopped off • Lemon juice • Olive Oil • Parmesan cheese • Salt and Pepper to taste Directio...
There are some very beautiful and edible plants that will grow in your garden as easily as weeds do. These are the plants that you only need to sow once and they will quite happily seed and spread themselves around your garden. I’m talking mainly about a few edible flowers that are certainly the easiest plants to grow and they will cheer up any salad bowl: - Pot Marigold...
TEAM WORK Community gardeners working in Glor na Mara community garden in Bundoran, Co Donegal. PHOTOGRAPH: RICHARD JOHNSTON Community gardens not only make use of empty land and nurture plants, they also foster friendships, bring a sense of community and increase fitness, writes FIONNUALA FALLON THEY’RE CALLED COMMUNITY gardens, and over the last decade they’ve been appea...
The rain over the last few weeks has produced an abundant crop of rhubarb – in fact, we’re now in to glut territory, so this “glutney” recipe from BBC Good Food will help. It’s great with cheeses and cold meats. Ingredients: • 50g fresh root ginger, grated • 300ml red wine vinegar • 500g eating apples, peeled and finely chopped • 20...
I’m thinking a lot about tomatoes these days. This year I ‘constructed’ (and I use that word very loosely since DIY has never been my strong point) a heating bench in my potting shed. It’s basically like a mini raised bed filled with sand – you bury a cable in the sand which is then plugged in to heat it up. Seedlings are then placed in pots...
I know I repeat myself a lot but still – I say it again: do not plant out your courgettes, squashes or pumpkins yet unless you plant them under a cloche. If you have planted them out already they are likely to suffer and die. They have no frost tolerance and they hate strong winds. We are likely to get night frosts until the end of May and we are guaranteed to get ...
Padraic Uí Neide harvesting seaweed along the shoreline during low tide PHOTOGRAPH: RICHARD JOHNSTON Astonishingly rich in nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, seaweed is highly valued on Inishmore, particularly for vegetable plots, writes FIONNUALA FALLON ON THE ISLAND of Inishmore off the west coast of Ireland, the soil is sandy, porous and so very shallow that if y...
http://www.rds.ie/images/rds_logo.png The RDS Allotment Awards aim to recognise the hard work, dedication and attention to detail that is being undertaken by those involved in allotment gardening and also to promote an area that encourages people to become more aware of rural issues. With a total prize fund of €3,000 the awards also strengthen the Society’s commitment to promoting...
On a philosophical note: A seed is the beginning and also the end of a plant’s lifecycle. Annual and biennial plants die after they have produced seeds. A few vegetables are annuals but most of them are biennials. An annual plant completes is lifecycle from seed to seed in one year and a biennial plant takes two years. There are also a few vegetables that are perennial a...