Since last we wrote spring has passed and summer is coming. In February a group from the Trust travelled to Bailieboro, Co. Cavan to visit the first acre of land to be put into the Green Sod Land Trust. The generous donors are Barry and Ann Kavanagh in Beglieve. We spent a wonderful day with the family and Ann’s parents. Though the weather leading up to the visit had been quite wet and stormy, on the day the sun shone as we walked the land. We shared food and discussed many things relating to the symbolism of this first acre.

Meanwhile the website has been very busy with requests for the CD that goes with the Story of the Universe that is downloadable from the education section of the website. The sod cards are not yet up on the website and may not be until next June. However, if anyone wants sod card (Congratulations, Best Wishes, In Loving Memory, Seasons Greetings) at a cost of €25 euro each, please email the Trust and the card will be sent to you by post.

The Irish Pub Abroad league is being rolled out now so we are looking for pubs in all reaches of the world to contact us about participating. Please spread the word to anyone who may be interested. Email us for further details.

The heavy winds of last night has toppled a rooks nest into the
laneway. The thunder and lightening chasing Rio to hide upstairs.

The little fawn bird with the pixie cap is again on the window sill.
Today I spot my first violet.

Freezing night. Bright moon. Pathway white.

Today I start my seed sowing marathon. The packets laid out in a row,
are colourful and show all the promise of those lovely chocolate box
gardens we got for Christmas long ago and kept long after the contents
were eaten. I have only one table in my glass house its surface big
enough to fit just two 77-seater trays. I tot up the contents of my 9
packets of seeds: There are 50 Lupins, 150 Love-in-the Mists, 150
Basils, 50 Night-Scented Stock, 975 Wallflowers, 90 Swiss Chard, 136
Cornflowers, 20 Gourd and 15 Sunflowers that a friend got free from
the bank. That’s 1,636 seeds. I’m taken aback, as though the Chard
and Gourd packets were a gift, I had never looked at the actual
numbers of seeds in the packets till Kieran mentioned it. Beware of
planting too many seeds he also warned.

After filling all 154 compartments with lovely organic compost I open
my Lupin and Night Scent Stock packets and begin to make small
indentions into the soil for each individual seed. I’m moving swiftly,
enjoying my newly acquired skills till somewhere along the 7th row I
realize the soil is quite lumpy: then I remember: I was supposed to
sieve it first. I hesitate for ages wondering if I should chance it,
but instruction wins out. Within a few minutes my sparkling new little
glasshouse is covered in soil and papers and chaos. I don’t have a
soil sieve, so the old cooking sieve is brought out but the grid is
too tight to be effective. Another full stop. The shed is searched for
any possible solution to no avail. Not a great cook, but excelling in
making the finest of pastry, the gloves come off and for the next
while I succeed to mincing the soil myself into the finest of clay.
With the trays now on the floor, the newly fluffy soil is transferred
from
newspapers to trays and once again small indentations are made.

The seeds are tiny as I spill them into my palm. Earlier in the day
when walking the beach with Rio I had picked up a long white razor
shell, and it was perfect for scooping up each individual shell and
dropping it into its bed which I then cover with a light dusting of
soil and a small spray of water. I straighten up and look down on my
handy work, a two hour job which had I been properly prepared, should
have taken no more that thirty minutes. I tidy up, place the two trays
back on the table with damp newspapers beneath to retain the moisture
and wonder what success I will have out of 50 Lupins, 50 Night Scented
Stock and 54 Love-in-the- Mists.

The rooks are loud in the trees. Many of their nests remain from last
year so I don’t see a lot of toeing and fro-ing with twigs and moss as
I have other years.

I notice for the first time the blackthorn blossoms gracing the
hedgerow on the outskirts of the city.

After Anne’s wonderful coconut scones, hot tea and coffee we’re out in
the tunnels today on our Organic Gardening Course. We’re seed planting
all sorts of vegetables under the warmth of the tunnels. The soil is
prepared, sieved, seaweed dust applied and all in readiness for the
sometimes tiny seeds that have to be dropped, often one at a time into
their prepared beds. Kieran says concentration is all important here
and I soon see what he means. Look up for a second, get distracted and
you’ll wonder have you dropped a tiny seed in there or not, though
working with the others makes it so much easier. We work quickly and
successfully and several trays after our labours are lined up neatly
on the long warm tables, in readiness for the coming months. Outside
I discover for the first time what green manure is all about. It’s
actually a plant called pheycelia – a very pretty lacy affair and once
your plot is dug and prepared in the autumn, this little plant takes
off and will cover the whole area in a lovely green trellis and I’m
amazed that not a single weed is to be seen though it’s now been
growing for several months. And the beauty of it is that rather than
pull up the plant it is now broken up and spaded back into the earth
adding richness and nourishment to to the soil.