Environmental education

March 30th, 2010

Everyone has a different view about what environmental education is! Here at Sonairte Ecology Centre we want to emphasise how much we are all  interlinked with our planet and how fun and interesting it can be to learn all about it. And now we have a new education officer to spread the word. The very enthusiastic Dr Emma Reeves comes from a background of field ecology and with this experience brings us up to date with a set of new ideas and activities.

CSI Sonairte will start almost at once with children learning how to read clues in the environment to find out who lives here, where they live and what they eat – even if we can’t see them in the daytime!

Emma is taking over everything from school tours and Teddy Bears Picnic to Leaving Cert Ecology as well as providing environmental services as an experienced ecological consultant. Teddy Bears' Picnic

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Just when you think its safe to get out in the garden

March 30th, 2010

………… spring continues to break all the rules. At least it’s only sleet at Sonairte – I gather it is snowing at Croke Park! but that gives time for other catch up jobs like cleaning and mending the garden tools. Half the potatoes are planted – plenty of organic cow manure in the bottom of the trenches and we like to use traditional long handled spades which dig neater trenches for less effort. Unfortunately long handles are easily broken if they aren’t well treated. Wooden handles need a regular rub down with linseed oil.

In the polytunnels there is enough stored warmth for most of the spring sowings to be flying along – lots of vegetable and herb plants ready to go into the ground and a really good variety of hardy vegetable plants available for sale – broad beans and early peas are just fine to go into the ground although it’s a good idea to put fleece or net over them if there are ravenous pigeons around.

A hard spring like this one is when we really see the benefits of organic gardening – plants are hardier and more resistant.

Lots of really nice spring salads for sale now – mixed leaves, lettuce, rocket, land cress. Chinese greens are great for salad or stir fry and the same goes for spinach – salads when it is small and stir fry or steaming as it gets bigger. The leeks are good this year too – they made a lovely quiche with organic cheddar and a parmesan crust at the cafe last Sunday. Lots of soft fruit plants for sale as well – sold out of rhubarb plants but next week we should have fresh pulled rhubarb for sale and maybe rhubarb as well as apple pies to sell at Dublin Food Coop

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Has winter gone?

March 15th, 2010

First plants died of wet and then they died of cold this winter. But we’ve now had two whole days of spring weather and already green shoots are bursting through the ground – mint has produced over an inch of growth since I looked at it three days ago. Not a good idea to sow directly into the ground until the soil has warmed up a bit – the old test involved lowering the trousers and sitting down but I reckon once it is getting crumbly and your fingers don’t freeze you can start sowing direct – early white turnips, parsnips, carrots, broad beans and round seeded peas all need to get in as soon as possible. More temperamental things can be started in pots and modules in the greenhouse or on the window sill until we are sure winter really has gone away.

When the organic gardener cuts back the hollow stems of last year’s perennial plants they aren’t thrown away – not even onto the compost heap. Stack them neatly out of site on their edge and they will make a wonderful home for black beetles, which eat the slug eggs for you. And they make good nests for the lacewings that will eat greenfly later in the year.

I got an expensive lesson in container buying this winter – or rather this spring – because a lot of very big expensive terracotta pots are now a heap of rubble. Next time I’ll make sure I buy frost proof – and I’ll get the garden centre to write out a warranty. I’ve sown some of those that survive with an organic herb salad mix – very hardy and I’ll have it right by the kitchen door for quick and easy picking at dinner time.

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Farmers Market hoping for sunshine

March 8th, 2010

An apology if you’ve had trouble booking courses on line. We hope we have the problem fixed now but if it happens again please contact us by phone, email or letter to book. We are happy to take cheques or cash instead of paypal!

In the mean time tomorrow, March 14th is the start of our new Farmers Market season and this year the stallholders have formed a committee to manage it. New stalls are promised – yum, chocolate! Emphasis will be very much on local producers, whether for food or crafts. And there will be a stall to book courses as well to make things really easy for our visitors.

The cafe will also reopen – rumours of Moroccan tagines and all day vegetarian breakfasts are making our taste buds start to tingle again. And some interesting new things are promised for the shop – both lovely things to eat and new gardening tools, seeds and composts to make life easier for Organic Gardeners.

Despite the continuing cold the salad crops are flourishing under cover and seedlings are sprouting in the propagation tunnel. With so much emphasis on organic vegetable gardening this year we’ll have lots of vegetable plants for sale as soon as the soil is warm enough to take them. In the meantime there are good plants of hardy herbs and perennials for sale.

We have some very special apple trees as well this year – traditional Irish varieties that were grown commercially in this area in the past so we know they will do really well.

Now all we need are the visitors!

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