Muintir na Tire School Garden Competition

  Growing Potatoes & Harvesting Potatoes are the backbone of any vegetable garden. You get them in relatively early and apart from some earthing up and keeping an eye out for blight there is very little to do. There are so many different potato varieties, usually described as early, second early and maincrop potatoes. These names indicate when they crop and also give you an idea of the space you'll need, how closely and when they can be planted. First Early : First early potatoes are perfect if you want to grow small, new potatoes and should be planted from the end of February to late May. They'll be ready to harvest in about 10 weeks from the planting date. It's a good idea to 'chit' these varieties before planting - this produces long shoots from which the plants will grow. First early potatoes are ideal for growing in potato patio planters or containers. If you are short on Space and would love to Grow Potatoes, The PotatoPot is ideal ...

This post has nothing to do with the School garden but I thought some of the schools on our mailing list might be interested in it.  The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys TD, has launched a new online genealogy toolkit for schools, aimed at encouraging students to trace their roots and explore their family tree. The '2016 Family History' website has been created by the National Archives as a legacy project under the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme. The website provides tips on how to find your ancestors, and brings together a range of online resources. Through informative videos and step-by-step guides, case studies and targeted tasks, students can learn how to explore the vast array of Irish historical records available online, including the census, civil records, military archives and church registers. Speaking today Minister Humphreys said:  "There is such a vast array of online historical records available, the c...

National Tree Week - March 5th to 12th 2017 National Tree Week runs from March 5th-12th 2017. Across the Country, a number of events are planned such as forest walks, tree-planting workshops, wood-turning displays, talks, tree-climbing and competitions. Individuals, schools and community groups are invited to create their own events and a number of events have already been scheduled in County Cork including three events by Ted Cook (Ted Cook also gave a number of tree related talks during Heritage Week 2016 and these are available to view by clicking  here ). With the kind assistance of the Tree Council of Ireland, Cork County Council's Heritage Unit has a number of saplings to distribute for Tree Week 2017. These include oak, rowan (mountain ash), birch and alder. For further information please contact  martinmillerick@corkcoco.ie  or phone 0214285914.

Horticultural therapy is an emerging field of clinical practice based on proven benefits to the physical, mental and emotional well-being that accrues from gardening as a healing or therapeutic process. ‘Nature interaction’, ‘outdoors activity’ and the ‘nurture reward’ that gardening brings have all been vehicles utilized to engage people with special needs, the elderly and infirm, children at risk, as well people with mental health problems. Evolving to work as a social cohesion and socialization tool with youth offenders, adult prisoners, and people in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, horticultural therapy has lately moved into a positive intervention mechanism in the form of community gardens in disadvantaged or troubled communities.  The psychological impact of gardening is that it is considered a serene occupation, an oasis of calm, a grounding experience. The combination of the fresh air and the physicality of the tasks helps oxygenate the bloodstream and energize the physi...

Kids love sowing seeds (or indeed anything that involves getting their hands dirty).  Bigger seeds like those from peas, beans, squashes, pumpkins and courgettes are easier for younger children to handle.  Give kids some autonomy in the veg patch– give them a dedicated raised bed or part of a bed for them to experiment with.  Let them grow what they want to grow. Encourage them to grow fruit and vegetables that are fast growing so that they see a quick return – radishes are a good example.  Runner beans and sunflowers will get tall quickly.  Get them to measure themselves against the plants each week! Encourage them to sample crops out in the veg patch – they will love grazing on sweet carrots, tomatoes, strawberries and peas, and it will help develop their palette. The top GIY activities for kids are sowing seeds, digging and watering.  Basically, the messier the job, the more they will love it.