There is a piece of advice out there which says the best way to eat an elephant is one mouthful at a time, or words to that effect. Well, when you look out at an acre of overgrown shrub and grassland, the same principle applies to turn all that into an organic kitchen garden. A number of sods turned makes a ready to use plot, a number of barrow loads of manure makes a longer term no-dig plot, and a number of plots side by side make a kitchen garden – eventually! No elephant ( or gardener, hopefully) will be hurt in the making of this garden. Atleast, that is the plan.
Each plot starts off a little like a jigsaw making exercise. The edge sods are removed first so that the size and shape of the eventual plot becomes visible. These removed sods are then removed by wheelbarrow and stacked grass side down so they can compost and become a rich heap of loamy soil to be returned as such to the plots from whence they were taken. Áine has developed a less laborious way to turn over the remaining sods in the plot. More of that anon.
Trevor is co-founder and was, until his appointment to Government, a board member of Sonairte, the Irish National Ecology Centre, near Julianstown, County Meath which is an Agricultural Training and Visitor centre with a 2.2 acre walled organic garden. He is also a member of Amnesty International, the Dublin Food Co-op, the Irish Organic Farmers’ and Growers’ Association, Organic Trust and a former member of Macra na Feirme. A former teacher and fluent Irish speaker, he relaxes by reading, walking and playing music. His favourite form of relaxation is tending to his prolific organic garden at home in Balbriggan, North County Dublin, an area known by many as Fingal.
