cultivate.ie

Wednesday 29th September 2010 | 7.00 pm | The Greenhouse, 17 St Andrew Street, Dublin 2 (map)  |  €6.50 / €5 Cultivate members and unwaged  | Bookings on 01 674 5773 

Over the past few years, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has ravaged bee hives throughout Europe and the United States. Honey bees are among nature's most effective pollinators; high and unsustainable losses of hives in Ireland will not only have immediate and costly effects on agriculture in the short term, but also unless checked will lead to enormous, potentially catastrophic effects on the biosphere in the long term. We should all be concerned about the fate of the bees, because so much life depends on them.

While nobody has yet been able to identify the precise cause of CCD, there is a strong argument being voiced that a hive succumbs because a combination of factors weaken the bees' natural defences. One way to help maintain a colony's strength is to encourage the bees to eat a varied diet, so planting and cultivating a mixture of bee-friendly flowers and fruits is something everyone with a garden can do.

Kathleen Clarke, a bee-keeper and a gardener, will deliver a talk on how to select and look after plants that thrive in our climate, are attractive to humans and are equally appreciated by honey bees.

The Reference Work for the Irish Climate

Cultivate are delighted to be able to offer for sale Klaus Laitenberger's Vegetables For the Irish Garden.

€14.95 (Buy online)

| Paperback: 296 pages | Publisher: Milkwood Publishing (March 2010) | ISBN-10: 0956506305 | ISBN-13: 978-0956506306 | Weight:  .725kg

Klaus Laitenberger has been growing organic vegetables for over twenty years in the UK and Ireland.  He was running a four-acre organic market garden in England before moving to Ireland in 1999 where he was the Head Gardener at the Organic Centre in Rossinver, Co. Leitrim for seven years.  He then took on the challenge to start the garden restoration in Lissadell House in Co. Sligo.

For the last few years he works as a self-employed trainer, mentor and consultant in organic horticulture.  Last year he completed his PgDip in Organic Farming (SAC Aberdeen and University of Glasgow).  His first book, Vegetables For the Irish Garden, is now available.  The book will be of interest for anybody just starting to grow a few vegetables for the first time as well as for the more advanced gardeners.

Read a review by Jane Powers in the Irish Times, published Saturday, July 17, 2010.

Month-by-month fruit gardening tips from Kathleen!

December / January Fruit Garden

Things to do:

1. Complete picking very late-maturing apples, before the hard frosts come

2. Inspect your stored fruits, and remove any rotten ones.

Scroll down to discover tips for the entire year!

December / January Herb Schedule

Things to do:

Protect planters, especially terracotta planters with bubble-wrap or hessian or even old jumpers. The cold temperatures and frost can easily penetrate containers, freezing the soil and plant roots and killing all but the most robust plants.