Search Results for 'Organic gardening'

Everybody is composting these days. In a society where getting rid of waste can be both a laborious and costly task, it makes ergonomic, environmental, and economical sense.

Residents of Mullingar will soon have the opportunity to recycle kitchen and garden waste from their own homes, with the roll-out of the brown bin services in the coming weeks.

Green fingered enthusiasts in need of space to grow fruit and vegetables can now do so in Galway Bay Allotments in Clarinbridge.

Keane’s Garden Centre, Kilcolgan, is continuing to offer great value this growing season with special offers on farmyard manure.

Clarenbridge Lifestyle and Garden Centre will host a composting demonstration this Saturday. The event, organised in association with the Galway County Council and Clarenbridge Tidy Towns committee, follows a previous very successful composting event at the centre.

This week I am going to talk about composting of garden and kitchen waste. Now people are starting to think about composting their waste in the garden as the leaves are starting to fall off the trees.

The winter garden can be a very peaceful garden offering a break from the routine gardening chores of summer lawn mowing, hedge cutting, weeding, etc.

As the growing season slows down and prepares to rest for the winter months ahead, gardening takes a change of direction. Foliage is beginning to change coats, putting on its rust and red shades of autumn; annual bedding plants are dying off while perennials on the other hand are storing up food supplies for the dormant season ahead. All things considered autumn enters and leaves in a blaze of colour.

Well here we are again with another week’s gardening over and a busy week in prospect. I hope that you have been taking advantage of the intermittent spells of good weather because I feel that so much useful gardening work can be done in the autumn winter period. If you get it right at this time of year you can save yourself a lot of hardship in the spring.

Winter is upon us, and food supplies for wild animals and birds are running low. Providing food for birds in the garden is not only a great way to help them survive the winter, it also attracts a variety of species to the garden and provides an opportunity to observe them and their feeding habits. You do need to be careful about what food you put out and where you site bird tables and feeders, but it’s no more complicated than applying simple common sense. For example, if you have cats, don’t put bird feeders where the cats are likely to be able to catch unsuspecting birds: position hanging feeders at the end of long tree branches and well away from places where the cats can hide under cover ready to leap out. You could also wrap a length of barbed wire loosely around the branch or, if you have a bird table, around the top of the post.