Veg talk Report

Jean and her husband-nabbed from her website

The Ornamental Veg Talk was brilliant,Jean is an excellent and very funny speaker with the kind of honesty and down to earth qualities that make for a very interesting evening.She gave a very good description of how they manage their no-dig raised beds, how she uses the moon calendar for sowing, (you could see a few old dears tittering at this but not my students who were all nodding sagely at her!)and how, no matter how hard she tries she never gets around to everything! Amen! A normal person like the rest of us!!

the Glebe house

She started off as a market gardener in Gloucester in the UK where she and her husband owned 6 acres on which they grew literally thousands of veg. After a number of years lettuce fatigue was setting in! At that time they had a guy from Cork working on the farm who suggested they go on holiday in Ireland. Jean thought it was much too far away (!) but somehow they managed to get to Kerry for two weeks. And there the impossible happened-the sun shone for two weeks solid! All the locals tried to tell them it was a fluke but I suppose they wouldn't listen because when they got home they sold up and moved over, and the rest as they say is history.

meadow at Glebe-ah summer

Since then they have realised that they probably moved to the wettest part of the country but it dosent seem to have deterred them one bit. As work outside of tourism and fishing is kind of scarce in Baltimore they went back to gardening, this time not on the same scale as before and with a few differences. They have 24 raised beds about 16ft by 8ft made from oak railway sleepers surrounded by gravel paths underlay ed with mypex. Jean says they are too wide and long for her but its unlikely they will change them considering the cost involved. To compensate she puts a plank across the beds centre and works out to each side.

amphitheatre at Glebe

Their soil is sandy and light so they are constantly adding to it with seaweed,(the end of the garden is right on an inlet) home made compost and goats manure(they have two goats). Each year they mulch the beds heavily in autumn and do not dig them at all, planting crops directly in the following spring and Summer. They also use a mown grass mulch to conserve moisture and keep weeds off throughout the summer. They are careful to use thin layers of grass at a time allowing it to dry out to a nice thatch on the beds.They average 2-3 crops from each bed each year-very good going!

prettiest tunnel setting I have ever seen!

Their daughters run the cafe and they grow as much of the food as possible for it. She was very happy to tell us that they are listed amongst the 100 best cafes in Ireland.The are organic but do not get certified as people coming to them know their philosophy on food which is organic local and seasonal.Lately they have added an amphitheatre to the gardens where they can seat up to 450 people for theatre and concerts! Jean explained that the experience is one most tourists never forget describing how they walk through the gardens to the amphitheatre in daylight and return under the night sky candles lighting their way back. It really does sound amazing. If you are in West Cork you know what to do of an evening!

Top tips of the evening;

1. She was once told to plant white pansies under cabbages to deter cabbage white butterflies. She tried it and it worked! The butterfly looks down, sees all these other "butterflies" around the cabbage and much like a queue at Tescos thinks " its too busy here I'll look elsewhere!"

veg garden at Glebe-check out the runner bean supports!

2. Inverted supports for runner beans using a T bar support and wires, you kind of have to see it to understand what I'm talking about. Can you figure it out from the photo?

3. Charles Dowding, the man who taught her Husband and herself no dig gardening, has a book on salads she highly recommends called "Salad leaves for all seasons"
www.charlesdowding.co.uk

4. Seed companies I have never heard of that she uses;

www.cnseeds.co.uk

www.simpsonsseeds.co.uk

There are loads of photos of this beautiful garden at Glebe on their website. If you have the time click on the link below to take you straight to the gallery. Sorry I cant fill you in on everything from the talk and I'm sure other pieces of information struck other people there. It really was excellent. Next month Limerick Garden Plants group are having Gerry Daly for a QandA session. They are looking for a big crowd so come if you can!!!

Glebe Gardens Pictures

P.S. I Must say that as it was the first Limerick Plants group talk I was ever at I really enjoyed the social side of it too. I met lots of people I know through other Gardening Avenues and was impressed by the spread of ages and experience.There was a raffle for plants, cups of tea, coffee and biscuits and a guy selling a lovely variety of plants. Needless to say I was one of the last to leave and my jaw is aching today from all the talking!!Thumbs up!