Sun, Snacks, Science - Summer Camp Mullingar , Co. Westmeath

Summer Camp details are finalised.
It's called Sun, Snacks and Science. While I can't promise the sun, our days will be structured so that we make the most of any dry time to go outside in the school garden.

Summer Camp for 8-12+ year olds, Mon-Fri 10:00am-2:00pm
Cost €70 per week. If 2 kids from the same family book, the price goes down to €130
Week 1 - July 19-23rd,
Week 2 - July 26th-30th

Depending on the weather, we'll have activities inside or outside - harvesting from the school garden, cooking and eating what we harvest, making bath bombs, paper making, seed saving, vermiculture, composting, pond dipping, mini beast hunt, physics experiments, seed planting in recycled paper pots, making ginger ale, scavenger hunt, nature awareness. The week will culminate with the students making pizza for themselves. Parents welcome to join in for the pizza eating on the last day.

I will keep adding new activities as I think of them. The garden is looking great at the moment, and there are plenty of bugs in evidence. We had our pride of place judging yesterday - waiting with bated breath to hear how we got on. The students did a stellar job of presenting all of Natures riches that we have in the garden.

To Book contact Anna Browne at 087 2222562 0r email annambrowne@gmail.com

Empty Skies, empty shelves

Lot of people in the blogosphere/net from the UK posting about empty shelves in the supermarkets because airfreighted food is not arriving.

Hedgewizard - Empty Skies, empty shelves

Telegraph - food rotting in Kenya

Green Review

Maenwhile, I have spent a good day at Belvedere at the Self Sufficiency Show - where there's no evidence of any food shortages, as we're eating locally. Organic beef, milk, cheese, bread, all produced within a 10 mile radius is on offer. Local and delicious. Lots of interesting plants and seeds so that you can grow your own vegetables also.

Show on again tomorrow - get yourselves out there and hedge your bets in case this volcano stuff goes on for longer...



Title courtesy of Hedgewizard - I'm to tired to think of anthing else - thank you!

Competition at Belvedere Self Sufficiency show

Took a trip out to belvedere, and have staked out my area with some of my new bunting. The vegetable garden out there is looking great, and from talking with Bartle, they have an excellent weekend planned for young and old. Dale Treadwell will be there, and a clown, not to mention fly fishing demos, pigs, plants, and bread. I'll have 2 activities at my stand - making paper pots and planinting seeds in them, and bath bomb making.

I'm planning a competition also - come by my stand and enter to win a selection of sustainable produced goodies - Jam, Chutney, Marmalade, Soaps, Bath bombs, Body Lotion, 2 Tomato plants, and 6 runner bean plants.

The draw will take place on Sunday - I'll be speaking at 4:00pm about bread making, and will do the draw during the talk. I may have some runner up prizes for people attending the talk also.

Mullingar Summer Camp

In addition to my classes for grown ups, I'm going to run a Summer Camp this year. Can't decide whether to call it Gardening and Cooking, or Science and Maths - we'll cover all 4 topics, and have a blast where we're doing it. There are a lot of fun activities we can do, and I keep thinking of new ones.

Summer Camp for 8-12 year olds, Mon-Fri 10:00am-1:30pm
Learn about Science and Maths through Gardening and Cooking
Week 1 - July 19-23rd, Week2 - July 26th-30th,

We’ll choose from the following activities depending on the weather – harvesting from the school garden, cooking and eating what we harvest, making bath bombs, paper making, seed saving, vermiculture, composting, pond dipping, mini beast hunt, physics experiments, seed planting in recycled paper pots, making ginger ale, scavenger hunt, nature awareness. The week will culminate with the students making pizza for themselves. Parents welcome to join in for the pizza eating on the last day.

To Book contact Anna Browne at 087 2222562 0r email annambrowne@gmail.com

New Courses

The Self Sufficiency weekend coming up in Belvedere, Mullingar, Co Westmeath has concentrated my mind, and so I have had to plan my courses for the months ahead. Here's what I'm planning:

•Soapmaking and Natural cosmetics – Sunday May 23rd 10:00am-5:00pm €75
•Sourdough Bread Making - starting Tue April 27th 7:30pm – 10:00pm 4 evening sessions, €90
•Making Elderflower and other natural beverages starting Thur June 10th. 7:30-10:00pm cost €60 3 evening sessions.

There will be another allotment gardening course on Saturday afternoons - starting mid May - don't have full details yet.

If you're interested in any of these email me at annambrowne@gmail.com or phone me at 087 2222562.

I'm also looking forward to speaking at the show both on Saturday and Sunday, and doing some demonstrations. More to follow on that.

Phew!

Busy weekend - but beautiful weather. Got loads done. Lots of credit to the undergardener.

Flower Seeds planted.
Some veg seeds planted.
Allotment course taught.
Loads planted at the allotment - it's coming together...
Soapmaking course taught.
Signs made for school garden. (with help from the undergardener)
Cars washed.
Path laid in the mucky area using recycled bricks(thanks to undergardener)
And lots more basic household humdrum stuff.

And now onto preparation for next weekend - Getting ready for the Belvedere Self Sufficiency Show - more to follow on that...

Busy weekend

Yesterday was a frenzy of seed planting - mostly flowers. Calendula, sunflowers, french marigold, foxgloves, poppies...

The tomatoes are needing to be repotted, so that was done, and got a lot of runner beans started.

At the allotment yesterday - planted the rest of the spuds, and onions and shallots. All the flowers are in too - so the cutting garden should be producing in a month or so - fingers crossed.

Today was back with the class, we put in loads of autumn fruiting raspberries - probably need a few summer ones, strawberries and blackcurrants. Sowed some carrots seeds on top of the sheet mulch, and put some sticks round the broad beans to support them. It's starting to look like something - must take some photos for here..

Those crazy Germans...more LIDL specials for the garden

Coming up on Thursday 15th April (a week from the date of this post) in Lidl - spades, forks, and shovels, all with stainless steel 'pointy bits' and FSC-approved timber handles, for €12.99 each. Other goodies include anti-bird netting (which would probably also deter cats and less-determined dogs, I reckon), folding saws, and ratchet pruners (good for stubborn branches or those with less strong hands). Also on the site for the ladies there are some gardening 'clogs' with adjustable heel-straps; for the gentlemen there are ads featuring ladies in bikinis. Girls - get the lads to get the heavy work done now, before the distractions start!

A word of warning, though, about their 360 Litre Thermo Composter. We have two of these and while they are good in some aspects (good capacity, rodent-deterring base-plate), there is a design flaw with the lid. It doesn't fit very well in the first instance - it pops out of the hinge when you try to open it, and it flies away with any sort of breeze (and we get EVERY sort!) so it needs a weight on top of it. The bin itself is also a flat-pack job and on the 'blue language' scale of assembly I'd give it at least a 6.