The real grass roots Gathering

Kitty Scully hears the buzz around bees at the GIY AGM in Waterford.

The social highlight of the food-grower and food-lover’s year is the GIY Gathering.

In this its sixth year, growers and enthusiasts from across the country gathered in Co Waterford to meet and to hear some of the most influential food growers, writers, advocates and chefs from Ireland and the UK for the 6th GIY Gathering.

It really is an inspirational event with people like Patrick Holden, Joy Larkcom, Alys Fowler, Darina Allen, Denis Cotter, Michael Kelly, Klaus Laitenberger, Trevor Sargent and many more onboard to share their knowledge, passion and inspiration.

It is the annual chance for like-minded people to come together in an informal gathering which is accessible to all ages and levels of gardener.

This year, along with the ‘Grow, Cook, Eat’ theme, ‘Healthy Soil, Healthy People’ was at the heart of the conference and as Michael Kelly, GIY founder and author joked in his welcome address, all had gathered for a ‘dirty’ weekend in Waterford city.

As per usual at GIY Gatherings, the choice and calibre of talks, interviews, cooking demos and panel discussions is vast and unfortunately, it is simply impossible to attend all.

Among my highlights this year was UK garden writer and broadcaster Alys Fowler’s talk on bees.

Aly’s knowledge and knack for intrinsically explaining the life cycle and challenges facing our bees was a joy to hear, as lots of detailed scientific information is reported and translated in an a very easy, accessible and digestible fashion.

Alys urges us all to create bee-friendly gardens to help save these critical pollinators who are in steep and perilous decline.

We gardeners have the potential to offer some of the most important refuges for wild and honey bees as they offer a source of chemical-free food, clean water and somewhere to nest.

In return these bees repay us by pollinating our fruits and vegetables, which can only be good news as it translates into more strawberries, apples and squashes etc to eat.

Some of Alys’ top tips for food growers committed to combatting the steep decline in bees include:

* Plant nectar and pollen-rich flowers like crimson clover as these are good for bees and soil fertility.

* Grow phacelia as a green manure but leave it to flower as bees love it. After flowering dig it into the soil to improve fertility.

* Allow edibles like coriander and rocket to flower. The bees will pollinate them so that you can collect seed to sow for next year.

* Provide clean drinking water. A shallow bowl with pebbles in the middle is fine.

* Wild bees need nesting sites so bundle old stems of stuff like Jerusalem artichokes or bamboo canes and put them in a south west facing spot out of prevailing winds.

Alys also stressed the importance of avoiding all commercially-sold plants that contain neonicotinoid insecticides, an insecticide linked to bee deaths and which will remain in the soil for up to 15 years.

Make sure to quiz your local garden centres and request that they remove items containing these chemicals from their shelves. Every voice helps!

Other big news at this year’s Gathering was the update on the GROW HQ, a national food education centre being developed by GIY. It’s envisaged that this centre will help people to live healthier and more sustainable lives by inspiring and supporting them to grow their own food. GROW HQ will be a home-grown food training centre, cookery school, café, shop and training gardens on a high profile site in Waterford City.

It will be the home of the GIY movement and the hub, from which they will run food awareness, education and outreach programmes to create a broader understanding of food; increase the number of people growing their own food and to educate people to alleviate food poverty and to re-skill youth unemployed.

The aim is to open GIY HQ in 2015 but alas like many such projects funding is a major issue so help is needed. GIY have already ran a very successful Fundit campaign which reached its goal of €20,000, but all support is of immense value. This project is of interest to anyone who is passionate about the potential of food to change the world and if you want to find out more, check out: http://growhq.org/