Growing your own food?

nobodythere

I'm wondering if anyone has any recommended starting points on growing your own food. Any book recommendations/good internet resources that will teach a total noob. I've been wanting to do this for quite some time.

Gordon Gekko

One of the 'bibles' in this areas is Grow Your Own Vegetables by Joy Larkcom. I've found it very useful and 'down to earth' :rolleyes: advice.

You'll get it in any decent bookshop in Ireland.

Also maybe contact the Organic Centre in Leitrim, who are a very helpful source of advice for the beginner, as well as selling all sorts of seeds etc. at very keen prices. (I have no connection with them.)

redman

I presume you mean growing vegetables etc... as opposed to rearing animals etc?

I found a great start was where you start with a 4 foot sq. plot that you turn into a raised bed and divide into 16 x 1 sq ft areas and grow a selection of vegetables (mini varities for some). This lets you play around and see some great success and possible some not so good, in a small area without too much effort. Alan Titschmarsh was the author in one of the back issues in Gardeners world a few years ago on this.

Try:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/how_to_be_a_gardener/

Misty Moon

My brother got started after I got him the River Cottage Cookbook. It was a tie-in to the River Cottage where Hugh something or other (former River Cafe chef) lived in a cottage trying to be self-sufficient and/or bartering for what he needed. As well as recipes the book has a section outlining his experiences and how he started out at the start of each section. It's divided into fruit, veg, dairy, fish etc. etc. It's interesting reading and he also recommends books that he found useful while starting out.

Courgettes are probably one of the easiest things to grow (unless like me you try to grow just one. Need at least two for cross-pollination or something) and the plants are impressively big. My brother doesn't have much of a garden, more like a concrete square at the back of the house and grows almost everything in containers.

Gordon Gekko

Just fyi most courgettes are in fact self fertile - although they do need insects to pollinate them. If you find they're not setting fruit, you can hand pollinate using a small brush - take the pollen from the male flowers (the ones without the swollen stem behind them) and rub it into the female flowers (the ones with the swollen stem behind them). Poor fruit setting is particularly common early in the season, or in particularly cold or wet summers - however hand pollination almost guarantees success.

deisemum

The library is a good source to pick up some books and then you'll have a good idea which book suits your needs. I find the Expert books very good. There's one on growing your own fruit and veg.

Once we're finished doing up our house I plan to start growing some fruit and veg. I'll just do a few things to start, maybe some things in containers. I grew cherry tomatoes in a hanging basket a couple of years ago which were lovely.

My father in law grows nearly all their own veg, strawberries, raspberries and has apple (eating and cooking) trees. There is no comparison. After eating shop bought produce which generally hasn't much flavour then to eat some home grown produce is one of life's pleasures. Is it any wonder a lot of children aren't keen on veg if it is fairly tasteless.

I've been looking into getting a couple of hens so I can have a fresh supply of eggs.

deisemum

Just to add usually on Friday nights on UK channels there are a number of gardening programmes on tv, Ground Force, Alan Titchmarsh and Monty Don who does a lot on growing vegetables.

Woodies DIY are selling a DVD player with 11 different gardening DVDs of the well known gardening programmes that suits all levels, it costs just over €60 I've bought it but haven't seen them yet but my very experienced gardening mad uncle has and thought they were very good.

I'd love if some of the gardening centres did the occasional workshop and showed you how to do some things, it would encourage more people to start gardening and they'd potentially have more customers.

angeltoes

Hi
Does anyone know where I could source organic seed ? Mr Middleton in Mary st does a few ...so far this year only 22 all veg seed for those of you growing your own. But I could do with some Herbs, I need them in a bit of a hurry and don't have time to wait for org centre Leitrim to post them.

Jeannie:)

Gordon Gekko wrote:

One of the 'bibles' in this areas is Grow Your Own Vegetables by Joy Larkcom. I've found it very useful and 'down to earth' :rolleyes: advice.

You'll get it in any decent bookshop in Ireland.

Also maybe contact the Organic Centre in Leitrim, who are a very helpful source of advice for the beginner, as well as selling all sorts of seeds etc. at very keen prices. (I have no connection with them.)