Horticulture Connected Summer Volume 8 Issue 2

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

Summer 2021

News, analysis and trends in landscape, garden retail & edible horticulture

EASY STEPS TO DREAM GARDENS

BORD BIA BLOOM’S BLUEPRINTS FOR A DREAM GARDEN AT HOME

DECISION TIME

BARRY LUPTON INTERVIEWS MINISTER PIPPA HACKETT

CATCH THE BUZZ, THE VALUE OF BEES AND DIVERSITY

NOELEEN SMYTH ON HOW INSECTS DELIVER BENEFITS FOR BIODIVERSITY

A QUIET AND COLOURFUL REVOLUTION SUSAN LYNCH MAKES THE CASE FOR IRISH GROWN FLOWERS

Biodiversity Volume 8 Issue 2

Conservation

Sustainability

STRATEGIC AGILITY

One Pack contains

100 plugs

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

BRINGING

IT HOME

A

s Ireland resets in the new world that the Covid-19 pandemic has forced upon us, there are more signs of recovery and new growth than six months ago, which we can all welcome with a little more confidence that these reestablished freedoms can be sustained. A majority of the Irish population is now protected against the virus which has changed the world, and although this summer, life is not perhaps exactly as we would wish, we now know that adjustments are possible and even desirable.

The pandemic made many of the everyday activities that we all enjoyed, and which gave us sustenance and balance, impossible. We have been forced to spend more time at home and to reconsider what is most important in our lives and for our way of living.

Many of us yearn to go back to at least some of those activities, going to the cinemas, a gallery or a theatre, enjoying festivals and sporting events with our communities and cohorts, or travelling to far flung places for rest and renewal. But it is clear from the discourses happening in our communities and among our friends that many of us don’t pine for the old ways or at least don’t wish to go back to exactly how it was. The pandemic has given us an opportunity to push the reset button and to introduce social, economic, environmental and policy changes that will enhance our lives into the future.

The challenge for the landscaping and horticultural sectors is how these changes can be implemented on a practical level, as it becomes more difficult to re-engage people who have left the industry during the pandemic and how many of these desirable changes can be funded at a time when public and personal finances are stretched and at risk.

When we were confined to a 5km zone, we discovered that our local green spaces aren’t all that they could be, perhaps with too much hardscaping, too close to traffic, too manicured and with little to sustain plants and wildlife. Local interest in local areas has rocketed and points clearly to the need to involve communities more in the planning and functionality of green spaces. We have also become more aware of how far our food can travel before it reaches our tables and we perhaps look a little more closely at origin and think a little more about impact before we buy. And when we get a chance to travel through our own country, we begin to appreciate the value in holding on to our hedgerows and developing belts and swathes of greenways and green areas, which not only help to promote biodiversity but also create amenity options for hiking, climbing, cycling and spending time in the open air.

Localisation and a re-imagining of ways of living, working and doing business are explored in articles in this issue. Barry Lupton interviews the Minister with responsibility for horticulture, Pippa Hackett, as she outlines her support and hopes for the horticulture sector in Ireland, to grow more food and plants locally and import less so that growers get a fair price while delivering environmental benefits. Bord Bia’s Easy Steps to Dream Gardens article seeks to give homeowners a set of plans to create their own garden projects at home. Susan Lynch of The Flower Farmers of Ireland spreads the word of the development of the home-grown industry of flower farming in Ireland and the potential it has to contribute to biodiversity and diversified agriculture objectives. In her article on a community garden initiative in Blakestown, Dublin, Rachel Freeman demonstrates the benefits to communities of local horticultural student engagement through the delivery of real-life projects as part of the curriculum. Dr. Karen O’Hanlon outlines the trials underway in Ireland focused on using locally grown and native seaweeds as bio-fertilisers and crop biostimulants. Additionally, in this issue discover interesting articles on; the research being undertaken by Teagasc on balancing packaging and shelf-life of salad crops, the benefits of healthy bee populations to farmers and growers, how to map your customer’s journey and clean up your data and why having a trusted business advisor is worth it.

As always, we are grateful to this edition’s contributors and all our many contributors who share their stories and experiences and by doing so continue to expand the knowledge and horizons of the horticulture community. We always welcome new members and voices so please get in touch at editor@horticulture.ie. If you are a regular reader and recipient of Horticulture Connected we also ask you to consider supporting the publication. Details of which can be accessed here. ✽

01 / EDITORIAL

HC TEAM HorticultureConnected.ie for daily news updates

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

Summer 2021

News, analysis and trends in landscape, garden retail & edible horticulture

EASY STEPS TO DREAM GARDENS

BORD BIA BLOOM’S BLUEPRINTS FOR A DREAM GARDEN AT HOME

DECISION TIME

BARRY LUPTON INTERVIEWS MINISTER PIPPA HACKETT

CATCH THE BUZZ, THE VALUE OF BEES AND DIVERSITY

NOELEEN SMYTH ON HOW INSECTS DELIVER BENEFITS FOR BIODIVERSITY

A QUIET AND COLOURFUL REVOLUTION SUSAN LYNCH MAKES THE CASE FOR IRISH GROWN FLOWERS

Biodiversity

Conservation

Sustainability

Volume 8 Issue 2

Fumbally Exchange Argus House, Blackpitts, Dublin 8, D08 Y273, Ireland +353 (0)87 921 2044

Editoral Team editor@horticulture.ie +353 (0)89 255 7526 Joseph Blair Imelda Egan Barry Lupton Creative Director Tanya Gilsenan - tanya@horticulture.ie Layout: Gemma Treacy Recruitment & Horticulture.jobs Sam Barrett - +353 (0)89 476 7424 sam@horticulture.ie Print & Digital Sales Paul Moran - +353 (0)89 238 5278 paul@horticulture.ie Subscriptions - +353 (0)89 490 1106 Kim Mokha - kim@horticulture.ie Accounts Geraldine O'Neill - +353 (0)89 477 0492 geraldine@horticulture.ie Cover Photo: Tim Miller 3D computergenerated image of Patricia Tyrrell's 'The Plant Lovers Garden' part of the Bord Bia Bloom initiative to help novices and uncertain gardeners realise their own dream garden at home.

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

AUTUMN/WINTER 2019

News, analysis and trends in landscape, garden retail & edible horticulture

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

Summer 2019

News, analysis and trends in landscape, garden retail & edible horticulture

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

Spring 2019

News, analysis and trends in landscape, garden retail & edible horticulture

MAKING THE PHOENIX BLOOM BARRY LUPTON INTERVIEWS GARY GRAHAM

WHY ARE YOU IN BUSINESS?

TERRY O’REGAN REACHES RETIREMENT AND ASKS THAT VITAL QUESTION?

