Wednesday, April 6, 2011

My Kitchen Garden

My dad is an amazing gardener and as green-fingered as one person could and up to last year, I was very lucky to have him showing me the ropes of a good kitchen garden. He left Ireland in 2010 and my great kitchen garden laid bare until now. I was so used to my dad doing all the work and me just helping out at weekends but coming with my little basket and pick my vegetables straight from the ground - I missed that so much last year that I decided that I will give it a go. And lucky me - a wonderful man is helping me with it. Since I am quite lazy at heart, I asked Terence to build some raised bed and we started with 4 (more to come of course). So far we have set our potatoes (not in a raised bed tho - but 4 rows already), beetroot (have to give you a great recipe for beetroot chutney - yum), onions (white and red), peas, cauliflower, salad and cabbage. My courgettes are coming on nicely in the greenhouse as well as the pumpkins. We have different types of tomatoes as well as leeks..... more to come as the months progress. I am so excited about getting my kitchen garden back - watch this space for updates.

If you want to start your own kitchen garden - make sure you tune in Monday's at 8:30 on RTE1 where Kitty Scully is transforming a plot at Fota House into a kitchen garden. You can follow her blog here . Her garden will be completely focused on food - her partner in crime on the other hand will create a family garden with only a small bit of fruit and veg. Kitty is working with several experts who help her choosing the right varieties. Yesterday, she worked with Jim McNamara from Co Limerick V.E.C.s Organic College in Dromcollogher and planted some interesting types of potatoes in a lazy bed (didn't look that lazy to me). Kitty also explained the importance of crop rotating - therefore it's a good idea to have a layout plan of your garden so that you know what you planted where for next year's planning. You can watch some the videos on their website.

1 comment:

jaya said...

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Kitchen Garden