Hi all,

Our April meeting will take place this Thursday at 6:30 pm in CAMCAS Community Cottage.

Agenda:

Project #1: We will be putting our first project into action: - Growing in Small Spaces. Thanks to the Get Ireland Growing fund and their donation of €1,000 in March, we can now demonstrate to the community how to grow, year round, in a small space. We have also secured a tutor from CMETB, Barry Kavanagh, to guide us with the project. The plan is to rent an allotment at CAMCAS as our growing space and Barry will deliver four seasonal workshops to help us complete the project.

In addition, West Cavan GIY automatically has first dibs on a stall at the Cottage Market, Ballyconnell. The first cottage market is planned for July 2017. A suggestion maybe to sell produce grown in our training allotment at the stall. Ching Ching!!

Seedlings: We have the following seedlings to distribute on Thursday evening. If there are any remaining, CAMCAS has an allotment opening day coming up, so the option to set up a table and sell is available.

Lettuce - 5 modules with 9 plugs
Courgette - 27 plants
Mixed Herbs - 8 modules with 9 plugs (3 basil, 3 coriander and 3 Italian parsley)
Mixed Broccoli – 21 modules with 9 plugs
Purple Sprouting Broccoli - 2 modules with 9 plugs
Mixed Brassica : 11 modules with 9 plugs (3 cauliflower, 3 Brussel Sprouts, 3 Kale)
Chilli Pepper: 29 plants
Tomato: 53 plants
Kale : 22 plants

We still have some potting on to do:
Herbs
Leeks
Celery
Cabbage

Financials: Emir/Jackie will be collecting monthly membership fee of €5.

Cathriona could you bring your camera and be snap happy on Thursday evening!

Sharon if you had any spare plant labels/pen, could you bring them.

Minutes – March
West Cavan GIY

Date: Sun, 2nd April (March meeting)

Present:

Cathriona Mc Kiernan, Sharon Headslip, Peter Mc Dwyer, Emir Mc Niff, Imelda Mullen and Gerrry O loughran.

Apologies:

Liam Mc Kiernan and Jacqui Curry.

Sowing & Growing

March potting on:
 Courgettes
 Brassica – cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and kale were potting on this month. These plants are currently in hardened off stage. Sharon has been bringing them out for a spell every day and they are now staying out all night (God forbid) but wearing a fleece.
 Lettuce

March/April Seed Sowing
 Lettuce and rocket – Imelda/Sharon
 Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage.- Cathriona
 Chilli pepper and cabbage – Gerry
 Spring onion – Emir

Direct Sow Seeds
 Cathriona has sorted the group's direct sow seeds and left them for pick up in the communal shed.

Watering Rota – Watering duties run from a Monday to Sunday
 Week 1: 27th Feb – Cathriona
 Week 2: 6th Mar – Emir
 Week 4: 13th Mar – Sharon
 Week 5: 20th Mar – Imelda
 Week 6: 27th Mar – Sharon
 Week 7: 3rd Apr - Caitriona
 Week 8: 10th Apr - Gerry
 Week 9: 17th Apr – Jacqui

Compost:
 The missing seed compost is now in the storage shed. Seed compost has “tray” on the side to distinguish it from potting compost which reads “pot” on the bag. They might want to rethink that.
 One potting compost to be ordered by Caitriona from Quick Crop.

Funds:
 Emir provided an update on monthly membership fees paid/owed by each member at the meeting.
 €1000 from Get Ireland Growing fund was lodged in West Cavan GIY credit union account.

Training
 Application was submitted to CMETB for workshops on “growing in small spaces”. Awaiting response.

Next Meeting
Thursday 27th April at 6:30pm.

GIY Meet: Sunday, April 2nd at 12noon.

Agenda:
Potting on/seed sowing: We will be potting on seeds sown last month and sowing new seeds. Its important to remember that the greenhouse is a communal area so we are limited to space. Please bring along envelopes if you want to take away direct sow seeds e.g. peas, beans, carrots and parsnip. If you want to plant onion sets, they will be available at the meeting. All potato seeds were picked up by whoever ordered them and did not come out of the GIY purse.

Watering rota for April to be drawn up. Sharon and Imelda will share this week’s duty.

Funds: Emir and Jacqui will collect this month’s €5 and any monies owed from members.

Commitment: Our core GIY group is as follows: Imelda Mullen, Sharon Heaslip, Catriona/Garry Mc Kiernan, Emir Mc Niff, Liam Mc Kiernan, Peter Mc Dwyer, Gerry O’Loughran and Jacqui Curry. It would be great to see everyone at this month's meet.

April's meeting: Field trip or Spring workshop???

New Members: Please feel free to come along on Sunday. We are a very welcoming group!

Regards
Imelda

FYI

Our Next GIY meeting will be on Sun 2nd April at 12noon - there will be a small amount of seed sowing :) and some potting on of seedlings sown at our last meeting.

Hi all,

If you want to pick up your onion sets, please call Sharon on 086 2244948.

FYI: we have no red onion sets.

Have a lovely weekend.

FYI
Training by CMETB: Planting, Pruning and Maintaining Trees will take place this Friday, 10th March at 10:00am - 1:00pm. All welcome. Tutor Barry Kavanagh.Barry is a landscape designer and graduate of the National Botanic Gardens. He teaches at Monaghan Educational Training Board in the areas of garden design, plant care, organic principles and plant identification. He is also the founder of Natures PATCH Network, a social enterprise that works with communities in the development of natural heritage and greenscape plans.

Annual Potato Day 2017 on Sunday 12th March 12-5pm. Organic Centre, Rossinver. Free event!

Plenty of seeds were sown at our Feb meet. I think we went a tad crazy!! Thanks to all involved. I have emailed a list of seeds sown. Please return the list with the number of plants you want and your potato and onion set order. Also included is the water rota for four weeks. Our next meeting is on Sun 26th March at 12noon.

West Cavan GIY February Meet:

Our Feb seed sowing event will take place this Sunday 26th Feb at 12 noon in CAMCAS. The seeds have arrived and our compost is coming from the Organic Centre in Leitrim. If you have any plug trays and labels, bring them along. Please confirm attendance.