Muintir na Tire School Garden Competition

Click on picture above to download Guide Key points for creating wildflower meadows  1 Where your wildflower seed comes from matters! If you decide to plant a wildflower meadow using commercially bought seed, it is very important to use ONLY native species collected and grown on the island of Ireland. 2 Make sure sowing wildflow seed is appropriate for your site If your site already has good pollinator friendly plant species, sowing wildflower seed will be costly and unnecessary. Instead, enhance your natural wildflower meadow through reduced mowing, and consider plug planting of additional species. If your site has only amenity grasses and few other flowers, then consider sowing a native commercial wildflower seed mix. 3 For the best results, plan carefully and properly prepare your site Wildflower seed can be costly, so it’s important to properly prepare your site before sowing seed. You also want to be sure the seed you buy is appropriate for your site. 4 The job i

Lettuce Why Grow It? It’s increasingly difficult to find good quality, fresh lettuce in the supermarkets.  Lettuce is easy to grow and with a little planning, you can eat it fresh for 9 months of the year.  Sowing There are four main types of lettuce.  The first three - butterheads, cos and crispheads - form hearts at their centre and are therefore usually grown as proper heads of lettuce.  They take longer to mature.  The fourth type - loose-leaf - doesn’t form a heart and is therefore generally grown as a “cut-and-come-again” crop – where leaves are cut as required. Sow seeds in module trays – if you are growing heads of lettuce, sow just one seed in each module.  With loose leaf types, sow 3-5 seeds per module. Lettuce needs light to germinate so don’t cover the seeds with compost.  Lettuce will not germinate in temperatures above 25 degrees celsius so if the weather is warm you may need to move the trays in to cool shed for a few days until they germinate.  Seedl

How to Build an Ecosystem and Media An ecosystem is a community of plants, animals and smaller organisms that interact in the same environment. It can be very large or quite small. When building your own ecosystem, you can choose between a dry land or a marine aquatic version. Naturally occurring microorganisms play a vital role in the recycling of materials within any ecosystem. Let's look at how to build a dry land ecosystem, which is also known as a vivarium. Media Put in the gravel, at least 1/2 inch covering the bottom of your transparent jar. Gravel will allow drainage and help to preserve life. Media Add 3/4 inch of garden soil and make sure that it’s not overly moist dirt. Avoid getting dirt down the sides of your jar by using a funnel to pour soil through it. Next add rocks and things like natural wood from the garden. Plant small growing species and avoid using compost. Leave the lid off of the jar for a few days before sealing it

                                                              Ideas For Up cycling in your School Garden . Easy and fun DIY garden art projects add to the beauty  of an outdoor garden while exhibiting some of the gardeners’ unique personality. Recycling and upcycling everyday household items into yard art is a way to beautify your outdoor living space while helping to save the planet. Using recycled containers , milk cartons, juice containers,old shoes or jeans, broken bike,   old tires will add unique design future to your garden. Your teacher will love some creative Ideas.

Peppers (Chili And Bell) Why Grow It? Peppers are quite compact plants and so don’t take up a huge amount of space in your greenhouse or polytunnel.  They produce a fine crop and can be grown well in containers and pots.  Both chilli and bell peppers are part of the capsicum family.  Chillipeppers are small and have a hot flavour while bell peppers are larger and milder in flavour.  Sowing Peppers need a long growing season so the earlier you get started the better your chance of producing good, ripe fruit.  Get the seeds sown in February on a heating mat if you can.  They can take up to 2 weeks to germinate.  Sow seeds at 20 degrees celsius in pots of compost or module trays.  Transfer in to 9cm pots when the seedlings are large enough to handle.  Pot up again to a 30cm pot when the plants look like they’ve outgrown the previous pot.  Growing Harden off carefully before planting out in the greenhouse or polytunnel in May or June.  You can grow the peppers in t

Celery Why Grow It? Good question – though growing celery has been made a lot easier with the arrival of self-blanching varieties, it’s still a tricky enough prospect to grow well.  But stick with it and it will reward you well.  Celery is incredibly good for you and is a staple “stock-pot” veg.  It tastes great raw and freezes well.  Traditionally, growing celery was incredibly labour intensive because trenches had to be prepared to grow them in and then the celery had to be regularly earthed up to blanch or whiten the stems.  Most GIYers now grow self-blanching (green) celery which does not require earthing up or trenching.  Happy days. Sowing Dig the bed in the winter and add plenty of well rotted manure or compost.  Add organic fertiliser (e.g chicken manure pellets) before planting.  Slow to germinate so grow in module trays and then transplant.  Sow in March for planting out in May (when they have four to six true leaves).  Harden off before planting out.  Self-blan

Turnip Why Grow It? The classic Irish yellow “turnip” is actually a swede which is a different (though related) vegetable.  Real turnips are incredibly quick growing (you can harvest them just 2 months after sowing) and generally have white flesh.  They are generally problem free and very tasty (particularly if harvested when not much larger than a golfball). Sowing Sow 5 or 6 turnip plants every three weeks from April until late July.  Though they can be sown direct, a foolproof way to grow healthy turnips is sow them in module seed trays – sow one or two seeds in each module of the tray 2cm deep.  They will germinate in about a week (thin out the weaker seedling) and will be ready for planting about a month later.  Harden off early sowings.  Plant seedlings out, spacing 30cm between rows and plants. Do not plant turnips where there have been brassicas for at least 3-4 years previously.  Add some manure or compost to the soil the previous autumn.  It’s a good idea to

Plant a Bee friendly Garden A world without the buzz of bees would definitely sting. We need bees and other pollinators like the Butterfly to help pollinate all our flowers. Without bees we would have no fruit, cotton , chocolate and much much more. So why don't we all do our bit and help the bees .Its simple Plant flowers and  bees will follow. Top Tip for  Fruit trees, Plant lavender or other pollen rich plants near the trees to attract the bees. This will attract the bees which  help pollinate your fruit trees and bushes, resulting in a bigger harvest. If you have space why not have an area filled with wildflowers. it may be just be a small strip to help our pollinators thrive. Dont Mow. Let it Grow. Bee Friendly List of Plants, Trees & Shrubs There is a large range to suit every style garden and site, This is a list of some of the most popular Shrubs , plants and tree that are bee friendly  Shrubs:

Spring Onions/Scallions Why Grow It? Quick growing, useful and deliciously mild, spring onions are the quintessential salad crop.   They can be grown in containers or anywhere you have some space.  A great crop for kids to grow. Sowing Spring onions like a rich, well drained soil in a sunny location.  They are best sown in module trays indoors for later transplanting.  Sow about 8-10 seeds per module.  About a month later plant out each little clump of spring onions, spacing the clumps about 20cm apart.  Alternatively, you can sow direct in the soil if you rake it to a fine tilth first.   Make drills about 1.5cm deep and 15cm apart.  Sow the seed thinly in to the drill and then cover with soil.  It doesn’t really matter if the onions are growing close together because (a) you are not trying to grow bulbs and (b) you can remove and eat as way to thin them out.  Sow little and often (perhaps every forthnight) between March to July. A sowing of a winter hardy spring on