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The GIY Rathgar Terenure Talk

 

I got an email in some time ago from a friend of mine. Séan wanted me to do a talk on growing your own. He is a member of a new movement call GIY – grow it yourself – that seems to be sweeping the nation.

I had heard about GIY but I didn’t really know a vast amount of exact facts about it being honest. The talk I did was Monday, just gone, April 27th

The GIY movement was set up to encourage people to get together to share expertise in food growing.As we have become increasingly urbanised we have lost a lot of the knowledge and skills that our grandparents had in food growing, storing and cooking. GIYIreland aims to tap into our desire to reduce food miles and to produce and consume organic food by organising groups at a local level so that people can learn those old skills from each other and connect with like-minded individuals. GIY Ireland has charitable status.

As regards the group I was to speak to Séan sent me this wee note….

The Rathgar/Terenure GIY group was set up at a meeting in the Rathgar Junior School (RJS), 62 Grosvenor Road in February 2010. We have a mix of allotment growers, garden owners and those with just a balcony to grow on. Most of the group are beginners but there are some experienced members and we hope to bring in experts to share their knowledge and expertise. Our group numbers about 30-40 very enthusiastic amatuers and we would welcome more members.

In this case [and in short] I spoke about how I used to grow plants under my bed when I was 4 all the way up to today…. and that pretty much not a whole lot has changed if you elminate 20 odd years of decking, cobble and garden design fads. In that same breath horticulture has only changed in how it is presented, packaged and sold…. the way in which it is done, for fun, shall never alter. And in those four/ five lines [compressed] that took an extremely refreshing [one member commented after] a little over 45 minutes 😉

I must admit I had just left the coombe hospital and hadn’t eaten. But the reception I got was amazing. The appreciation shown and the wee gift given and beautifully wrapped left me breathless. Sincerely, it was an absolute honour to speak to such a fine group gentleman and ladies.

The format then is that the group sit in ‘pods’ [a small group] and discuss a specific topic helping each other out with their star bit of advice. The pod I was in ended up discussing composting. I was blown away…. but as I later answered in th Q & A [the final part of the meet] everything, not living anymore must decompose – the only thing that may vary is the preparation and how you do it. As long as your smiling at the end 🙂

GIY Rathgar/ Terenure meet on the last Monday of the month in the RJS. For more info email: dalysmith [at] iol [dot] ie or phone Sean on [vodafone prefix]6369636

*other images of GIY talk

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The Grow Your Own Gardening Class

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It was a weekend ago that I decided to do the grow your own gardening course. And whilst the weather turned good I had to wait ’til now to do my synopsis of it.

How did it go…?

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The attendees in this case were 75% [approximate] apartment dwellers/ balcony owners. the other 25% only wished to garden that same amount of space [unless Nick came up with a great idea 😉 ]. Of course, if everyone had allotments/ waned to garden a larger space – parsley *and parsnip would have been covered. In this case a logic decision to skip most of the root crops was taken…. think rotovator and balcony!

I covered all that I intended and felt was needed from sowing seeds – what, which and why to watering. Onto potatoes, onions, sets growing in window boxes and to plants in a small space such as herbs and the pruning, growing and selecting of so that they could be kept there. I could beat on but Louise really does summise it very well.

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From an alternate perspective. Did the €60 cover charge multiplied by 7 people make it worth my while to do so. No. Not on your nelly. The reason why? We did demonstrations and all of the products [one each of everything] used were taken away. I knew to make money, how I should do it and a comment on the garden blog confirms that.  That and the twitter message. No offence Geoff mate 😉

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Try it yourself. Go into a garden centre, pick up some seed potatoes, onion sets, 2/3 window boxes, some pots, compost and seeds and see how much it costs…. growing your own can be cheap… when you know how 😉 If I’m to talk however on garden design with zero overheads…. Ye know yourself. Moving on….

The flip side of that however is something very different. Did I enjoy it ? More than you realise. I really am so pleased that such a nice group of people collated so I could talk about something  I love so much.

I know that doesn’t pay the bills. It doesn’t even cover the time spent baking and collecting the products we did use. And yes if I wish to do it again and again I need to refine. But then I knew that already. It was always to be a trial. A way of noting and timing. Perfecting one could say. Perfecting for those those who do attend.

Now I’m just wondering if there’s another 9 or 10 people who’d be interested…. While I brew on that… I’ll go water my own seeds.

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note: it was Jason’s idea that I did this in the first place. Thanks mate. I also borrowed some of his images for this post.

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niall mellon township trust gardeners weekend

and what a weekend it turned out to be…. It was amazing.

To say I was blown away by peoples generosity is an understatement. Whether it was time, money or simply calling to wish only the very best  – thank you all so much. You really did and will make such a difference. From my heart thank you! The *thank you* list here could only be endless so… if I have forgotten to mention you please hollar… you really do deserve it…

The setting of the Garden Exhibition Centre was always a great start and the sun made a very welcome appearance. Saturday started really well highlighted with 2 garden lectures. One from myself and the second from nice guy and fellow garden designer Damien Keane. But Sunday left most mesmerised when The Riptide Movement played the second tier of the mountain side based centre. Kilquade certainly came to life 😉

But it didn’t stop there… Dawn Ashton was also there creating amazing mosaics with the children. These will be brought to South Africa and used to decorate the walls of the garden. The staff of the Centre and so many garden designers turned out in their droves simply to be on hand to give out free advice where necessary.

Isn’t it amazing when an entire industry arrives to support such an amazing cause. Even Dominic Loughran, head of operations for the Niall Mellon Township Trust turned up with his entire family – and he flying out to S.A. today!

I think the video summises it so very well…

to donate or to see how much was raised click here 🙂

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the recycled red satellite returns…. ?

peter donegan, the lord mayor of dublin and liam rielly of bagatelle
with the lord mayor and liam rielly

remember the red satellite…. ?

for one weekend only it made it’s first ever public apearance…

Many thanks to Conor McCabe of Jason Clarke Photography for these…

I don’t know where Ken disappeared to…. ? anyhow 😉 above is myself, Cllr Emer Costello, Lord Mayor of dublin and Liam from Bagatelle

Of course it was all for the Urban Garden Smithfield [reviewed here] event that took place over the weekend and part of the garden I was built there

Here’s a brief taster of what also took place there…

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Urban Garden brightens up Smithfield

The previous article may explain why I got involved in urban garden [click here for previous article] … but I think you’ll find Mary Wier of [and] Dublin City Council organised a day that held in store a lot more than just a good looking horticulturist […that’d be me by the way]. The day really did make a difference.

We do need to make an effort to green up ‘our’ spaces.

I hope you enjoyed it and more importantly I hope ‘you’ took something home with you from the day [apart from a big smile] that will help you green up ‘your’ space.