DT Fine Art

Growing your own food

Wednesday, 21st March 2012

Growing your own food is surely one of the most rewarding pastimes anyone could have. Eating fresh salads from the garden and digging your own spuds may even bring us back to basics and give us and our children a break from our techno lives. There is nothing nicer than coming in after a hard days work in the garden with dirty hands and knowing you have planted your early potatoes and onion sets.

It also makes economic sense. Many families are struggling to make ends meet and recently there was a disturbing report that families are now spending less money on food in order to cover other household bills as well as economising by buying cheaper and often lower quality food (rather than good organic food).

If only people knew how easy it actually is to grow your own. My advice is to start small and then expand as you get more experienced.

My home garden is 15m x 30m (45ft x 90ft) and we get all our potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, beans, parsnip, beetroot, spinach, cabbage, kale, courgettes, pumpkins and salads from it – to feed a family of seven. I calculated that we save well over a euro;1,000 and thats not all – we get delicious fresh organic vegetables with no chemical residues from it.

Gardening exercise is healthy, fresh air is healthy and fresh organic food is healthy. We have no excuse not to get out there and get started.

Even if you dont have a garden yourself, you can look out for a local allotment or community garden. There are plenty of them around the country. Last autumn I watched a woman with her two small children digging out the potatoes they had planted in spring and Ill never forget their faces – as if they had struck gold. From only 2 square metres they nearly got a whole wheelbarrow full of potatoes. This excitement and sense of wonder and bounty of digging out potatoes or pulling carrots will never leave you.

You can join up with the GIY (Grow It Yourself) movement. They have an excellent and very informative website: http://www.giyireland.com and if you require practical help getting started, look at another excellent website: http://www.quickcrop.ie. Both sites have tutorial videos on how to grow almost any vegetable.

Unfortunately you cant grow every vegetable outdoors in Ireland. We just dont get enough warmth for the more sun-loving Mediterranean vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, chillies, aubergines, cucumbers and melons. Thats where a polytunnel or greenhouse will prove invaluable. With the help of some indoor space you can extend the growing season substantially. You could harvest fresh salads all year round and you can definitely grow the most delicious tomatoes youll ever taste.

Polytunnels are a lot cheaper than greenhouses, but greenhouses are a lot more attractive. Have a look out for reclaimed materials (windowframes, timber, etc) and with a good builder you are half way there.

The author of this article, Klaus Laitenberger, has grown organic vegetables for over 25 years and has published two excellent books on growing your own:

Vegetables for the Irish Garden

Vegetables for the Polytunnel and Greenhouse

Both books are available from: http://www.milkwoodfarm.com and bookshops throughout the country.

He is also the co-founder of the Vegetable Seed Company http://www.thevegetableseedcompany.com that specialises in varieties that are suitable for the Irish climate.

If you love gardening, youre not alone. Gardening has consistently been in the top five favorite hobbies of Americans ever since the Harris Poll began keeping track of US pastimes, but it seems that lately theres been an increasing passion for all things green.

As the world grows ever more complex and maddening, some people are turning to their gardens for a peaceful refuge from lifes travails; others view their back yard as an ideal place to grow their own fruits and vegetables. Still other gardeners are experimenting with exotic and tropical plants, or with water features and garden art.

Above all, we want our gardens to grow organically, with little or no reliance on commercial

pesticides and fertilizers, and to use less water.

Many of these trends will be on display at home and garden tours this year. A listing of many of these events accompanies this story.

Some garden trends that are taking root in Santa Clara Valley include:

Edible landscaping. Possibly the biggest gardening trend in the past few years, and one that continues to expand, is the drive toward growing your own produce. Vegetable seed sales had declined for years, only to surge back when many new gardeners decided to grow their own produce–a thrifty move prompted by the recession, but also by the desire to provide more nutritious and better tasting food for their tables.

Some people are going whole-hog and ripping

Rihanna wont be blasting into orbit with these shoes, but rather, racing down the main drag in Pradas new collection inspired by the 50s hot-rod era.

Rihanna received a special exclusive pair of flaming, green Milano heels from Pradas Real Fantasies SS12 collection. Blast off bitches, the pop star tweeted, along with a picture of the fiery green shoes. The new Prada collection explores the nostalgia of hot rodding, golfing, picnicking, the space race and other wholesome pastimes, according to their site.

Many of the heel styles incorporate the fiery flames once painted on the old hot-rods of the 1950s and 60s. The red knobs on the back appear similar to the sharp-pointed tail lights that give the allure of fire shooting out the back of the car.

Whether Rihannas shooting to the moon or racing for pink-slips, shell definitely be styling in these flaming hot kicks. No way Chris Brown and Karrueche Tran can catch this!

Emily Morgan

More Rihanna news:

1. Gene Simmons Attacks Rihanna: I’m Tired Of Her ‘Fake Bulls**t’
2. Rihanna amp; Ashton Kutcher’s Midnight Hookup — Details
3. Did Chris Brown Reveal Rihanna Split On Twitter?

CIGARETTE cards, football programmes, Olympic memorabilia and swimming costumes will be among the items on display as Brentwood Museum takes a look at pastimes from 1912 through to the 1970s.

The exhibition, which will have a nod to the Olympic Games but will feature artifacts donated from Brentwood homes, will open at the Lorne Road museum on March 31 and run until October.