THE THERAPEUTIC USE OF HORTICULTURE IN IRELAND RACHEL FREEMAN REVIEWS THE INAUGURAL SYMPOSIUM ON SOCIAL AND THERAPEUTIC HORTICULTURE

CHANGING THE RETAIL CLIMATE LIAM KELLY EXPLORES A GREENER SHOP FLOOR

WE’RE WINNING THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM COLM KENNY THROWS A SPOTLIGHT ON PROCUREMENT ISSUES

MEADOW MYTHBUSTER

SANDRO CAFOLLA TACKLES MYTHS AROUND MEADOW CREATION AND MAINTENANCE

AVOIDING THE PITFALLS

COLM KENNY DIGS DEEP ON URBAN TREES

GARDENING ON A THE EDGE

PATRICIA TYRELL REVIEWS THE RECENT GLDA SEMINAR

MITTELSTAND LESSONS FROM GERMANY

DÓNALL FLANAGAN SHARES INSIGHTS FROM GERMAN NURSERIES STUDY TOUR

ALCI AWARDS 2019

IRELAND'S LEADING CONTRACTORS ANNOUNCED

Volume 6 Issue 3

Volume 6 Issue 2

Volume 6 Issue 1

Printers: Azure Communations Print Run: 4,000 copies Distribution: Readership of 10,000 across Ireland to businesses and professionals in the following sectors: Landscape Architects / Garden Retail / Florists / Nurseries / Greenkeepers / Sports Surfaces / Local Authorities & Parks Departments / Machinery / Education / Edible Horticulture Publishers: Horticulture Connected Ltd www.HorticultureConnected.ie

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

HO CO

News, Analysis and Trends In Landscape, Garden Retail & Edible Horticulture

News, A In Lands

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS NEWS 03

Horticulture News

JOBS 05

The Latest Horticulture jobs from Horticulture.jobs

BORD BIA

06 All the latest news from Bord Bia

TEAGASC

08 All the latest news from Teagasc

INTERVIEW

10 DECISION TIME Barry Lupton catches up with Pippa Hackett, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with special responsibility for Horticulture, recently to gain insight into her plans for the sector

RETAIL

14 STRATEGIC SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS - WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT? Andy Campbell advocates a partnership based approach to build strong supplier relationships

FLORISTRY

18 A QUIET AND COLOURFUL REVOLUTION Susan Lynch and The Flower Farmers of Ireland make the case for Irish flowers by Irish Growers

INSIGHT

20 UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER JOURNEY Paul Moran describes your customers’ interactions with your business

24 CATCH THE BUZZ, THE VALUE OF BEES AND DIVERSITY

26 THE IMPORTANCE AND VALUE OF DATA Emer Gallaher Hall outlines the multiple benefits to your business of keeping your data accurate and relevant to your activities

28 GOING FOR GOLD Pat Fitzgerald discusses his winning mix in Japan with Dónall Flanagan of Teagasc

LANDSCAPE

30 FARM WALKS Féidhlim Harty visits the Inishowen peninsula and is hopeful

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for the integration of sustainable farming practices and the protection of watercourses

RESEARCH

32 HARNESSING NATURAL PRODUCTS FROM THE SEA FOR USE IN HORTICULTURE Karen O’Hanlon describes the numerous trials, using seaweed as a crop biostimulant, across Ireland

DESIGN

34 EASY STEPS TO DREAM GARDENS Bord Bia Bloom’s initiative to help novices and uncertain gardeners realise their own dream garden at home provides a blueprint for success

38 MUSEUM IN A GARDEN Landscape designer Nicola Haines describes the inception and creation of a new public garden in Limerick city centre

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Noeleen Smyth describes how increasing the success of pollinating insects delivers benefits for farmers, horticultural growers and biodiversity simultaneously

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

OPINION

40 MENTOR MAZE? Terry O’Regan on the benefits of having a trusted business advisor

EDUCATION

42 HORTICULTURE, EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY IN BLAKESTOWN DRIVE, D15 Rachel Freeman reviews the positive impacts of horticultural education

EDIBLES

46 LEAF NO WASTE Lael Walsh describes a collaboration between Teagasc and TU Dublin focusing on efforts to reduce food and packaging waste in horticulture crops

48 THE LIGHT FANTASTIC Teagasc’s Dr Eamonn Kehoe outlines the benefits of energy saving ‘night break’ lighting

02 / NEWS

HORTICULTURE NEWS

A NEW WAY OF WORKING WITH JANNY MT MODULES Janny MT is a modular natural storage solution for fresh fruit and vegetables which prolongs shelf life and maintains produce freshness in a classic cold room. Janny MT modular storage solution is flexible and can adapt to every farm size. The modular system is an efficient and sustainable way to answer some of those post harvest challenges, such as weight loss, decreases in quality or significant peeling.

CABBAGE PRODUCTION Storage in Janny MT modules allows the cabbage calibers to be maintained and to keep leaves fresh and crispy. There is also a clear benefit during cabbage peeling as only the first leaf is peeled, limiting waste and labour. This method of storage offers a way of selling local cabbage until June.

Simon, quality manager from Domaine des Loveresses commented,‘The modules have given us a great deal of flexibility and peace of mind in storage. The important point

is to follow Janny MT instructions. I have had very good support from Céline Kuentz, and following instructions, I haven’t had any problems.’

STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION Strawberry growers are adapting to the market demands.

Shorter distribution channels,demand for local products, and many different sales channels are emerging and expanding. Growers and pack houses need to be adaptable and be able to expand and reduce their capacity throughout the season. A good way to do this is by adding more flexibility into their storage regimes. Whatever the size of the farm, growers need to find ways of storing volumes of fruit to smooth out production peaks, optimise harvesting, and reduce losses in the field and in storage. Janny MT modular system provides flexible storage, under controlled conditions so that produce is maintained as fresh as possible for as long as possible with minimal handling damage. ✽

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Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

3

CURRENTLY

HIRING CARRAGH PAVING & LANDSCAPES t Soft Landscaping Team Leader CHARLEVILLE HOUSE t Experienced Gardener

FREE CONSULTATION TALK TO US!

SAP LANDSCAPES t Foreperson t General Operative

NATIONWIDE CONSTRUCTION SERVICE AVAILABLE

Tel: 046-9546007 | Email: info@cwp.ie

Website: www.cwp.ie Colm Warren (Polyhouses) Ltd. (CWP), Kilmurray, Trim, Co. Meath

Kildalton College

Piltown, Co. Kilkenny

Helping people grow careers in horticulture for 50 years

•

& SONS

HORTIRECRUIT t Landscape Foreperson t Gardener (Live in) t Horticulturist DOMESTIC & GENERAL PROPERTY t Grounds Maintenance Supervisor

• • •

PETER O'BRIEN

QQI Level 5 Certificate in Horticulture QQI Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Horticulture QQI Level 7 Bachelor of Science in Horticulture Now ta (in conjunction with Waterford Institute of Technology)

Part-time Component Awards at Levels 5 & 6

king applica tions for 202 1

Kildalton College has an extensive horticultural unit for student training, including a commercial nursery, fruit and vegetable production unit, protected crops and sportsturf units, as well as 16 hectares of established gardens and woodlands.

