Thank God for the good weather, I have now started planting seeds in my allotment!
The allotment site is called 'Beech Park' allotments and can be found on a great new site dedicated to all things about growing your own food such as allotments.ie. I am also aware of other sites and blogs that have sprung up in recent times such as the Dublin Allotment Association site and irish allotments.ie and there is even an online shop to help people understand how to grow their own food. It's called dublinfoodgrowing.org.
I have since bought two more allotments since and I am looking to rent them out to people who are interested and willing to take good care of the land.
The important issue for me when deciding where to take my allotment area was the location for rain fall, the shallowness or depth of the land for catchment for rainfall, the aspect of the sun for sunshine, areas of seed location, and protection available for the wind. As I learned at a course at Cultivate recently, the basics about the seeds suitability for the Irish weather, and the other possibilities of composting for permaculture including worm farms are vital to grow food.
I decided to visit my old friend in Capel St, Mr Middleton where I went to buy some veg seeds. Although I came to buy and found what i was looking for, I found the prices they were charging a little bit rich. I then went to Hackett's to compare the prices, and I found Hacketts far cheaper.
So far, I have planted half of the plot with potatoes using drills, with help from my Dad. The other half of the smaller plot (10 x 13m) will be planted with lettuce seeds, carrots, tomatoes and parsnips.
I am now looking for a large tool box for my tools to store. A lot of people in my area have built large sheds to store their tools but it costs 300 euros and would take time to build. It is obviously a labor of love reflected in the time and work gone into the allotments.
