Energia Get Ireland GrowingWe in GIY are delighted to announce the return of our showcase community campaign in partnership with the enlightened kindred spirits at Energia, Ireland’s greenest energy company. Energia Get Ireland Growing will support food growing in community groups across the island of Ireland with a fund of €70,000! The fund will be split across three categories – Sow, Grow and Harvest with awards ranging from €500 to €2,000. Together GIY and Energia will award the grants to at least 85 community food growing groups up and down the country. We cannot tell you how much we are looking forward boosting community food growing in such a huge and impactful way. We’re pretty sure the world can be put to rights whilst digging over a vegetable patch. Visit giyinternational.org and follow EnergiaGIG on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Give Peas a ChanceEarlier this year GIY and Cully & Sully teamed up for the second time to launch the fun workplace growing campaign Give Peas A Chance. Teams from workplaces around

Ireland and the UK were growing peas at work to win amazing prizes. These included a food garden worth €3k to donate to a worthy cause and €2K worth of vouchers for Ballymaloe House and Cookery School for the winning team to treat themselves with! Aura Leisure, the Pea Diddies, from Ranelagh, were announced as the Irish Give Peas a Chance winners for 2016. Their chosen charity, who will win that €3K food garden from GIY, are Laura Lynn, Ireland’s Children’s hospice. GIY will be organizing a meitheal in Laura Lynn in the spring to dig in their new GIY food garden. If you want to help your company to GIY@Work, take a peek at www.giyinternational.org

Eat TogetherGIY and GROW HQ are thrilled to be rolling out a pilot programme in Tramore Educate Together National School. This brand-new initiative is called Eat Together. Once a week, for 6 weeks our chefs in GROW HQ will provide a delicious, hot, home-cooked meal to the school’s 32 pupils. They will sit together at tables, use proper cutlery, and real plates. They are encouraged to try all the food, to talk about it, discuss what they liked and didn’t like and use their best table manners.

december NEWS

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Sow and Grow 2017Sow and Grow 2017 is accepting applications from teachers already. This is a school based campaign we love running with innocent. Sow and Grow is heading into its 5th year believe it or not! Each year more and more children take part and learn to grow food in their classroom. Registering now gives teachers the best chance of receiving a free growing kit, with seeds, soil and instructions and, of course, loads of support from GIY. Apply now at giyinternational.org/get-involved/grow-at-school

Friday Feast at GROW HQ!We held our first Friday Feast, a sumptuous, seasonal, 5-course supper on December 2nd. The feedback for this sold out event was fantastic, and the demand was so high that we are holding another Friday Feast on December 30th. This is the perfect last treat before New Year’s Resolutions take over. Tickets are available from GROW HQ directly or online from GROWHQ.ORG for €40.

december courses at hqDate Time Title Price

Thurs 8th 6.30 - 8pm Christmas Sides With JB. Are you fed up of boring brussel sprouts, plain potatoes or simple stuffing on your Christmas table? Let GIY’s head chef JB show you how to transform your sides from every-day to special-day.

€35

Tues 13th 6.30-8pm Deck Your Halls! Winter Wreaths With Lucy And Claire. GROW HQ Centre manager Claire is a winter wreath making whiz. Teaming up with Lucy, GIY’s Head Grower (and willow expert) and using natural materials this masterclass will be full of festive fun and you’ll take home your very own unique, handcrafted wreath.

€35

what to do in december

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GIY SuPPorTerS Don’t forget our lovely GIY supporters get four glossy information packed GROW magazines a year plus

seeds and a fab welcome gift. Supporters also mean we get to carry on spreading the GIY message and

that’s a beautiful thing. If you want to get in on the action for yourself or

even as a unique gift, it’s just the click of a button away www.giyinternational.org

HArveSTInG – WHAT’S In SeASon?In general terms it’s back to winter vegetables (and stores, if you have them) but you can try bucking the seasonal trend by continuing to harvest winter salad leaves (if you were canny enough to plant them!) like corn salad, land cress and mizuna. You should still have at least some produce left in the December garden for example, winter cabbages, Brussels sprouts (of course), leeks, kale, Jerusalem artichokes, carrots, celery, turnips, parsnips, winter cauliflowers, swedes and celeriac. Continue to harvest spinach and chard, and from your stores you can enjoy pumpkins and squashes, potatoes, onions, apples, beetroot and garlic. Happy Christmas!

PrePArATIonContinue digging over cleared vegetable beds and adding well rotted compost or manure. Get Educated – book yourself on a course over the winter! Start a Gardening Diary (gardeners have great plans but bad memories). Start planning what you would like to grow next year including at least one previously untried vegetable. Work out what crop rotation system you are going to use. Study and compare the various seed catalogues carefully before deciding on the best varieties to grow to suit your needs. Start a Compost corner or heap. If you don’t already have one, plan a fruit garden/area to include at the very least some soft fruit like raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries and currants; and some fruit trees like apple, plumb and pear.

To Do LIST Good garden hygiene helps greatly in the prevention of disease carry-over from

one year to the next so remove yellowing leaves from any crops remaining and rake up fallen leaves.

Slugs are a problem year round so slug control remains a necessity (though actual slug patrols probably don’t).

It’s particularly important to keep them in check in the polytunnel or greenhouse. Mice can be a problem at this time of the year and crops sown in the ground like broad

beans, garlic etc can be vulnerable. Protect them under cloches. It’s a good time of the year to add lime to your beds (particularly the ones that will take

brassicas next year), so buy a pH testing kit if you don’t already have one, and test your soil. Keep an eye on your stored veggies and discard anything that’s rotting. Do interesting things with leaves! Store in bags to make leaf mould or use as cover for

bare soil (keep weeds down and prevents drying out).

SoWInG SeeDS AnD PLAnTInG ouT If you haven’t already done so plant garlic – it should be in the soil by the shortest day of the year. Bring herbs like mint, chives, lemon balm, parsley, thyme indoors by lifting and potting them up. Chicory can be forced - dig up the roots, pot them up and place them in a dark warm place. The chicons should appear in about a month.