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There seems to be a lot of confusion about composting weeds. Weeds make up the main part of my compost heap and they really make excellent compost. Yet on numerous occasions I noticed that people start dumps – of unwanted or undesirable materials. There is one community garden I work at and this year my lovely New Zealand Composting Box didn’t seem to fill up. O...
This is really just a hobby of mine. Over the last ten years or so I felt I became quite old fashioned. For years I only grew the ‘Sungold’ tomatoes and if I added a new variety I was only disappointed. I was convinced that nothing could ever come near Sungold. This makes gardening quite boring. When working at the Organic Centre in Leitrim I grew 100 vari...
After a talk at the Waterford GIY group a couple of months ago a kind man said he had a present for me – it was a ‘Golden Gark’. I was quite thankful but secretly worried that I might not find any use for it and that it might end up in my shed getting dusty. At first sight it looks quite flimsy and you don’t really know what it could be used for. The very ...
by Klaus Laitenberger Oca is one of my favourite vegetables to grow. It’s very pretty, easy to grow, very tasty and not prone to any particular pest or disease apart from the occasional slug nibble. It’s a low growing plant related to our native wood sorrel and develops attractive yellow flowers in the autumn. It is grown for its edible tubers which range from light...
by Klaus Laitenberger This would be a good question for a gardening quiz. Most gardeners are aware of two artichokes: the Jerusalem artichoke and the Globe artichoke. Jerusalem artichoke The Jerusalem artichoke is really the easiest vegetable anyone can grow. In fact if you fail to produce some delicious tubers you should probably give up gardening. It really is imposs...
by Klaus Laitenberger Unfortunately the same problems apply to growing fruit in Ireland as much as there is deceptive information about growing vegetables. Fruit growing is in the long run far more rewarding than any other type of gardening. The apple trees I planted at home about seven years ago give me well over 200 delicious apples each. The trouble is that I have...
By Klaus Laitenberger We all know that our weather is quite unpredictable and thus it is far more favourable to delay sowing and planting outdoors. We generally get much better results. Some vegetables, though, require a longer growing season and we need to start them off earlier indoors. Obviously if you have a polytunnel or greenhouse you can start sowing and planting very ...
Vegetable Gardening Courses at Milkwood Farm, Co. Leitrim with Klaus Laitenberger 2013 Milkwood Farm is the home and garden of Klaus, Joanna and their five children with Benwiskin on one side and acres of wild bogland all around. Saturday 16th March: Beginner’s hands-on Gardening CourseA practical workshop on how to start your vegetable garden. This workshop...
by Klaus Laitenberger I’m so glad that the weather is turning a little colder now. Frost is a wonderful soil improver as opposed to the murky wet which we had so far. Frost will also decrease the number of overwintering pests. The last two winters were very mild and we all witnessed how much the slugs enjoyed our gardens this year. If you start new or want to extend your...
By Klaus Laitenberger There is a lot more to plants than what meets the eye. Plants have adapted and survived successfully until now and they have managed to cope with their enemies – the herbivores or plant pests. It’s quite amazing to think that plants have developed their own strategies to cope with all those greedy plant eaters. Here is a list of their strateg...