For further information: Email: Kildalton.college@teagasc.ie

Website:www.teagasc.ie/education/teagasc-colleges/ kildalton/horticulture

Facebook: Teagasc Kildalton College Telephone: 051 644400 or 051 644407 @kc_horticulture

DONNYBROOK LANDSCAPING t Experienced Team Leader

NOEL

DEMPSEY

LANDSCAPING

02 / NEWS

JUST ROSES Just Roses are pleased to announce that they are now the official distributor of Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic in Ireland. Alan Whetham’s wealth of industry experience as a noted and leading rose grower makes this a perfect fit for the business.

Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic is a natural rose feed that promotes healthier growth and dramatically improves disease resistance.

Amateur gardeners will now have the opportunity to benefit from the simple power of potassium phosphite, natureidentical plant food and get professional results.

Just Roses will be running a B2C marketing campaign for Uncle Tom’s Roses Tonic over the next 4 months to showcase the announcement. For those interested in Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic as trade stockists please follow the below link on justroseskilfinane.com/trade-enquiry or contact Alan on 087 4185511. ✽

NEW ICL RESEARCH AT BANGOR UNIVERSITY ICL is collaborating with Bangor University to carry out research on the effects and benefits of organo-mineral fertilizers for turf. MRes (Masters by Research) student, Deniz Arslan, is carrying out the yearlong research at Bangor University, and believes that the findings could be of great benefit to several sectors.

“We will be looking at how efficient organo-minerals are comparing to mineral and organic versions and how they all effect soil health,” she said. “The outcomes of this research can be important for all fields and will provide information to help fertilizer users make informed decisions.”

Mineral fertilizers are very commonly utilized and there is plenty of research detailing their benefits and the issues which can arise from poor product selection or overapplication, for example leaching of unused nutrients from the growing zone of a crop.

On the other hand, organic fertilizers offer other potential benefits, such as supporting microbes in the soil, but are often described as not performing as efficiently or productively as mineral fertilizers.

“Organo-mineral fertilizers, combining the benefits of minerals and organic sources, could be a more sustainable step for turf managers to take,” said Deniz. “I hope to prove that organo-mineral fertilizers are indeed beneficial for the soil and environment, and with no negative performance issues for turfgrass. Agricultural trials do show higher yields and performances which is promising, but of course it is different when measuring turf. You don’t necessarily want to grow more or longer grass.”

Gronamic, ICL's organo-mineral fertilizer brand, will be used in this research project. The experimental trials will include glasshouse trials of perennial ryegrass with Gronamic Sport High N and Gronamic Golf High N, contrasting with equivalent mineral and organic fertilizers.

“This unique research project will focus on plant growth, soil health and nutrient use efficiency factors, making use of the advanced equipment and facilities available at Bangor University,” said Deniz.

The scholarship named KESS (Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship) is led by Bangor University and links companies with academic expertise and universities to collaborate in research projects for PhD and Research Master qualifications.

ICL supports several research collaborations and has close ties with the universities in order to help bridge the gap between industry and academia.

For Deniz it means that she has a direct link to the industry and access to expert knowledge in high quality turf management. With all the resources at her disposal she is hopeful that this research could have a global reach.

“Finding solutions for conventional mineral fertilizers will be beneficial for all fields and industries, from agriculture and turf management to landscaping, and hopefully I can be part of that development. In the long term it can even impact the low-income nations and industrializing nations as well, for instance by applying it to urban green spaces and sustainable land management whilst keeping prices low as mineral resources are slowly depleting,” she said.

Please contact ICL on +0044 (0) 1473 237100 or visit iclsf.co.uk or icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland. For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf. ✽

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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BORD BIA ezine / 03

EARLY SALAD VEGETABLES - BEST IN SEASON Building on the success of the 2020 Best in Season Campaign, Bord Bia’s fresh produce promotions are leveraging the growing demand for fruit and vegetables by driving consumer preference of Irish fresh produce in order to deliver growth for the domestic horticultural sector. The campaign aims to inform and inspire shoppers to consume fresh produce by demonstrating its seasonality, freshness, quality, and health benefits; along with clearly signposting when local fresh produce is in season.

The first stage of the campaign is focused on early salad vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces) which are grown under glass house protection which requires highly-skilled care and attention. The months of April and May marked the beginning of the Irish harvesting season, and Bord Bia has been urging consumers to look for locally-grown fresh produce for freshness and high-quality throughout the summer season.

The second stage of the campaign highlights seasonal Irish fruit and vegetables, while celebrating the UN International Year of Fruit and Vegetables. It encourages consumers to simply ‘add one more’ vegetable or fruit to meals throughout the day and supports local communities and the horticultural industry.

Through a mix of media relations, and digital communications activity, Bord Bia is promoting the benefits of seasonal produce and a number of local growers and campaign spokespersons across national, regional and online media outlets to raise awareness of the availability of locally grown fruit and vegetables. ✽

SUSTAINABLE EUROPEAN MUSHROOMS After successfully completing the three year Mushrooms Complement Everything campaign in January, a fresh application to carry out another three years of mushroom EU co-sponsored promotion was made in May. If successful, the three year ‘Mix it up with sustainable mushrooms from Europe’ will have a €1,000,000 budget annually for 2022 to 2024 to promote mushrooms in the UK. It is an information and advertising campaign targeting consumers in the UK. Sustainability is an important issue for consumers, and the campaign will highlight the sustainable credentials of Irish and European mushrooms. They will help to further establish EU products as world leaders in sustainable food production, quality and traceability.

Analysis of UK consumers shows that women 25-45 are the most important sector to target because their mushroom consumption is lower than older age groups and they also have a high interest in sustainability. The overall objective is to increase the cumulative sales of mushrooms in the UK by 14,200 tonnes over the three years of the campaign. The campaign sets specific targets for increases in penetration and frequency of purchase in the target age group. The activities selected to achieve this increase are digital advertising, public relations and social media, and website and search engine optimisation. The outcome of the application will be made known in October. ✽

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

CELEBRATE STRAWBERRY SEASON The ‘Celebrate Strawberry Season’ campaign is an ongoing initiative, organised by Bord Bia in partnership with the Irish Soft Fruit Growers Association and the IFA, which aims to encourage the public to enjoy and purchase and enjoy strawberries during the long Irish growing season from May to November. The campaign provides inspiration on how to incorporate strawberries into daily eating habits as a naturally sweet and healthy fruit. Bord Bia research undertaken in July 2020 found strong data to support the health and lifestyle benefits of strawberries and aims to educate consumers through a digitally focussed campaign and supporting media relations activity. ✽

03 /BORD BIA ezine THE JOY OF BLOOM AT HOME IN JUNE Bord Bia Bloom 2021 was celebrated at home for the second year, over the June bank holiday weekend, and encouraged the public to embrace their gardens and outdoor spaces this summer.

