Muintir na Tire School Garden Competition

 Cork County Muintir na Tíre is recruiting a Part ‑ Time Community Development Worker / Office Administrator. If you’re passionate about community work, have strong organisational and bookkeeping skills, and enjoy supporting local groups across Cork City & County — we’d love to hear from you. 📍  Based in Cork City 🚗  Travel across Cork City & County required 📅  Closing Date: March 25th, 2026 📨  Apply by sending your Cover Letter & CV to: deniskelly@muintircork.com Help us strengthen and support communities across Cork! For full details of vacancy please click here  ActiveLink

 

  Paired with bacon or shredded for a slaw, cabbage is a supremely useful, healthy vegetable that grows well in our relatively cool climate. It’s also easy to grow. While cabbage plants take up a lot of space you can be sure it is worth it – with a little planning it’s possible to have a supply of cabbage all year round, even through the coldest of winters. Sowing Dig in some well-rotted manure or apply a general fertiliser a week before sowing. Do not grow cabbage anywhere that you have grown any member of the cabbage family the previous year (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, collards and kale). The best way to manage all these veg is to create a crop rotation scheme prior to growing. Sow one or two seeds in module trays 1.5cm deep. Thin out the weaker seedling once the plant starts to germinate. Cabbage can be harvested throughout the year if the right varieties are sown. The different types of cabbage need to be sown at different times of the year as f...

  A bitter leaved, tangy salad plant, chicory adds a nice texture to winter salads.  There are three types: red chicory, often known as radicchio or Italian chicory; forcing chicory, which is ‘forced’ by depriving the plants of light to produce tender, sweet white growths called chicons (which are a lot like tender cos lettuce); and sugarloaf chicory, which is like lettuce. Chicory can be grown in a raised bed or open ground, or even in a pot – so it’s ideal for the balcony grower. You can grow them as baby leaves or let them grow on to produce a compact head. Forcing chicory can often be the only way of having tender young salad leaves in a very cold climate, as you are forcing them indoors in pots – and the little chicons are a delicacy. Sowing Chicory can be sown direct or in module trays for transplanting. Sow indoors from March to July and outside from April to July. Sow a single seed in each module and lightly cover with compost. Sow outdoors thinly at 1cm deep in rows 2...

  Celery is incredibly good for you and is a staple ‘stockpot’ veg. It tastes great raw and also freezes well. There are essentially two types of celery: the traditional trenching celery and self-blanching celery. Most GIYers grow self-blanching (green) celery, which doesn’t require the labour-intensive process of ‘earthing up’ or trenching. Self-blanching celery is the easiest and most commonly grown type and the instructions given below are for the self-blanching celery. Sowing Celery needs a fertile soil, so add a general fertiliser a week or two before transplanting out to soil. Celery and celeriac are the only two crops that need to be sown in an open tray and pricked out – this is because the seed is very small and slow to germinate. Sow the seed from March to May inside in a warm place. Scatter seeds thinly on an open seed tray – the seeds should only be lightly covered with soil, as some light is required for germination. When the seedlings are about 2cm high they need ‘pri...

  Kale is not only delicious and nutritious, but it’s an incredibly prolific ‘cut and come again’ cropper. It can also be a very attractive feature in the winter veg patch, particularly the red-leafed varieties. This superfood has become an extremely popular veg in the last few years and regularly makes an appearance as out Hero Veg in GROW HQ. It’s is a hardy crop and will survive the worst of winter weather, giving you fresh greens in the crucial hungry gap months from February to April. Sowing Kale will grow in most reasonable soil though will grow better if the soil has compost and fertiliser added. Do not grow kale anywhere that you have grown any member of the cabbage family the previous three years (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, collards and kale). The best way to manage all these veg is to create a crop rotation scheme prior to growing. Kale can either be sown in modules or direct into the soil. If sowing in modules, sow 1cm deep in modules fro...

  Why Grow It? There are two major types of broccoli: calabrese and sprouting. If you are looking to grow the standard broccoli that we buy in shops with the big green tightly-packed head, then calabrese is the broccoli for you. While it is not the easiest veg to master, it is relatively handy to grow and can be succession sown (i.e. sown little and often for a continuous supply), so that you can crop almost all summer and autumn long. Sowing Calabrese should be planted in a soil that has been well-manured the previous autumn. Alternatively, you can add compost or manure and/or a general fertiliser one week before sowing/planting. Do not grow calabrese anywhere that you have grown any member of the cabbage family the last three years (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, collards and kale). The best way to manage all these veg is to create a crop rotation scheme prior to growing. We recommend starting seeds off in module trays indoors for later transplanting....