Grounded advice on growing your own vegetables

Onions and shallots drying in the sun in the garden of Trevor Sargent, County Dublin.

At this particular time of the year my thoughts turn to the glories of the kitchen garden and I wonder if, in these days of designer dominated gardening, our energies aren’t somewhat misplaced?

When I look around and see the beauty and satisfaction of a well-managed kitchen garden my attempts at ornamental gardening pales into insignificance. But perhaps I just find the skills displayed in the growing of fruit and vegetables more enviable than the ability to mix flower colour and leaf texture.

I appreciate that few things are more rewarding or more satisfying than growing you own vegetables.

Supermarket vegetables may look good and appear fresh, but they will never, ever, taste the same as those picked from plants straight from the ground. Let me give you one example.

Cucumbers bought in supermarkets are usually cling-wrapped to maintain their freshness and when sliced through they are good and moist. However, a fresh cucumber, cut from a plant you have grown yourself, and sliced through will not alone be moist but the freshness and the juices seep from the cut like tear drops.

It’s the same with tomatoes (shop bought varieties are simply bags of coloured water) carrots, onions, celery, cabbage, potatoes and even herbs. Nothing compares to ‘home grown’ and having just finished a terrific book on fruit and vegetable growing, I have come to the conclusion that some ‘grow your own’ producers are more adventurous (and successful) than others.

From the Ground Up by Fionnuala Fallon is an Irish gardening book about people-young and old, amateurs and expert- all of whom share a love of growing at least some of their own food.

It’s about what they grow, how they grow it and where they grow it, whether that’s on a balcony, an allotment, community garden, school garden, city garden or a country farm. The book covers all the gardeners’ successes and their failures, their favourite tools, their most-hated weeds, their top tips, and the books websites and suppliers that they’ve found most useful.

Peaches only grow in my memory now but many within the pages of From the Ground Up grow fantastic fruit year-on-year (Tonguy de Toulgoet in Co Laois). And yet the growing of fruit and vegetables seems to have been relegated to the area of the specialist in many counties.

However, the enthusiastic people featured are now leading by example and their stories are well documented among the pages of this timely and comprehensive new book.

Read about Trevor Sargent (Co Dublin) who gardens the smallest certified-organic holding in the country, Joy Larcom’s productive garden in West Cork (read about her apples, gooseberries and redcurrants) Michael Viney from Co Mayo, the two OPW gardeners who featured in the author’s former Urban Farmer column in a national title, and organic market gardener Jim Cronin in Co Cork.

There are 16 well-known growers featured within the pages of Fionnuala’s tome, each packed with uplifting stories of success against the odds. And for those who like their vegetables to be champion prize-winners, there’s even a section on the Byrne twins in County Louth as they compete for Ireland’s Giant Pumpkin title.

Whether you have a pot on a balcony or an acre of garden, this book will inspire you to connect with nature at a deeper level and truly experience your garden and food from the ground up.

¦ Published by The Collins Press and priced at €24.99, From the Ground Up is available in bookshops and online from www.collinspress.ie