The public took part in #BloomAtHome via a series of virtual initiatives and events providing gardening advice and inspiration. New for 2021, Bord Bia shared seven easy to follow garden designs and planting plans to help people create a dream garden at home.

Tara McCarthy, CEO, Bord Bia said, “Bord Bia Bloom is our annual showcase for horticulture and gardening in Ireland, and while we cannot be physically together in the Phoenix Park, we are delighted to bring the joy of Bloom directly to people’s homes. The garden has experienced a renewed sense of importance over the last year as a result of the restrictions we have all had to adhere to. Connecting with the outdoors and nature has also been increasingly recognised for the role it plays in mental health and well-being. We are delighted to be able to offer Irish gardeners, from beginners to those with more established green spaces, with inspiration and guidance on how to create a garden they can enjoy across all seasons as we celebrate the 15th annual Bord Bia Bloom.”

EASY STEPS TO DREAM GARDENS Designed by award-winning Bloom show garden designers, Bord Bia shared seven garden designs to be re-created either in full, or in part, at home, according to the time, space and budget available. From an easy-

to-maintain family friendly garden to an outdoor space perfect for entertaining, the garden plans feature a range of Irish grown plants that are available to purchase in garden centres and retailers nationwide. Each of the seven design packs in the series feature a detailed planting plan and planting list that can be downloaded from BordBiaBloom.com. (please see full length feature Easy Steps to Dream Gardens on pg 34 for full details).

LIVE TALK SERIES & Q&A'S Hosted by RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan, the live talk series provided inspiration and advice on how to design and maintain your outdoor space, as well as exploring the physical and mental benefits of gardening. The line-up included a host of names who have embraced gardening over the last year including Irish rugby star, Peter O’Mahony and actress and wellness expert, Aoibhín Garrihy.

BLOOM BBQ IDEAS As it would not be Bloom without the best of Irish food, some of Ireland’s best loved chefs and foodies including Catherine Fulvio and Rory O’Connell offered tasty BBQ recipes, tips and tricks as part of a series of #QualityKitchenCookAlongs.

COMPETITION WITH RTÉ Following the success of Bloom with RTÉ last year, Bord Bia was delighted to join forces with RTÉ once again for a new fun competition which invited the public to share their gardening efforts on social media over the June Bank Holiday weekend.

To view the live talk series, get tips on BBQ recipes and to access the garden designs and plant lists visit bordbiabloom.com. ✽

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

7

TEAGASC ezine / 04

WOOD FIBRE IN GROWING MEDIA WEBINAR

HORTICULTURE WEBINARS

Throughout the period of Covid-19 restrictions, the Teagasc Horticultural Development Department has supported the development of horticulture sectors by developing and hosting a series of technical webinars. These webinars feature keynote speakers, panel discussion, live polling and Q&A sessions from the audience. Many of the webinars incorporate the themes of the International Year of Fruit and Vegetables, focusing on sharing and developing knowledge on quality improvement, productivity and sustainability in fruit and vegetable production. Vegetable webinar topics have included carrot fly, clubroot and weed control in vegetable crops and sustainable soil health, while fruit topics have included latest advances in light supplementation, integrated pest management and protective cropping structures.

Webinars on nursery stock production have focused on pest, disease and weed control amongst other topics. To register for upcoming webinars or to access previously recorded webinars on the Teagasc website, scan the QR code above. ✽

Teagasc recently hosted a webinar exploring wood fibre use in growing media.

Dr Brian Jackson, Associate Professor and Director of the Horticultural Substrates Laboratory at North Carolina State University is an expert in the area. He is familiar with our sector, having visited Irish and European growing media facilities on a number of occasions. Dr Jackson discussed the different wood fibre processing systems and the characteristics of the fibre produced. Conifers produce more useful wood fibre than broadleaf trees as there is better chemistry and stability. The species of conifer is of less importance than the processing method. To meet domestic consumer expectations some media producers are dying their wood fibre from blonde to black. Issues of uniformity, shrinkage, slumping and water retention are well established and Dr Jackson highlighted some of the methods used to overcome these challenges.

Wood fibre in Ireland is produced from small roundwood and wood residue. Combined with post consumer recovered wood (PCRW) and tree tips from harvesting, these are also used for wood energy. COFORD has estimated the output of wood fibre available for production in2021 to be 2.2 million m³, rising to 3.9 million m³ by 2031. The webinar is available to watch on the Teagasc YouTube channel. Dr Brian Jackson discussed the fundamentals of wood fibre production and its use in growing media. ✽

TEAGASC IMPROVE APHID MONITORING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR HORTICULTURAL AND TILLAGE PESTS In June 2021, Teagasc will complete the construction of a 12.2m high insect suction tower at Ashtown Research Centre in North Dublin.

Similar towers have already demonstrated useful early detection or changes to populations of Willow Carrot Aphid and Peach Potato Aphid aphids specific, to horticultural crops. This tower will be the third of three 12.2m permanent towers, the others are already constructed and operational in Carlow and Cork. This suction tower network is based on a design from Rothamsted Research Aphid Monitoring Network, which is the longest running insect experiment in the world. These

8

towers will allow us to build a better understanding on the impact of climatic conditions on aphid movement and the epidemiology of viruses associated with aphid vectors. Work from Rothamsted in the 1970s indicated that the aphid catch in each suction tower is reflective of the aphid catches from

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

approximately 80 km diameter around the tower. Therefore, the network will allow us to make observations, which cover much of the East, South-East and South of Ireland, covering much of the horticultural activity in Ireland.

In addition, several mobile towers have been purchased and can be extended between 2m to 6m in height. These will be used to monitor on-farm locations as need arises. This infrastructure will help to build our understanding of aphid ecology in Ireland and ultimately will allow the development of better knowledge transfer to the horticultural sector in Ireland. For more information, please contact Michael.

Gaffney@Teagasc.ie ✽

04 /TEAGASC ezine SUPPORTING DECISION MAKING ON AGRICULTURAL INPUT REDUCTION

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation has declared 2021 as the International Year of Fruit and Vegetables. The aim is to raise awareness and share good practices on the contribution of fruit and vegetables to healthy diets and sustainable lifestyles, while also drawing attention to the importance of reducing loss and waste of fruit and vegetables.

In support of the International Year of Fruit and Vegetables( IYFV), we have developed an infographic to depict the interconnections between human health and the food we consume, specifically in this case, horticulture fresh produce. We are changing the frame of reference in terms of why horticulture production is important and why we might need to consider re-orienting the arguments for building more resilience into Irish production and consumption patterns of fresh produce.

A re-imagining of our food system and a re-valuing of horticulture fresh produce in terms of the role that it plays in human health will hopefully lead to a viable and sustainable Irish horticulture sector which promotes consumer health. ✽

NEW STRAWBERRY VARIETY TRIAL SHOWS PROMISING SIGNS A new strawberry variety trial has been developed by Teagasc. It has begun on several soft fruit farms across Ireland this year and is beginning to show interesting results. The trial is being run in association with the Italian soft fruit plant propagators Mazzoni and Salvi-Vivai (also known as CIV).

