[Carmen]

Grow-It-Yourself Gathering - over 30 workshops, the GIY Street Feast planned for over 700 people and amazing line-up of speakers ...

The GIY Gathering 2011 is taking place in Waterford on September 10th and 11th 2011. Anyone with an interest in gardening is VERY welcome to join this event!

This year the GIY Gathering is part of the Waterford Harvest Festival which takes place in the city that weekend. As GIY is a national organization, this is an opportunity to celebrate and be inspired by other GIYers from across the country - meeting people who are united in the single goal of growing more food.

Speakers include Ireland and the UK's top horticulturalists, chefs, broadcasters and food writers: Joy Larkcom (one of the world's leading veg experts and writers), Bob Flowerdew (BBC Gardeners World presenter and author), Darina Allen (founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School and author), Ella McSweeney (Presenter of Ear to the Ground), Suzanne Campbell (Author of "Basket Case - What's Happening to Ireland's Food"), John McKenna (Bridgestone Guide and Irish Times writer), Duncan Stewart (Presenter of Eco Eye and About the House), Klaus Laitenberger (Author of "Vegetables for an Irish Climate"), Hans Wieland (The Organic Centre), Síle Nic Chonaonaigh (Presented of TG4's Garrai Glas), Pat Whelan (author of "An Irish Butcher Shop"), Kevin Sheridan (Sheridan Cheesemongers) and founder of GIY Michael Kelly (Author of "Tales from the Home Farm")

See full info on www.giyireland.com

[suttie]

We have GIY ( grow-it-yourself ) in Roscommon now and its is getting a good group of people , It's really good to met fellow growers and it gives us something to look forward to

[tippben]

There was a GIY group in Nenagh. I turned up with a box of spare seeds to find that it had folded. If anybody involved wants to start it up again, Ben 24850.

[Carmen]

Grow-It-Yourself (GIY) are hosting an afternoon of talks around Growing food for Beginners and Old Hands. The talks will be led by Kitty Scully from RTE's 'How to create a Garden'. The event takes place on Sunday, 15th April from 2pm at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Little Island. GIY is a national charity with the vision for a healthier, more connected and more sustainable world where people grow their own food. The organisation brings people together in community groups and online to inspire and empower them to grow vegetables. The main talk on the day will be entitled 'Grow your way to 5-a-day' and Kitty Scully will be explaining here how easy and rewarding it is to get started. She will also demonstrate Seed Sowing and later in the afternoon she will be taking questions from the audience in an Ask the Expert session. In addition, Peter Dowdall will talk on Pests, Diseases and Remedies and Local Projects will be introduced. Tickets for the event at €5 pp are available on the door or beforehand from the GIY Website. For more information view www.giyireland.com or call 051 302 191.

Also... GIY Leinster, Connaught and Ulster are holding events too! See giyireland.com for details.

[michael brenock]

I attended the gathering of GIY ers in Little Island on Sunday. It was well attended and Kitty Scully did a good job and spoke with enthusiasm for over two hours. The second speaker came late and left early. Told us he had a garden centre nearby with birds in it. He showed a chart of garden pests with over half of them wrongly named or wrong pictures. There was a lot of emphasis on empire building rather than on knowledge transfer. Many of the people with whom I spoke had problems or were looking for guidance. There is a great shortage of good sound advice and some of the advice in the recommended books is not soundly based. Those get togethers should be more focused on instruction and knowledge transfer and on specific seasonal instruction. The beginners in GIY deserve better guidance and support than that.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

[Carmen]

Wonderful to have so many GIYers (and newbies) on Sunday last. We had about half and half and were delighted to see renown faces including Michael (thank you so much for the feedback) here too. It was a very well-worth event with Kitty being a real joy to listen to with her enthuasism and great knowledge-base. She answered many of questions in the end in a particular Q&A session. Unfortuntely Peter could only stay with us for a short while but he was very essential in spreading the word for us ahead of the event - a big thank you to him too. The next step for people with more questions is of course to come to GIY meetings and ask and discuss in detail here. It can be hard to do this at such a busy event. For info on your local meeting see www.giyireland.com or you can contact carmen@giyireland.com.