Muintir na Tire School Garden Competition

  Creative Wish 2027 Cork County Council, in partnership with the Creative Ireland Programme, is delighted to announce the return of My Creative Wish for 2027, an initiative that gives children and young people the opportunity to turn their creative ideas into reality. Aligned with Cruinniú na nÓg, Ireland's national day of free creativity for children and young people, the programme celebrates imagination, curiosity, and creative expression by inviting participants to share a creative experience they would love to explore.  Schools and youth groups interested in taking part can request an application pack by emailing creativeireland@corkcoco.ie before 23rd October 2026. The closing date for applications is 13th November 2026. READ MORE

 Due to circumstances beyond our control the school garden workshops planned for October have been postponed until further notice. We will readvertise them in due course.

 

  Corn Salad Often considered a weed, corn salad (also known as lamb’s lettuce) is a super-hardy and low-growing winter salad with a mild, nutty flavour. It is one of the winter-hardy salad leaves we sow at GROW HQ in the late summer and early autumn to last through the winter. We generally do a couple of sowings every two to three weeks from September to keep us going, with occasional pickings of winter leaves until the new season salads arrive in spring. SOWING Corn salad is usually grown as an autumn/winter salad, but can be grown year-round. For an autumn/winter crop sow in August and September. It can be sown in modules and transplanted, but is easier to sow direct. If sowing direct, sow thinly 1-2cm deep in rows 15cm apart. If sowing in modules, sow one seed per module and transplant when they have outgrown the tray, spacing them 10cm in rows 15cm apart. GROWING The crop can be thinned to 3-5cm between plants, which tends to give larger leaves, but will happily grow unthinned...

  Onions We love onions at GIY because they are one of those vegetables that it’s possible to become fully self-sufficient in, even if you don’t have a huge amount of space. A decent sized raised bed could produce a couple of hundred onions, which would be enough for most families for up to a year. Onions are relatively easy to grow and they store well. Above all, there’s nothing better than having onions hanging in your shed and knowing you don’t have to buy those dry, tasteless, imported supermarket onions this year. SOWING Onions grow best in a good fertile soil, so add compost and a general fertiliser for best results. There are two types of onions: autumn-sown onions and the far more common spring varieties. Onions can be grown from seed or small, dried immature onions called ‘sets’. Beginners often find growing from sets easier. To grow from sets, buy good quality sets in either the autumn or spring. Plant autumn varieties in September or October and spring varieties in late ...