One of the most promising varieties is CIV 725 (see image). The variety has a large yield, excellent flavour and the fruits look fantastic. They have an elongated shape with a lovely glossy colour. Other varieties being tested include ‘Joly’, ‘Sibilla’, ‘Lycia’ and ‘Annely’. ‘Annely’ is the earliest of the varieties. It has been observed that ‘Annely’ is struggling to yield and the fruit is prone to splitting. The other varieties ‘Joly’, ‘Lycia’, and ‘Sibilla’ all show good yield potential. The fruit shape and quality is also excellent. So far, ‘CIV 725 and ‘Lycia’ are performing best in terms of yield potential and quality. Further assessment on all the varieties being trialled through tasting and shelf-life tests will be completed this summer to assess if the varieties have a place in the market. Larger scale testing of successful varieties plus new introductions will continue in 2022. ✽ PROMISING NEW VARIETY CIV 725 ON TRIAL IN IRELAND

SPENT MUSHROOM SUBSTRATE

TOTAL NUTRIENT CONTENT OF FRESH SMS

Spent Mushroom NUTRIENT NITROGEN PHOSPHORUS POTASSIUM ORD MATTER Substrate kg/tonne kg/tonne kg/tonne %DM (SMS) (or spent Content 8 1.5 8 67 mushroom compost) is a micronutrients such as Sulphur, Magnesium, Manganese, useful source Copper and Boron. The fibre from the straw improves of organic matter, soil structure, which can improve soil fertility. There is which can supplement significant environmental pressure to reduce the use of garden compost. Mushroom substrate is composed of peat in gardening and it can be difficult to find another chopped wheat straw, poultry manure, horse manure source of organic matter, however, SMS is readily and gypsum, which are mixed and composted under available as an excellent replacement. controlled conditions, and then used as a growth If you are interested in accessing spent mushroom substrate for mushroom production. SMS is an excellent substrate, contact your nearest mushroom grower soil conditioner, a source of organic matter and a valuable or mushroom producer organisation (Commercial source of major and minor nutrients (see table above): Mushroom Producers (CMP), Northway or Farm Fresh SMS contains around 8.0 kg N/tonne on average, Produce). Spent mushroom compost has valuable levels with the majority of N in an organic form, which is of nutrients and organic matter. ✽ slowly released over time. SMS also contains essential For more information on any element of this e-zine, please contact: Dermot Callaghan, Head of Horticulture Development Department, Teagasc, Ashtown, Dublin 15, D15KN3K Phone: +353 (0)1-805 9973; e-mail: dermot.callaghan@teagasc.ie

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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INTERVIEW / 05

©UNSPALSH/ PEXELS.COM

BARRY LUPTION INTERVIEWS PIPPA HACKETT

DECISION TIME “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… it was the spring of hope and the winter of despair.”

Dickens' words from The Tale of Two Cities, beautifully captures this paradoxical time for Irish horticulture. The rise in gardening culture, interest in the environment, and an increasing knowledge of the benefits of contact with nature have driven huge growth in the horticulture sector, then there is the pandemic. The global crisis forced people out of shops and pubs and into gardens, parks and landscapes. The restrictions have been good for horticulture. They’ve driven up plant sales, increased the level of garden investment and highlighted the importance of quality green space. But then there’s the catch: Brexit, supply chain issues, access to labour, a skills shortage and of course, the cessation of peat production are casting a shadow on what should be the best of times for Irish horticulture. And decisions taken now will facilitate the sector rising above the clouds or see it stuck in the mire.

Pippa Hackett, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with special responsibility for Horticulture is charged with making the right decisions. Her actions will have significant consequences and the sector is watching closely. I caught up with the Minister recently to gain insight into her plans.

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

05 / INTERVIEW

I want to get to a situation where we grow more of our daily food intake, we import less, and our growers get a fair price and a decent margin B. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACHIEVE DURING YOUR TENURE AS MINISTER OF STATE AT THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND THE MARINE WITH SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR HORTICULTURE? P. As Minister for Horticulture, I want to get to a situation where we grow more of our daily food intake, we import less, and our growers get a fair price and a decent margin.

I would like to see more people growing. In 1999, there were 360 commercial growers, now there are fewer than 150. And while levels of output may be similar, it is a pity to have seen the demise of localised, commercially viable growers. To me the ideal model is, grow local, consume local.

I believe the current supply chain models need to be examined so that we make them work for both grower and consumer. Perhaps there is scope for more direct selling, both through local markets and direct selling. In this digital age it is much easier for local growers and consumers to connect. I would like to explore how to support a mechanism which helps new supply chain models to be adopted in Ireland, because food will always be fresher from a local or domestic supplier, as well as having lower “food miles”. And of course, supporting Irish is something we should always be doing.

I think we have huge scope to become more self-sufficient, and I intend to oversee a clear pathway for delivery of this. To this end, I secured a 50% increase in the Budget for the Horticulture Development Grant Aid for 2021, as well as working closely with the sector to explore the possibilities of further Producer Organisations and I have commissioned a review of the horticulture sector, to identify opportunities, strengths for, and barriers to progress.

The farmgate figures for horticulture show just how important the horticulture industry is. It has the third highest farmgate value, without even factoring in the downstream value in areas such as processing and the value it adds to the whole industry. And in summary I believe now is an opportune time to develop this industry further and identify what could be done to strengthen all the sectors within the horticulture industry.

B. YOU COME FROM A FARMING BACKGROUND SO HAVE FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE OF THE CHALLENGES FACED BY THE SECTOR. HOW IS YOUR EXPERIENCE INFLUENCING YOUR ROLE? P. Everybody is influenced by their own experience, and my experience, not just as a farmer, but as an organic farmer and an environmentalist does of course play a part in how I approach this job. I am passionate about the need for Irish agriculture to put nature at the centre of its endeavours and I welcome the move towards climate friendly farming practices. While much of this is driven by the EU, the horticulture sector, over the past five years, has made significant investment in both infrastructure and equipment that supports more sustainable and environmental production systems. I welcome this and will continue to work with producers and the food industry to promote the maximisation of sustainable land management and food production systems.

B. I UNDERSTAND THAT LEADING BY EXAMPLE IS IMPORTANT TO YOU. HOW DO YOU SEE THIS TRANSLATING INTO YOUR MINISTERIAL DUTIES WITHIN THE HORTICULTURE SECTOR? P. I make a big effort to seek out and buy locally-sourced food, plants and produce and I always encourage others

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INTERVIEW / 05 to do that too. I think if the horticulture sector is going to develop here, we are going to have to strengthen the positive connections between consumers and growers, ensuring the clear message around the sustainable production of Irish horticulture is heard and adopted.

B. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS IRELAND’S ADVANTAGES? P. We have good growing conditions, and as an island nation we have the capacity to more easily protect the clean health status of our plants. That’s a really important advantage, probably an even bigger one than our climate, as with the ability to grow so much more food now in protected structures, almost anything can be grown anywhere. I think we need to embrace that reality and become more and more self-sufficient.

B. THE IMPACT OF BREXIT IS A CONTINUING STORY, AND ONE OFTEN FOCUSED ON THE NEGATIVE. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE POTENTIAL POSITIVES? P. The impacts of the supply chain model are very visible and yes, Brexit has had a negative impact on many aspects of food production here. However, it has concentrated our minds on how much we do import, and pointed to the huge opportunities of market substitution especially for those seasonal supply crops we can very well produce locally. In addition, our high health status of amenity trees and plants affords us new export opportunities, to the large UK amenity trade in particular.

B. YOU LAUNCHED THE EXCITING GREEN CITIES CAMPAIGN LAST WEEK. HOW DO YOU SEE THE CAMPAIGN BENEFITTING HORTICULTURAL BUSINESS OWNERS? P. We really saw the benefit of Green Cities throughout the pandemic. When we could move only two kilometres from our homes, we really appreciated how much we needed green environments everywhere, close by. So I fully support the concept of Green Cities. The health benefits are obvious and the inclusion of more green landscapes will have a positive impact on urban environments including reduction of pollution, increasing shade, reducing temperatures and boosting biodiversity. And obviously the drive to have more trees, shrubs and other green spaces in our towns and cities will benefit the horticulture business.

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regard I welcome the positive engagement of horticulture employers with the Help to Harvest recruitment. And in tandem, I continue to engage with Ministerial colleagues on work permit options.

B. THE SUBJECT ON EVERYONE’S LIPS IS PEAT, OR MORE PRECISELY THE CESSATION OF PEAT PRODUCTION IN IRELAND AND THE DEVASTATING EFFECT IT WILL HAVE ON THE SECTOR. WHILE EFFORTS CONTINUE TO BE MADE TO FIND ALTERNATIVES, ONE GROWER LAMENTED THAT THEY ARE FACING CLOSURE IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS WITHOUT PEAT. HOW IS THIS PROBLEM GOING TO BE SOLVED? P. This is a difficult issue. At the core of it though, we must remember that peat extraction is seriously damaging to the environment and must cease. The sector acknowledges that themselves. However I fully accept the difficulties this poses for the amenity and mushroom sectors in particular. Officials in the Dept of Housing, along with officials in my Dept and DECC, are working hard to see if any short-term solutions can be put in place to help growers transition from peat. Research is also ongoing into peat alternatives, and we are working closely with our EU counterparts, who are going through the same transition.

B. EU FUNDING IS BECOMING MORE EASILY ACCESSIBLE FOR GREEN INITIATIVES. WHAT SPECIFIC OPPORTUNITIES ARE OPEN TO HORTICULTURAL BUSINESS? P. There is a lot of funding available both for marketing and for producer organisations. We have traditionally been quite slow to access it, but given that one of the ways of unlocking it is through Producer Organisations, I’m happy to see that my Department is supporting their establishment, and also actively engaging with newly formed ones. I think it’s really important for growers to come together in order to achieve collectively because collaboration is a critical success for this industry.

We have good growing conditions, and as an island nation we have the capacity to more easily protect the clean health status of our plants

B. LABOUR SHORTAGES ARE CRIPPLING THE SECTOR. CONTINUED PUP PAYMENTS, TIGHT MARGINS AND REDUCED LABOUR MOVEMENT ACROSS EUROPE ARE ALL IMPACTING THE VIABILITY OF THE SECTOR. WHAT IS BEING DONE TO ADDRESS THIS?

B. DESPITE EFFORTS, IT IS STILL EASIER, CHEAPER, AND MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD TO HAVE PLANTS SUPPLIED FROM COUNTRIES SUCH AS THE NETHERLANDS. HOW DO YOU THINK THIS AGE-OLD PROBLEM CAN BE ADDRESSED?

P. The horticulture sector is labour intensive, and producing, processing and distributing food requires the work and expertise of many different people in many different roles. In addition, I fully recognise that the greater demand for labour at certain times of year can mean that securing sufficient labour is particularly acute at certain peak periods. I think it is important always to target local workers however, so in that

P. Yes the Dutch are tough to compete with. They have been in the growing business a long time and have a huge capacity for producing plants. So in response, we need to focus on our strengths. So in the first instance we need to remember that as we are an island Nation, with a much higher high plant health status than other EU member states, our nurseries can produce high quality, pest-free plants which

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05 / INTERVIEW

The promotion of locally sourced food and reduction of air miles will increase the demand for Irish food, creating opportunity for horticulture producers should secure a higher retail price. We also need to identify the gaps in the wider market and ensure our nurseries are specialising in plant production.

Increasing capacity within the industry is also important and this is why I increased the Horticultural Grant Aid Scheme by 50%.

B. WHAT OPPORTUNITIES DO YOU SEE FOR IRISH HORTICULTURE TO PLAY IN MITIGATING THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE? P. Over the past five years the sector has made significant investment in both the infrastructure and the equipment to support more sustainable and environmental production systems. I will continue to work with producers and the food industry to promote the maximisation of sustainable land management and environmentally friendly practices. I welcome and support the investments made by the sector towards the use of renewable energy sources such as biomass and photovoltaics in meeting its heating requirements with many producers and growers within the protected crop sector now using biomass. In addition the capture of CO2 emissions from production systems to optimise plant growth points towards sustainable energy use.

There is potential for greater import substitution and a push for domestic production of fruit and vegetables within the existing supply chain model and I would like to explore this potential.And of course going organic also helps mitigate climate change, as its production requires fewer and even no synthetic inputs.

B. THE HUGE RISE IN POPULARITY AND ENGAGEMENT WITH BIODIVERSITY INITIATIVES IS VERY MUCH WELCOMED BY THE SECTOR. HOWEVER, CONCERNS HAVE BEEN RAISED ABOUT THE LIMITED CONTROL OF THE POLLINATOR/ BIODIVERSITY SPECIES BEING

IMPORTED AND SOWN. WHAT IS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THIS ISSUE AND WHAT IS BEING DONE TO AVOID THE IMPORTATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF NON-NATIVE SPECIES? P. Yes, we are monitoring this situation in particular around the wildflower mixes and my officials are working with the Irish Seed Trade Association (ISTA) with a view to extending the voluntary agreement to include wildflower seeds propagated in Ireland and also to imported wildflower species formulated into mixtures in Ireland.

DAFM has also issued a Trader Notice on 16th June to retailers of wildflower seed mixes notifying them of the potential Blackgrass contamination and strongly advising that only natively-sourced wildflower seed mixes are marketed or if imported recommend that they are certified as Blackgrass free.

