Muintir na Tire School Garden Competition

  Composting in schools: Any school could, and perhaps should, practise composting on site. There is, among some people, a certain but usually exaggerated fear of problems with rodents. These problems should not arise if the composting system is managed properly. For any school with its own garden, making compost is a great boon in providing high-quality fertiliser and soil improvement from what are otherwise treated as waste materials. The children's and teachers' fruit peels, tea bags, ends of sandwiches etc. can all be converted into a valuable compost. This will also help the school's environmental performance, and can reduce waste costs. A lot of schools use one or more plastic compost bins, which often become clogged up with an excess of soft, wet fruit and other food. These tall, narrow bins are not very suitable for this type of material as it compacts and becomes anaerobic very easily, hindering the composting process. Composting requires a mix of ...

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...