March 2008 Newsletter
Greeting from sunny Hunting Brook Gardens!
Despite the cool weather, the bit of sun and longer days have the spring bulbs in full swing and the woodland plants bravely unfurling their leaves. The woodland garden will be coming into bloom over the next few weeks, so if you would like to visit the gardens and see everything coming to life for this year's show, just give Jimi a ring on 087 285 6601 to arrange a time.
We and our friends here at Hunting Brook have been very busy bees lately. Jimi went mad ordering seeds yet again and now has a newly enlarged vegetable garden and more plants than will fit in it, the beginnings of an orchard, some fab new rhododendrons from Scotland and a polytunnel full of potted up seeds of new and unusual trees, shrubs and woodland plants from Canada which will eventually find their way into the woodland gardens. Brian Hendrick is working away at furniture building in the garden and has just completed some seating in the Ring Fort Garden so we can sit and admire all of those spring bulbs and has begun a very large banqueting table in the bottom of woodland garden beside the brook. We hope that this will be completed in time to be used for picnics by visitors to the gardens this summer. Our wonderful volunteers have been out working in the gardens along with Jimi and have the grasses cut back, borders cleared, beds manured and paths mulched and edged with timbers and generally have everything neat and tidy in preparation for the upcoming burst of growth. If you would like to volunteer at Hunting Brook, please give Jimi a ring on 087 285 6601 or email him at jimi@huntingbrook.com.
Garden Consultations
Jimi is now available for garden consultations where he can meet with you in your garden and put together an action plan to make your garden look its best using either existing plants in your garden or new planting.
April is a busy month for courses here at Hunting Brook. However, we still have limited availability on most courses for April. Please check out our offerings below.
Beginners' Gardening Course
This is a hands-on course for complete beginners or novices and is designed to give you the confidence to venture out into your own garden, be it small or large, new or established, to dig, plant, grow and enjoy your own fruit, vegetables, flowers, trees and shrubs. The classes will cover how to grow plants from seed, how to prepare the soil to grow your plants to their full potential, how to prune and divide plants and more. The class will provide a great opportunity to gain first-hand experience and borrow from Jimi's wealth of knowledge to answer any questions you may have about how to make your garden look its best.
The classes are held on Wednesday mornings from 10am to noon and running from 9 April to 14 May. If you have a scheduling conflict on a particular day, Jimi will try to find a mutually convenient time to make up the day with you.
Cost €300 for 6 mornings
Growing Your Own Vegetables
The ever-popular Klaus Laitenberger , organic grower and lecturer, returns for the next episode of our vegetable growing series. In this class, Klaus will explain how to make yourself more self-sufficient in your vegetable production by growing a wide variety of tasty, healthy produce from one end of the year to the next including interesting varieties of the more common garden vegetables plus a large range of less common vegetables which will liven up your larder and extend your growing season. And this man lives in Lietrim, so he knows a thing or two about the challenges of growing in cool temperatures and low light levels!
This class will be held on Saturday, 5 April from 10:15am - 4:00 pm and repeated on Sunday, 6 April at the same time. A few spaces are left on the Saturday course, and there is currently availability on the Sunday course.
Cost €120
Baking Bread
Carol Wilson O'Keefe will be demonstrating how to bake a variety of traditional breads including brown, white and fruit breads and newer favourites such as olive oil bread, rolls and will discuss the fine art of working with yeast, soda, etc.
This class will be held on Saturday, 12 April from 10:15am - 4:00 pm and is filling fast. We do like our bread here in Ireland!
Cost €110
Growing Vegetables in the Polytunnel or Greenhouse
This is the third and final class by Klaus Laitenberger in our vegetable growing series for this year. In this class Klaus will teach you how to use your greenhouse or polytunnel to its full potential to grow vegetables through a longer season and to grow tender vegetables and herbs which would not normally thrive in our capricious weather (although we are currently putting great effort into the power of positive thinking and have fully convinced ourselves that 2008 will be the most glorious of summers!). Klaus will also teach you how to prepare the soil within your protected structure, how to rotate crops, propagate plants, control pests and more.
Please note that the date from this class has changed and it will now be held on Saturday, 19 April from 10:15am - 4:00 pm.
Cost €120
A Taste of Paradiso
The wildly popular Denis Cotter of Café Paradiso in Cork has done it again: the course is currently full with a waiting list as long as our collective arms. For you lucky early birds who will be attending, we look forward to seeing you. For the disappointed, may we recommend bread baking (above), our healthy eating day (below) or one of our food-related courses later in the year?
Gardeners' Master Class
Ciaran Burke of the Garden School, June Blake of June Blake's Rare Plants and Jimi are your hosts for the day and will infect you with their enthusiasm for plants ranging from the weird to the wonderful. The class will cover an introduction to a whole new world of plants with an emphasis on spring flowering plants and how to use them to create a fabulous impact in your garden - a must for you horticultural boffins, eclectic souls who appreciate the unusual or style gurus who want to wow your friends!
Please note that the date from this class has changed and it will now be held on Saturday, 26 April from 10:15am - 4:00 pm.
Cost €120
Healthy Eating for the Twenty-First Century
It all sounds so virtuous, doesn't it - like something that we really should be doing but don't really want to. Like flossing our teeth. Well think again! The fabulous Rosanne Stevens is a nutritionist (and not at all boring), so she knows about all the ways that our stressful lifestyles and too many take aways play havoc with our digestion, immune systems and like. However, she also likes food and food that tastes good and food that's good for you. So...she'll teach you how to pick foods that do you a lot of good and how to use them in seasonal, tasty, interesting dishes that are as good for you as porridge but taste like something from your favourite restaurant. Sure, you may even want to floss your teeth by the end of it!
This class will be held on Sunday, 27 April from 10:15am - 2:00 pm and is filling fast.
Cost €110
In addition to the courses on the Hunting Brook course schedule, we would also like to let you know about several courses which are being run at Hunting Brook by other instructors who are hiring The Garden Room.
Beginners' Yoga - This beginners' class involves stretching and strengthening with breathing and relaxation. Every Thursday from 3rd April from 8:00 - 9:30 p.m. for eight weeks. Cost €100. Ring Roy on 087 699 6306 to book.
Cultiviating Inner Silence through Gentle Movement - Using the slow movements of Tai Chi Chi Kung, somatics, breathing and meditation to connect with the inner stillness of being. These gentle practices help us to become balanced, more energised and at the same time more peaceful. Every Tuesday from the 15th April from 7:00 p.m. for eight weeks. Cost €140. Ring Tomas on 086 602 5547 to book.
Preganancy Yoga with Sinead Morris, qualified birth light yoga teacher. Every Wednesday from 9th April from 8:00 - 9:30 p.m. for eight weeks. Cost €120. Ring Sinead on 087 910 1287 to book.
If you would like to hire The Garden Room for a private class or function or for a class which is open to the public, please ring us on 087 285 6601 or see our web site (http://www.huntingbrook.com/) for more information.