B. ON A SIMILAR SUBJECT, WE HAVE SEEN A HUGE INCREASE IN THE DEMAND AND USE OF NATIVE TREES. AS SOMEONE INVOLVED IN FARMING, I AM VERY INTERESTED TO GET YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON WHAT A NATIVE TREE IS IN TERMS OF PROVENANCE? IS A HAWTHORN, WHICH HAS BEEN IMPORTED FROM BELGIUM, A NATIVE IRISH TREE? P. A native tree is one which has been grown from native Irish seed.

Ideally we should be sourcing all our trees from native Irish seed, but unfortunately, it seems, this is not always possible. It is clear that such trees need to be at least Irish grown and plant passported as such, this affords some confidence to the plant health status of the material that will be utilised through various schemes.

B. THE HORTICULTURE INDUSTRY FORUM HAS PROVEN TO BE A USUAL VEHICLE FOR BUILDING COLLABORATION BETWEEN GROWERS OF FIELD

VEGETABLES, AMENITY AND PROTECTED CROPS, SOFT FRUIT, MUSHROOMS, AND POTATOES, BUT HAS DONE NOTHING TO BUILD COLLABORATION WITH THE WIDER SECTOR. WHAT PLANS DO YOU HAVE TO ADDRESS THIS? P. I believe the HIF has been an excellent vehicle to progress many of the live issues for the sector as well as laying out a clear vision for its future. As its co-chair, I want to work with Industry Chair, Brian O’Reilly, to deliver on its priorities, and I also expect the Horticulture Report to provide a clear pathway for the future across all the sectors. It is clear that there are opportunities to improve competitiveness and sustainable production through enhanced grower cooperation and collaboration, and as I said before, my department has been very proactive in encouraging the sector to look at the opportunities available to Producer Organisations.

B. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS BEING THE MAIN OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE WIDER SECTOR IN THE COMING DECADE? P: Finally, notwithstanding the clear challenges ahead for the sector, I do believe there are tremendous opportunities ahead for Irish Horticulture.

There is an emerging understanding of the contribution horticulture can make in terms of Irish approach to climate matters as well as the renewed focus on locally produced sustainable plants, fruit and vegetables.

As Minister I can help support that development through the ongoing investment via the Commercial Horticulture grant aid scheme and Producer Organisations.

I see huge opportunities for Irish horticulture as a result of various ways and schemes to mitigate climate change. The promotion of locally sourced food and reduction of air miles will increase the demand for Irish food, creating opportunity for horticulture producers. The increase in planting of trees and shrubs as a result of climate mitigation schemes and biodiversity schemes increases opportunities for the amenity trade with particular focus on the production of locally sourced plant species. ✽

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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RETAIL / 06

Andy Campbell advocates a partnership based approach to build strong supplier relationships

O

ver recent years, the supply base within the gardening industry has consolidated somewhat, with relatively few larger companies dominating the market.

Like many other markets it changes constantly as a result of acquisition, merger, flotation, buy-ins or buyouts, and at worst liquidation and receivership. Gardening products are characterised by their seasonality, weather-dependency and, in the case of horticultural products, their perishability.

In addition, they tend to be of relatively low value, bulky and difficult to manage through the supply chain.

When these dimensions are

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combined it is clear that volatility in the market is inevitable and that if retailers and suppliers don’t work collaboratively, conflict will arise and opportunities will be missed. This working relationship becomes doubly important during periods of intense demand and restricted supply, as we have experienced in the last eighteen months. The challenge, therefore, is in choosing the right suppliers to work closely with, and to determine the best way of working with them.

At one end of the relationship definition, the exchange can be viewed as a simple transaction between buyer and seller, no more than a clinical interaction, largely tactical by nature. At the other end, a much more strategic relationship can be sought and developed that will deliver sustainable

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

It takes considerably more time to manage a bad supplier who consistently underperforms, than a good supplier who delivers on commitments

06 / RETAIL

STRATEGIC SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS Why are they important?

benefits for both businesses. Whilst the former has a place, I am convinced that the latter approach achieves more in the long term.

SO, WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DEFINE THE IDEAL SUPPLIER? The answer to this complex question can be summarised under the following five headings: FINANCIALLY SECURE If you are seeking a long-term supplier relationship that is strategic in nature rather than meeting a short-term tactical need for your business, it is important to interact with suppliers who are financially secure. Those suppliers will have the capability to invest in research and development for the future, either in terms of new product development or continuous improvement in ways of working.

MARKET DEVELOPMENT A supplier who has a demonstrable intent and commitment to grow the market is more attractive, when it

comes to assessing potential suppliers, rather than a supplier who is seeking to simply take market share from competitors. This may be demonstrated by market research to better understand the potential and existing

and into the future.

consumers and customers or by various marketing initiatives designed to stimulate additional demand.

when it comes to the overall value of their offer, specifically; range, quality, service, promotions and price. The price you pay needs to reflect the benefits of scale and also to recognise the specific way that you do business with the supplier, such that you pay for the service elements that you take but not for those that you do not require.

STRONG BRAND In most cases, developing a relationship with a supplier who owns or has developed a portfolio of strongly branded ranges is highly advantageous.

This can mean that all your product requirements for a sector or category may be sourced from one supplier rather than buying many individual products from multiple sources, which can be both time-consuming and costly. This is less relevant in categories, where brand awareness is minimal or non-existent, as in the case of plants.

The ability to produce and supply products under your own label may be considered, in categories where this is the case.

WELL MANAGED It is people who make a business and who make the difference to how the business performs, and therefore it is worthwhile gaining an understanding of how well managed the company is.

Indicators of a well managed business include, the professionalism and proactivity of the account management, and the innovation and effectiveness of the functional management team.

Businesses that are technically advanced in terms of systems and support processes tend to be more efficient now

HIGHLY COMPETITIVE If these first four criteria are met, then it is reasonable to assume that the supplier will be highly competitive

WHAT SHOULD YOUR SUPPLY BASE LOOK LIKE? Having defined the characteristics of your long-term strategic supplier, the next stage is to determine the overall size and shape of your supply base. It is, of course, necessary to achieve a balance and to find the optimum number of suppliers with whom you deal. Too many, and it is practically impossible to manage effectively, establish a dialogue to build the relationship, gain commitment or achieve any economies of scale. Too few, and you might feel that you are compromising your range too much and that your business is exposed to too much risk, if one of your suppliers underperforms or ceases trading for some reason. General guidance is to proactively assess each product sector and to decide on the lowest supplier number which will help to balance the trade-off between maximising profit and minimising risk.

But what about the quality of the supply base? It takes almost the same amount of time for a buyer to manage

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

06 / RETAIL a small turnover supplier as it does a large one. However, it takes considerably more time to manage a bad supplier who consistently underperforms, than a good supplier who delivers on commitments. Therefore, it is essential to identify those suppliers with a good track record of performance and those who honour their commitments. To avoid misunderstandings, it is also important to be clear about what you expect from them. Equally, it is perfectly legitimate for the supplier to clearly state their expectations of you and your business.

