Kitty’s top 10 tips for 2013

A NEW year has begun, a new growing season is imminent and now is the perfect time for planning your vegetable garden.

If you are like most people, you will have started 2013 with a profusion of positive resolutions on ways to become healthier, exercise more and forsake bad habits. Why not take the same approach for your garden and make some new year gardening resolutions, which incidentally will help your new fitness and health regime?

1. Turn a piece of lawn into a garden: Lawns may look good, but in reality they are unproductive, require a lot of care, and are environmentally unfriendly. Lawn care can become an obsession and consume lots of valuable time and fossil fuels to keep them looking good.

Turning a lawn into an organic vegetable garden is a much better use of land. A vegetable patch will also take time to maintain but the returns for your health and the environment will be far greater.

2. Make a Garden Plan As they say in business, “Fail to plan, plan to fail”. Well, the same applies to your vegetable garden. Take advantage of this cold January weather to sit down and prepare for the season ahead. If you are starting from scratch, draw a sketch of your proposed plot, noting aspect and existing buildings, trees etc.

Consider what you would like to grow and once you know you can figure out how much space you will require. Start small. If you don’t have a garden, consider how many containers you are going to need and where you are going to acquire and place them.

Seasoned gardeners should review last year’s growing season — what did well, what didn’t, what crops ran out too early and which were you trying to offload on your neighbours? If you start your garden plans and diary now, you are sure to save precious time and seeds in the future.

3. Buy the Best Tools You Can Afford Resolve to invest in only the best tools and to drop subtle hints to your family and friends at times of special occasions. It pays to purchase quality, and remember, economising is about obtaining value for your money, not just paying the cheapest price.

4. Use Irish Seeds and Plants Seed Catalogues for 2013 are already widely available. Resolve this year to support local and use Irish seeds and plants, which are also better suited to our climate. The Irish Seed Savers Association in County Clare and Brown Envelope Seeds in Cork supply a wide range of Irish seeds including new and heritage varieties. Both offer plenty of choice to the home gardener, but it is best advised to place your orders early to avoid disappointment.

5. Recycle and Upcycle Before dashing out to buy new gardening accoutrements, look around to see if there is anything that you can recycle or up-cycle. For example, pallets can be turned into a myriad of garden treasures such as compost bins, vertical gardens and even garden furniture.

Old scaffolding boards can be used to make raised beds and unwanted glass windows to make cold frames. Empty yoghurt cartons and toilet rolls can be kept for sowing seeds and now is the time to save empty egg cartons for chitting potatoes. Almost any receptacle can be up-cycled to form a container garden, from old sinks to china teapots, the only limit is your imagination. Be creative, recycle and up-cycle and save yourself and the earth some valuable resources.

6. Water Conservation Place water butts around the garden and at the end of house gutters to collect rainwater and avoid wasting precious water resources. Plants prefer rainwater and you will also reduce your water charges. In many gardens, water is used in a wasteful manner, so remember to turn taps off, water in the morning and use mulches to conserve moisture.

7. Minimise Crop Waste Garden harvests are generally uneven. Often, there’s a surplus of one crop, such as lettuce or courgette in the summer but shortages in the earlier months of the year. A great way to deal with gluts and gaps is to plan ahead, make successional sowings and employ a mix of storage techniques such as drying, freezing, pickling and preserving.

8. Give Plants as Presents Plants and produce make great presents. Gardening friends will be delighted with your extra ‘cabbage’ or ‘lettuce’ transplants, whilst your foodie friends will rejoice in a bag of garden fresh peas or homemade blackcurrant jam. Everyone will be in raptures at the sight and scent of a homegrown bouquet, teeming with herbs and edible flowers. Shop-bought, plastic packaged counterparts, simply pale in comparison.

9. Attend Garden Events If you haven’t already done so, why not join your local GIY group or gardening club. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for all the fabulous open days, gardening talks, courses, plant fairs, seed swaps etc, happening around the country. It’s a win-win situation as you get to mingle with like-minded enthusiastic gardeners, pick up new tips, share plants and enjoy a lovely day or evening out.

10. Enjoy your Garden Resolve not to be a martyr to your vegetable garden this year. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Enjoy and take pride in your plot, learn from your successes and failures, savour your harvests and share the bounty.