We are absolutely delighted once again to welcome back Niamh Flannelly to Cloughan Farm & Cookery School.
Niamh is a qualified horticulturist with a wealth of experience and is presently assistant kitchen gardener in one of the world’s leading 5 star hotels, Ashford Castle.
A Quick Snap Shot Of The Day
Your day at Cloughan Farm & Cookery School will begin with our freshly baked scones just out of the oven and tea/coffee. During your gardening workshop with Niamh you will break for lunch. You will be treated to lunch prepared and cooked by ourselves and of course the cuppa & cake before you depart Cloughan Farm ready for your drive home. A drive that will have your head full of inspiration and motivation to get going in your own garden.
Using our kitchen garden, polytunnel and green house, Niamh will share with you, advice and good management for summer growing and ensuring a bountiful harvest. Niamh will also have you set up for the autumn, winter and spring ahead to ensure a rich supply of chemical free nutrient dense fruits and vegetables for your kitchen table.
What You Will Learn In Niamh’s Own Words:
Join me on a grow your own summer workshop, where we will learn:
•Summer crop care both inside and outside crops
•Organic pest and disease prevention and management
•Crop feeding and homemade liquid fertilisers
•Autumn/winter crop planning.
Description of the workshop: – We will look at both crops inside and outside. How to train and prune your summer crops e.g tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers. Maintenance of your outdoor crops is important too for a good harvest e.g thinning out carrots, earthing up potatoes. – Pest and disease prevention and control is also very important to keep on top of. You don’t want aphids going unnoticed and taking over your tunnel space or blight wiping out your potato crop. – Feeding your crops throughout the growing season is important for those hungry feeders such as tomatoes, cucumbers, squash or brassicas. We will discuss different feeds and feeding times for hungry crops but also how to make your own liquid feeds at home. – During the summers we are enjoying bountiful harvests and all that hard work in the spring has paid off. However, we often forget to plan for the autumn/winter. There are crops that will bring you through the autumn/winter or even early harvest next spring. So we will look at crops that we can sow both indoors and outdoors to achieve this.
About Niamh In Her Own Words
I am a passionate horticulturalist currently working as assistant kitchen gardener at Ashford Castle.
I was born and raised on a sheep farm in Co Mayo. This upbringing and connection to the land and soil has thankfully never left my veins. There is still nothing more I love than spending any spare time I have helping Dad with the sheep or cutting firewood. When I am not working fulltime in the kitchen gardens of Ashford Castle, you’ll find me happily in my own kitchen garden at my family home.
There I grow a range of vegetables and herbs in raised beds, no dig beds and a greenhouse for the summer crops. I also have a small vegetable and herb garden of my own just down the road where I live. In total it is about 11 metres squared, I call it the tiny garden.
I love a good challenge and learning new skills, so I’ll always have some project on the go. I am going into my third season with my bees and my latest project is looking into raising some pigs for meat. Producing my own food, working outside and staying active bring me a lot of happiness. I hope I can inspire others, whether it is to grow their own food, finding their passion or giving someone inspiration to learn something new
My aim is to produce as much food as I can for myself and my family. With my experience I want to encourage and show people how rewarding and enjoyable gardening and growing your own food can be.
