From Sonairte
Thanks to hard work by all the volunteers, and by our own students and those coming to us from Killester college, the garden is looking good Although it was a near thing during the winter gales, when we almost lost the covers from polytunnels on more than one occasion, we have survived thanks to some fast work with repair tape.
This year beds have been covered as soon as crops have been harvested - this means that weeds die of lack of light and the soil warms up quickly in spring. Our first potatoes were planted at the end of February and St Patrick's Day should see them all in the ground. We are starting a lot of crops off in the propagating tunnel for later transplant and this policy is already showing its worth with many herb and salad plants coming on quickly so that they will be ready to plant out as soon as the soil is just a little warmer - we are lucky in Sonairte as the south facing walled garden gives us crops when no one else has any. We are experimenting with early peas and broad beans in a polytunnel and they have made sturdy plants which should be ready a month before their outdoor equivalents.
We pre-germinate all our peas and beans which means that we get a plant for every one we sow, instead of losing a proportion to cold and wet, birds and mice. Ask us about how we do it when you come to the next farmers' market. Because we don't yet have a big heated greenhouse on the site (we can dream) tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and cucumbers are all sown off site in volunteers own propagators and on windowsills to be brought back to Sonairte as soon as it is warm enough.
We will be selling our spare plants of all these, along with herb and salad plants, at the farmers markets, in the Eco-shop and through Dublin Food Co-op. In the propagating tunnel at the moment you will find, as well as things like parsley and coriander, vegetables that you might not think of as suitable for transplanting such as carrots and beetroot. We hope these will give you fresh spring vegetables just that little bit earlier. And the flower garden has been expanded over winter as well - already the daffodils and crocuses are painting a bright picture and we hope it will be a riot of colour for all the year.
If you want to be part of the garden team go to the contact page and get in touch with us.
