This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Sunday 10 November 2013

Inspiration on Growing Veg

Photos taken 26 Oct 2013.
Our volunteer gardening group went to visit some gardens to look at how we might develop our own gardening project at Antrim Castle Gardens. We went to a volunteer run gardening project in Cloughmills, Northern Ireland at the end of October and it was a day full of ideas and inspiration.

Left: The group's communal area, with gardening areas, yurt (round tent) and tires used to grow herbs like sage, lemon balm, mint, etc.
The group have many raised boxed in areas of different shapes and sizes to grow veg and fruit. The one above has leeks down the middle with green manure plants growing to add nutrients to the soil over the Winter.

Above and Below: The group have a Mongolian yurt (costing £4,000)- this is  a large tent with a lovely furnace in the centre of it, which is great in the Winter - warm as toast! The group use this for events and for serving their homemade soup and other food made from the organic veg and herbs from the garden.
Above and Below: The benefits of a polytunnel are huge - the growing season is extended and plants grow much bigger and seem healthier. Below are some of the lovley organic veg grown in the large polytunnel. 

What a day it was! And probably the biggest and best looking organic veg I've seen!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

6 comments:

  1. Looks like a great project, I've seem those yurts for holidays. Bet it has set you all thinking!

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  2. This great gerdening project will have given you lots of new inspiration. I have been thinking about new ideas too. In our country you never see kitchen gardens with raised boxes for vegetables.
    Next time I shall try to grow vegetables in raised boxes in my garden, may be with better results. We have very wet soil, I suppose I can prepare the soil better in raised beds.

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  3. Wow... really inspiring! Wonderful garden. I hope my beds will do well

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  4. Looks good ,but I'd try to keep the paths between the raised beds from taking up too much of the potential growing area.

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  5. That yurt sounds interesting! Must see if I can make space for one... (Possibly not a high priority for me though!)

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  6. The garden looks so successful and well tended. These community gardens are beginning to catch on here in the states. As supermarkets here rely more and more on imported foods, we will probably see more community gardens. In addition I read where the the FDA has approved the import of Chinese chicken when their imported dog food kills dogs. Not to get so political here, I love the idea of community gardens.

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