Is Gardening again becoming a necessary life skill?

The co-incidence.

In this blog post I am re-posting a piece I first posted on http://www.myplant.ie/ back in May 2009. A few weeks after I first posted this the article was hacked and my website brought down by a virus planted on the site by hackers. My site hosting and maintenance guys said the attacks were targeted at this article possibly due to the mention of the White House. They fixed my website as luckily we got the attack early. Sometimes its very hard to get away from the feeling some things are predestined. As you will see on my last blog piece this week our primroses landed in the very place I was highlighting in the article below. http://fitzgeraldnurseries.blogspot.com/2011/03/gifting-of-kennedy-irish-primrose.html

Due to this amazing coincidence and the fact that the White House Garden project or the trend towards people growing their own vegetables wasn't just a passing fad I decided to re post this piece. I would also like your opinion on the questions posed at the end.

Is Gardening becoming a necessary life skill?

Original post.

This is probably not so hard to believe from some of us who have been around the block before. One of the silver linings for us as Horticulturists in somewhat depressing times like these is that people have more time to spend reassessing their interests, what is important and un-important. So far it looks like the signs so far are telling us that nature, growing your own and generally appreciating the garden, parks and the free or not so expensive things in life are coming out as important.

In the USA there has been a very encouraging and dedicated lobby since last November to have a vegetable garden planted in the grounds of the White House and from the picture here you can see this has been successful and has begun. Congratulations are due to the idea instigator to the people who worked on and supported this project and for achieving such success. Have a look at the official White House Farmer website WWW.WHITEHOUSEFARMER.COM .

With the eyes of the world on the new American first family this image on the White House farmer website has to be one of the most interesting garden images this month and many of us in the Horticulture world could not have imagined such an image emanating from such a prestigious and austere location until now.

A number of months ago I came across a saying from a contemporary American writer called Orson Scott Card which goes 'Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden'.

We have to hope that mass unemployment is not what it will take to get many of us to plant a garden. It's an unfortunate and interesting fact that sometimes it takes shocks of great magnitude to make some of us realize what's important and what's not. We can only hope now that when the world economy does eventually recover some lessons will have been learned and children will remember the folly of some of their elders in neglecting a few basic life skills and considerations that are the essence of our existence. Whether it be for food or for pleasure plant life is beneficial to mankind even the humblest apparently undesirable weed gives benefit to the planet and our immediate environment. For those of us who depend on gardening for a living let's hope that the many skills in the industry the great plants, fruit and vegetables that are produced by our sector will be valued and appreciated much more, by a greater amount of people and a new kind of consumer and gardener.

Lets hope our time in the sun has come.

Now almost two years on what do you think? Have we seen a change of mindset towards people in our profession or trade? Will the young people all over the world who have been exposed to the many projects like the White House Garden be better off for this new trend? Is it too early to say it has changed anything in the longer 25 year perspective when these children will be adults with children of their own?

Nurserymans Tip to Growing Sweet Potato

Nurseryman's Tip

Sweet Potato.

Full Name: Ipomoea batatas ‘Beauregard’
Leaf: Heart shaped, green
Preferred Location: In the soil/big growing containers
Likes: Well drained, sandy soil/Full sun
Dislikes: Over watering and temperatures below 5°C

Sweet potatoes are becoming increasingly popular as part of a healthy diet in Europe. Home
production of Sweet potato can be done in big plastic containers, on the patio and therefore
makes the crop available for a wider range of gardeners. This crop is especially interesting for
younger people or those without a large garden who want to grow something special. Anyone who has traveled to countries like USA, Australia, Middle East and many of the Pacific Islands where Sweet potato is a common vegetable. The dietary and health advantages of Sweet potato are now well recognised and Sweet Potato is commonly recommended by dieticians for very young babies beginning their solid food diets.

In 2009 I posted this blog piece showing ourtrials on Sweet Potato. You can see this post here http://fitzgeraldnurseries.blogspot.com/2009/10/sweet-success.html

I have put together the following detailed tips for your information in growing and storing your own SweetPotato this year.

Growing instructions
- Optimum of 4 - 5 months of continuous growing between 10°C night and 30°C day required
- ‘tuber’ growth starts during the shortening days
- Well draining, sandy soils, pH 6 to 6.5, minimum 20 to 30 cm deep
- Planting of the rooted cuttings in rows 1 m apart, 30 cm within the
rows or in individual growing containers
- Water in when planting the rooted cuttings, but overwatering during
the growing period can cause root damage
- Requires less fertilizer than most vegetable crops so do not overfeed
- Keep weed free during growing
- Relatively free of pest and disease problems, but can have root rots caused
by cold and wet soil conditions
- Harvest in dry weather where possible
- Harvest before the first frost and with care as sweet potatoes are sensitive to bruising
- Store the roots by over 25 °C and a minimum relative humidity of 90% for 2 weeks to heal
the wounds, reduce weight loss and convert the starches into sugars
- Savour the Sweet potatoes boiled, mashed or fried accompanied by a nice glass of chilled white wine

