Greetings GIYers! Here's an update from GIY HQ.

We had another exceptionally busy week around the country. GIY Ireland's Michael Kelly was interviewed on the Gareth O'Callaghan Breakfast Show on 4FM on Tue morning.

That evening Sean Corrigan and Trevor Sargent started GIY Skerries with over 60 in attendance. Meanwhile Michael Kelly, Nicky and Aileen headed to Shanagarry Co Cork that same night expecting maybe 20 or so people to show up (well, it's a relatively small village after all). There were over 100!! Attendance was probably helped by the fact that the group was being started by none other than GIY Ireland patron Darina Allen - but still, we were flabbergasted by the turnout!

The following night Michael and Dave Curran were in Blanchardstown and had a very promising start with over 30 people in the civic library just yards from the centre of the retail universe in the Blanch Shopping Centre. Oh the irony!!

Last night a large contingent from GIY Ireland (Michael, Dave, Nicky, Ciaran and Feargal) headed to the marble city for the launch of GIY Kilkenny - over 60 showed up in the salubrious council chamber in Town Hall. Mayor Malcolm Noonan made the room available for us and even laid on tea and biscuits afterwards. Respect!

So another 4 groups are up and running now taking our total in Ireland to 52. Many thanks to this week's local champions: Rebecca and Ger (Blanch); Darina and crew from Ballymaloe (Shanagarry); Mary (Skerries); Dorcas, Mary and Eoin (Kilkenny).

We reckon there is now a GIY group meeting somewhere in Ireland almost every night - this week there were GIY meetings in Dundrum, Sligo, Dunmore East, Tramore, Monaghan, Oranmore, Naul, Dungarvan and Mitchelstown.

Finally, our new monthly newsletter will be starting next week and will be emailed to all registered users of the website. So if you haven't signed up yet, make sure you do! This week in our "varieties" forum we will be asking for your favourite varieties of carrots. Also keep an eye on the Articles page - we are posting one or two articles a week now from experienced GIYers. Happy Growing!

Greetings GIYers! We have some great things happening on the site this week. Delighted to report that you can now upload You Tube videos on the site, so we look forward to seeing video tours of your veggie patch and other instructional videos that will help your fellow GIYers! Once logged in, click on "my apps" and then "videos" and follow the onscreen instructions.

Also check out the articles page for contributions from experienced GIYers - this week Michael Fox writes about growing purple sprouting broccoli and cooking-apple trees. In our "Tip of the Day" discussion group (click on "Topics" in the top menu to access discussion groups) we have a week's worth of tips from The Organic Centre's Jim Cronin who gave a course at GIY Wexford last week.

Meanwhile in a new discussion group called "Varieties" we will be asking you each week to tell us about your favourite varieties. This week, as the GIYer's mind turns to ordering onions sets, we are focussing on onions. Get involved - tell us what varieties have worked for you and what hasn't. What varieties will you be ordering this year? If you like a discussion group, don't forget to join it. This means you will get email notifications when there are new posts.

Out in the real world, things are really starting to crank up again - we are starting three brand new GIY groups this week. Last night Sean Corrigan launched GIY North Meath, while Michael Kelly and Dave Curran will be in Tipperary Town tonight and in Newbridge on Thursday night. A word of thanks to our "local champions" Lil Coyne (North Meath), Susie Lacon (Tipp) and Ellen Quaid (Newbridge). Other GIY groups hosting meetings this week are Waterford, An Spideal, Swords, Portlaoise, Athy, Clonmel and Dundrum. Phew! And we thought January was a slow month! Happy GIYing!