GIY Ireland, Together We Grow

GIY Week - April 14th to 21st 2012

Interested in growing your own food this year?  GIY Week is the perfect opportunity for you to give it a try!  Don't let is pass for another year - 2012 is your year! The good news is that once you sow a seed,  you're a GIYer!  

GIY Week 2012 is timed to coincide with the start of the growing season and GIY groups around Ireland will be reaching out in their communities to attract new members locally and highlight the movement as a whole throughout the country. GIY HQ will be doing a national publicity campaign and hosting some key regional events in each province.  Last year there were over 40 events held during GIY Week nationwide.  We are hoping to top that in 2012!

GIY Week Regional Gatherings

GIY Week Regional Gatherings take place in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Belfast and feature Ella McSweeney, Klaus Laitenberger, Kitty Scully, Kay Synott, Trevor Sargent, Dermot Carey and more. Tickets are €5 and available on the door.

Connaught Regional Gathering

Saturday April 21st 10am - Claregalway Hotel, Claregalway

feat Klaus Laitenberger, Trevor Sargent, Kay Sinnott and Dermot Carey

Ulster Regional Gathering

Saturday April 21st 12pm - The Blackbox Centre, Belfast

feat John McCormack, Rachel Ludlow Willians and the Root Soup team.

Leinster Regional Gathering

Saturday April 14th 11am - The Sugar Club, Dublin

feat Ella McSweeney, Klaus Laitenberger, Denise Dunne and Michael Kelly

Munster Regional Gathering

Sunday April 15th 2pm - Radisson Blu, Little Island, Cork

feat Kitty Scully and Peter Dowdall.

GIY Week Campaigns

In tandem with GIY Week 2012, we are running two campaigns aimed at getting more people (particularly little GIYers) growing their own food.  They are:

1) innocent GIY Sow & Grow schools campaign - with our friends from innocent we are sending out Sow & Grow kits including seeds, compost, grow cups and lesson plans to 15,000 school children around Ireland.  The schools are competing for prizes worth up to €2,500 and a trip to Bloom in June to meet the GIY and innocent team and project patron Donal Skehan. Click here for more.

2) Operation GIY Nation - we want to get parents and kids growing food together.  If you have always wanted to grow your own, but are unsure how to get started, GIY Nation is the project for you.  We will be holding your hand through six monthly projects that you can do with your kids at home - we will have you growing successfully in no time.  Proudly supported by AIB.  Click here for more.

GIY Week Events

GIY Week - BIG Ideas

Our GIY groups around Ireland will be hosting talks, demos, events and generally getting out and about in their communities to promote all things GIY.  For more details check out your local GIY groups page on this site.  

Our BIG IDEAS for GIY Week 2012 are:

• Sow an Xtra Row! We are encouraging GIYers to plant an extra row of vegetables which they could then donate to a deserving local initiative such as a old folks home, St Vincent de Paul, hospice etc?

• Pop up Gardens in public spaces - in 2012 we want to challenge the perceptions of where our food comes from. We are encouraging GIY groups to create mobile vegetable patches (think containers, tubs, tires, etc) that can be dropped in to public spaces (e.g. car park spaces, train platforms etc) and then taken away again. The idea of growing vegetables in public spaces like this will challenge people's perceptions that GIYing can only happen in large gardens.

• Bring a Seedling to Work - many people are daunted by the idea of growing their own food and at GIY we believe that we have to help them get over that initial daunted phase. A great way to do this is to give someone a seedling. This GIY Week initiative encourages GIYers to bring some seedlings to work and simply hand them out to co-workers. It's like a GIY version of "paying it forward".

• The Why GIY Video Competition - channel your inner Spielberg and send us a short video about why you GIY, and be in with a chance to win €300 worth of GIY goodies. READ MORE