News from The Organic Centre

Press release - New course at The Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co. Leitrim

March 13th Saturday - Plan your organic allotment now with Ingrid Foley

New Growing your own food has really taken a hold in Ireland in the last year and more and more people now grow their own food in allotments.

We believe that the key to successful growing is know-how and Ingrid will share her vast knowledge, expertise and experience to help new allotmenteers to get started and be able to grow without artificial fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. Ingrid will also address the specifics of growing in allotments compared to growing in a garden at home with regard to time management, propagation, crop protection, watering, soil fertility and composting.

The course is aimed at individuals or groups who have secured or thinking of securing a piece of land and want guidance of how best to get started or improve.

For more information call 071-9854338, info@theorganiccentre.ie, www.theorganiccentre.ie

Willow is a very versatile plant and can be used to make a variety of low cost structures from a living play area with willow domes to a fedge, a seating alcove to sculptures. Paul Finch will demonstrate planting techniques and weaving and show how to male plant supports. Thisn is a practical hands-on course, fee is €180 including lunch.

New early varieties like Orla and Colleen, main crop Sante, Ambo, Hunter and Record and late main crop Cara and Sarpo Mira now ready to go in the Eco Shop.

One of the reasons for the growing popularity of potatoes is that they are fairly easy to grow and make a good crop for beginners and newly established gardens. Another reason is that they can be grown outdoors and indoors in polytunnels or glasshouses and in barrels, tyres, tubs, grow bags, beds and fields.

Potato days and festivals all over Europe have become big crowd pullers and the annual potato day at the Organic Centre is no different.

POTATO Day at The Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co. Leitrim Sunday 14th March 11am -5pm

Entrance €5

SEED POTATOES FOR SALE

There is a huge variety of new and heirloom varieties available each year and The Organic Centre specialises in trialling organic seed potatoes like early Orla and Colleen, second early British Queen, Carlingford, Charlotte, Nicola and Toluca, main crop Setanta, Robinta, Remarka, Record, Bintje, Lady Balfour, Maris Piper, Pink Fir Apple and Valor, late main crop Cara and Sarpo Mira.

150 varieties of seed potatoes from Dave Langford’s collection will be on show. The day’s programme includes information on the best ways of planting, blight control, varieties, a coping session and guided tours around the gardens.

The Grass Roof Café will serve potato dishes and the Eco-Shop will sell seed potatoes.

Top tips for great spuds:

Dip seed potatoes into soot when you plant to protect against slugs.

Use slug resistant varieties like Desiree and King Edward.

Put a layer of fresh grass clippings in the bottom of the drench before planting. It’s been proven to reduce scab problems.

The new look Complete Organic Garden courses

“Thanks very much for getting me started on growing in an easy and understandable way” is one of the most common remarks on the feedback sheets of the garden complete course. The idea of this course is guiding participants not only throughout the gardening season, but to successful growing. Each day builds on the knowledge gained in the previous month and is full of practical advice and tips how to grow food organically. One of the main attractions of the complete organic garden course in Leitrim is the learning environment of the extensive gardens, polytunnels and displays at The Organic Centre. Following the season as it unfolds in the gardens of The Organic Centre (and our outreach venues in Clare and Wicklow) being able to see progress and failure every time the participants are back, helps as much to build confidence as the tuition given by our gardeners builds knowledge.

“Enjoyable day”, “Relaxed atmosphere”, “Informal and interactive” are other often heard comments at the end of a course day. This is in no small way down to our lecturers, who live what they do. Many of them have, apart from a horticultural qualification, years and years of experience in organic growing. As people say: Nothing can beat a good teacher! And they all like teaching.

Enrolling in the garden complete course is a big commitment as it means travelling once a month. Having spoken to previous course participants, having looked at last years feedback and having consulted with the lecturers, we felt it was time for change. This years courses in Leitrim and Wicklow feature 5 days (in Co. Clare 3 days) concentrating on the best organic practises for growing vegetables, full of the latest information and practical sessions. All the ancillary elements like growing herbs and fruit, harvesting and preserving, companion planting, using herbs medicinally and cooking skills can still be added on to create your own 10 day course, but it gives participants more flexibility especially during the summer period and they can tailor the course more to their needs. We feel this suits participants better, especially in a period where time and money might not be as readily available as in previous years.

Starting: January 6th in Leitrim, February 20th in Clare, February 24th in Wicklow.

The Organic Centre will be featured on Neven Maguire’s new Home Cooking programme on Thursday 14th January at 8.30 pm on RTE 1.

Also, there is a new gardening programme on TG4 every Sunday at 7.30pm where The Organic Centre and some of our lecturers are featured.

Kerry Earth Education Project with the Irish Seed Savers Association have produced a wonderful resource for teachers and parents who wish to set up or progress their school garden.  Simply presented and packed with useful information, this book takes you through the tasks associated with the garden for each month, offers many ideas for projects no matter how small your available space is, and demonstrates clear links as to how the gardening activities can be fully integrated into the curriculum.  With class by class plans, glossary of terms, resource lists and photocopyable forms for classroom use, this is a book the school gardener will use again and again.

Available online www.theorganiccentre.ie/node/1131 or at the Organic Centre Ecoshop for €12 + p&p.

Regular viewers of Nationwide, RTE 1 on 22 April will have seen the Organic Centre staff and course participants as well as the gardens and polytunnels.  Highlighting the trend towards growing your own food, the episode featured interviews with Joint Manager Hans Wieland and tutor Steve Hoey as well as some of the Organic Gardening Course participants.  If you missed it you can view it by clicking this link

http://www.rte.ie/news/nationwide/index.html

Growing your own food in polytunnels is a great way to beat the weather and the credit crunch.

Plastic tunnels are ideal for growing tasty salad crops, herbs and tomatoes amongst many other crops.

The Organic Centre is introducing a new complete polytunnel service in Spring 2009 that takes the stress and expense out of getting your own tunnel. The service is targeted at people on a budget and comes fully installed with all the great after sales support and advice the Organic Centre can provide. They are particularly suitable for children and have already been installed in a number of local primary schools.

For a relatively small investment (starting at €349) a polytunnel will generally pay for itself in terms of produce in one or two seasons.

For more information contact Andy at the Organic Centre, 071 9854338

The Eco-shop is delighted to announce that we are now agents for Chillington Tools, a wonderful brand of top quality, long lasting gardening tools. 

Canterbury Fork Hoe, Heavy Duty Hoe, Ridging hoe, Baby Hoe and other tools.  Makes a wonderful lifetime gift for someone special!

The Eco Shop at The Organic Centre has no early Orla and Colleen and main crop Record, Ambo, Hunter and Sante and laye main crop Cara and Sarpo Mira in stock.