What's On This Week, Next Week

Events, open to all members and non members

Wednesday 2nd July - Learn Grafting & Budding Techniques

Fr Jim Gahon along with Paddy Gleeson [of Bloom] will be holding a class at The Presbytery, Killinure, Coolkenno, Tullow from 3.00 - 4.00pm. Places are limited so prior booking is essential. If you are interested please let us know by e-mail by Tuesday 1st July. 

bunclodyhs@gmail.com

Friday 4th July - Entries for the Garden Competition Close
Entry forms are available from Redmond's Shop, Main St, Bunclody or can be downloaded here

Monday 7th July - Friday 11th July Judging of the Garden Competition takes place this week

Saturday 12th July, Garden Visits - Hunting Brook Gardens & June Blake Garden, 

Two fantastic gardens near Blessington in Co Wicklow, organised by Nicholas Ryan. To book please contact him 053 9375994. €15 to cover entry to both gardens. Car share, anybody interested in going should be at Holy Trinity Church ready to depart at 9.30am.

Newsletter - June 2014

The June 2014 Newsletter is now available, giving full details of all our activities for the next few months. You can view or download a copy of the Newsletter here

Garden Competition

Nature Doing What it Does Best....

Hedgerow in a lane near Tinahely, taken last Tuesday morning [click on images to enlarge]

Growing Potatoes in 1 Tonne Builder's Bags

I have been intrigued by tests carried out in the UK over the past 3 years in "no dig" methods of growing potatoes. Having looked at the merits of the various methods that have been trialled I have decided to have a go this year, adopting the method using used 1 tonne builders bags, the bags that we get sand, soil, bark etc delivered in.

I have selected 3 different potatoes, Pentland Javelin (first early), Maris Peer (second early) and Kerrs Pink (main crop) for the trial.

The first thing I have had to do is build simple wooden frames to support the bags. These were built from 50x50 uprights, 50x25 horizontal rails. The assembly was done with 65mm decking screws. I cut all the wood from offcuts of pressure treated 150x50 I had left over from building a pergola last year:

I then placed the bag inside and stapled it to the top of the frame:

This was repeated for 3 other bags:

Now we come to the alchemy! Each bag was loaded with approximately 150mm of well rotted farmyard manure:

This was topped off with 100mm of general purpose compost that was levelled off and tamped down:

The compost was well watered and the chitted potatoes were pushed into the compost, 9 to a bag:

The potatoes were then covered with 200mm of straw:

And that is it so far. The theory is that the shoots are allowed to appear around 150mm above the straw and then 50mm more straw is added. this process is repeated until the overall height of the straw/compost/manure is 750mm.

I will update this post on a regular basis as things progress.

As a comparison I am planting some of the same seed potatoes in the "conventional" manner in my vegetable beds I so will see how the two methods compare.

Thanks at this stage are due to my very good neighbour, Jim Coleman, for the donation of the manure and the straw!

Gardener's Question Time

Anyone who didn't come to the Gardener's Question Time last night missed a great evening. Many thanks to our illustrious panel, Geoff Stebbings, Iain MacDonald and of course our very able chair person Frances MacDonald. Thank you very much, we all learnt a great deal.

Committee Meeting - Wednesday 2nd April

The next committee meeting will be held in Redmond's at 8.00pm on Wednesday 2nd April