Tag Archives: garden

IRISH Seeds Savers Association will hold its annual Love Your Garden Week from next Tuesday to February 12 and is encouraging budding gardeners to come along to the Scariff gardens for some inspiration and tips. Barry Foley of Irish Seed Savers said, “Now is the perfect time of year to start planning your garden for the coming year”. He said there are many things to consider when planning for the new seasons, such as where to plant flowers, how many raised beds to have and what was planted last year? He stressed that all of the work, care, harvesting and eating that lies ahead begins with a seed. “With the daylight hours increasing, February is a great month to get back to the garden. Cleaning out the polytunnel or greenhouse, tidying up the raised beds, doing some soil preparation and garden planning should all be on February’s to do list. “To help beat the winter blues, you could even start …

SPRING is finally here and our wildlife needs a bit of help as they prepare for the mating season and raising their young. Our small birds are busy at this time of year so here are a few tips to help them. Check your bird feeders condition. Feeders need replaced so they don’t injure or make the birds sick. Check them regularly to ensure the rain isn’t making the seeds mouldy; mould means death to a small bird trying to survive and care for young. There are many diseases such as  salmonella and conjunctivitis and an unclean feeder may be inadvertently doing birds more harm than good. Birds are messy things so make sure the paving and areas around their feeders is kept clean, this will prevent unwanted wildlife such as rats sharing the feast you put out for the birds. Birds like to come back to the same feeders that have the food they want. Many people buy the …

By Jessica Quin THE Clare Garden Festival returns on April 27 at Ennis Showground, with organisers challenging local communities to create their own pop-up gardens. In the run-up to the festival, the organisers are launching a calendar of community events and competitions to get gardeners geared up for the big day. In 2014 Clare Garden Festival will keep its educational character offering talks and demonstrations provided by reputable national speakers from the Horticultural and Gardening World and it will also again feature its popular large-scale garden and food fair. “Following a hugely successful Clare Garden Festival in 2013,  featuring a garden  and food, with over 60 stallholders from all over Ireland and attracting over 1500 visitors, we are delighted to welcome the festival back”. said Bernard Hanrahan, chairman of Co Clare Agricultural Show Society. “Our focus at Clare Garden Festival in 2014 is community, meaning the community of Ennis and Clare and, of course , the community of gardeners throughout Ireland. …