Nutrition information
Sweet potatoes are :
- fat-free and cholesterol-free
- have only 130 calories per serving (one medium
potato)
- are a good source of fibre – 3.9 grams
- are an excellent source of:
Vitamin A – 7860 IU/serving
Vitamin C – 29.51 mg/serving
Potassium – 265.2 mg/serving
Calcium – 28.6 mg/serving
Iron – 0.79 mg/serving
Folate – 18.2 mcg/serving

Special notes on harvesting & storage of sweet potato.

It is desireable to leave your crop of Sweet Potato for as long as possible before digging out. The top growth will not die back like the normal potato unless it is hit by frost. I recommend you target to harvest some time end of September if growing out door and mid October if growing in a greenhouse. It is important that they be harvested befroe grond temperatures go too low and certainly before any early frosts.
When harvesting Sweet Potato it is desireable to have dry soil conditions. If this isnt possible take special care to lay the roots out in a dry warm location. Sweet Potato have a very thin skin so care should be taken not to bruise or cut the skin surface as this can lead to rots during storage or curing the potatoes.

Curing.

For best it is desireable to cure sweet potato after harvest. Curing brings out the best in flavour. Proper curing has been shown to increase the sensation of moistness and sweetness, enhance the aroma, and decrease starch content while increasing sugars. Curing also drys up any skin damage and prevents rots in storage. Curing also helps harden or set the skin which helps prolong storage. An idea temperature for curing is between 25 C and 29 C with humidity of 85% which helps avoid weight loss.

Storage.

Ideally cure the tubers for at least a week you can then store the tubers between 10 Celcius to 13 Celcius for over 6 months. Ensure the tubers are stored at a reasonable humidity 80% to 85% is perfect but good air circulation should be maintained by storing in layers. Do not the potatoes storage environment to become excessively dry or weight loss can occur. It is also important not to allow storage temperatures rise too high as sprouting will begin at about 15 Celcius or 16 Celcius.

MyPlant Staff Allotments

MyPlant staff Allotments
Have any companies out there organized allotments for their staff? At FitzGerald Nurseries we have and hopefully later in the year we will be able to share our experience with other companies who might be interested in this type of initiative.
Ok so it might be a bit easier for us as some of us are trained horticulturists but we are a bit rusty on growing our own veggies. Like many farmers or others who were brought up when the vegetable plot was a common sight we too have lost the plot (no pun intended) for a while so now we are trying to catch up. This was something we wanted to do for many years and now the catalyst to begin again has arrived.
This year we set up our company allotments beside the nursery. Five staff are actively getting their plots up and running. This pilot scheme looks like its going to bear rewards with a good harvest later this year. After a slightly late start things are now beginning to pop out of the earth. And some interesting varieties of vegetables will be on show later in the year. Vaida and Akvile who are from Lithuania have brought their own seeds from Lithuania with varieties of Cauliflower, Cabbage, Beans and other veg that I have not heard of before so this should be fun to see how these varieties do in our Irish Climate. Ann was off to a good start with her potato seed she brought up from her West Cork home surfacing now and lots of other veg now well established in Anns plot. I have tried out again this year some French potato varieties specially suitable for sauté and salads. We exhibit at a French Horticultural show each year and the last two years I have purchased some varieties commonly used in the Loire Valle area of France so more about these later in the year when we will see how they have performed. I have picked out some French beetroot, onion and carrot varieties to see how flavour and texture compare to home grown varieties.



Sweet Potato (Ipomea batatas)
Sweet potato is one of those healthy and beneficial foods which has been introduced to the Irish diet and supermarket shelves more noticeably in recent years. Normally quite expensive to buy compared to other vegetables so I reckon very well worth trying to grow.
After 12 months research into the possibilities of growing this root vegetable in Irish conditions I have selected the variety Beauregard Improved as the most likely to succeed in our climatic conditions. With fantastic co-operation from some colleagues in USA I managed to get certified stock from Louisiana. Ideally Sweet Potato will require growing in protected greenhouse but we suspect some reasonable yield can be achieved out doors with this variety. Sweet potato can also be grown in patio containers and once our trials are finalized we will post instructions on how to do this in 2010. Testing on how this plant grows in the Irish climate has begun. Already we have fantastic reaction and demand in UK so this plant looks like its could be a success story for 2010 allotment gardeners.

Watch out for future posts about the MyPlant staff allotments and our results on trying some new things just as we do for our garden plant varieties. If you would like to comment on this post please feel free to do so.