Ultimately, this process is about ensuring the highest possible level of compatibility between trading partners.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM YOUR SUPPLIERS? The next stage is to determine exactly what you want from this strategic relationship and what you are able to give to it, such that it becomes a ‘win-win’ relationship for both parties.

Both participants in the relationship have their own set of business objectives, but by working cooperatively to better meet consumers’ needs they are more likely to achieve their objectives, than by working independently or in conflict. I have grouped sample requirements that you might have of the supplier below, but stress there may be other specific

know of any relationship that works where only one party’s needs are met! Therefore, it is fundamental to understand what the supplier wants to achieve from the relationship.

From experience, it is clear that the best way to find out is to ask them outright. This frank exchange of requirements, which is essential and desirable, can be very revealing, it gives a starting point where each party knows where they stand. It highlights points of agreement (and often there are many), and potential ints of contention, which can be worked through to a mutually agreed solution. Ideally the output from this discussion would be a jointly agreed business plan that can be implemented. Typical requirements that a supplier might ask, in addition to a general commitment to support the development of the account, could include: ●A longer-term trading agreement, two to three years

rather than annual ●S upport of their brand values - in terms of pricing

and promotion ●C omprehensive listing of the range - rather than

“cherry-picking” ●P riority over competitors, listing and positioning

needs that you have that are unique to your own business:

●A high profile presence, during major national

SALES GROWTH

●S hared demand forecasting, including EPoS data exchange

Your strategic supplier should have a commitment to help grow your share of the market, including access to market research data, involvement in national advertising and promotions, specific bespoke promotional activity and exclusive ranging opportunities. Many suppliers provide product demonstrations, display samples and equipment, point of sale material and a merchandising service but it is important to remember that these all cost money and you will pay for them if you use them. New product development (NPD) is the “lifeblood” of most businesses, and in a strategic relationship it is important to get as much early insight and input to this process as possible and to ensure that as a trusted trader you get first access to new products.

COST REDUCTION In addition to sales driving activities, there may well be joint cost reduction initiatives that can be assessed that could take costs out of the supply chain to the benefit of both parties. such as pack count optimisation, stock holding reduction or order-delivery-receipt processing improvements. There may also be opportunities in rationalising your supply base to place more business with your chosen long-term suppliers in return for improved terms, depending on the number of suppliers you have.

You may also have specific requirements in terms of minimum order quantities or delivery lead times and it may be appropriate to have a service level agreement in place with the supplier to ensure the best on-shelf availability to your customers, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and maximising profit.

WHAT MIGHT THE SUPPLIER WANT FROM YOU? As stated this relationship can only be successful if a mutually beneficial process and continuous dialogue exists. I don’t

marketing initiatives ● I nput to new product development, including product

testing and trials ●J oint involvement in future business development issues

RISKS AND BENEFITS There is however a fine line between working cooperatively and becoming complacent. It is imperative that the buyer constantly challenges the status quo and explores the possibility of a better, alternative source of supply. And, it is incumbent on the supplier to continue to innovate and prove to the buyer exactly why they should continue to do business with them.

I am convinced that with a strategic approach towards one’s suppliers it is possible, over a period of time, to establish a deep and thorough understanding of each other’s business, such that efforts are directed at building the size and profitability of the product category. This involves a significant commitment to each other, by recognising that the trading relationship can be mutually beneficial. In essence, the focus moves from management of today to development for tomorrow which, for most people, is a much more productive and satisfying activity. ✽

ANDY CAMPBELL is an independent business development consultant specialising in the garden centre industry with 40 years’ retail experience.

Contact details: 0044 (0)7788 567011 / www.andy@ andycampbellconsulting.co.uk / www.andycampbellconsulting.co.uk

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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FLORISTRY / 07

Susan Lynch and The Flower Farmers of Ireland make the case for Irish flowers by Irish Growers

A

quiet revolution is underway. There’s never been a better time to source locally grown flowers, there are growers all over the island. We could do more, though, to get those flowers into customers’ hands and homes. Irish flower farmers are on the verge of hitting the mainstream, they just need a little help to spread the word. In the Summer 2017 edition of this publication, Ruth Monahan said “How wonderful would it be to have a sustainable and environmentally mindful, fairtrade, cut flower industry here. The holistic world view of what could be achieved is mind blowing. If we could get this party started next July, we could be celebrating success in a field nearby.”

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A QUIET & COLOURFUL REVOLUTION Four years later, change IS happening. There is an everincreasing awareness of impending and irreversible climate change, groups of people all over the world are trying to do their bit. Scientists, farmers, politicians, and schoolchildren are all trying to change how we do things. More specifically, The Flower Farmers of Ireland, an umbrella organisation for cut flower producers, with more than fifty members all over the island, is working to deliver a sustainable product while supporting biodiversity, especially our beleaguered pollinators.

Every year we see more new entrants seeking to build flower growing businesses. However, despite the fact that the Irish Government declared a climate and biodiversity emergency in

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

FLORISTRY / 07 11 / DESIGN 2019, there is little to no support available for flower growers located on the island.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? The Flower Growers of Ireland envision beautiful fields of flowers around the country, supporting local ecosystems AND businesses, and creating local employment. Our fields and gardens create a safe environment for pollinators. They are also perfect venues to attract agri-tourism. Supporting local growers will reduce flower imports and make us more independent. If nothing else, the isolation from the rest of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how important it is to be self-sufficient.

Sometimes when there are no words, flowers speak volumes.

People love flowers as a way of saying ‘I love you’, ‘thinking of you’ or ‘get well soon’. Weddings, anniversaries and births are marked with flowers.They can be used to say ‘hi’ to someone you have missed, and sometimes to say ‘goodbye’. The list is endless. People respond to flowers on an emotional level, they can make you laugh and they can make you cry. Much of the focus in the horticultural sector has traditionally been on crop and food production. While food is obviously vital, flowers and their growers have slipped through the cracks and flower growers are not supported to the same extent as other sectors, leading to ‘money left on the table’, money large commercial growers in other countries have been only too glad to pick up. We (and the pollinators that support the aforementioned food crops) need flowers without the air miles, refrigeration & chemicals that come with imported flowers.

We hear all the time, from the EU and other authorities, that we need to reduce our farming carbon footprint. The Flower Farmers of Ireland can certainly help tick that box. According to the recent CAP proposals, the EU needs us to reduce our farm sizes. Flower farmers can be extremely productive in very small spaces, so including these farms in any national measures can bring down the national average. We are part of the pollinator plan, we use sustainable practices and sustainability is vital for the future, so let’s embrace it. Growing flowers can create local jobs. Apart from the actual growing, flowers need to be harvested, delivered, arranged and sold. Some of our members are involved in ‘Social Farming’ programmes which help their local communities. Flower Farmers with their unique workplaces and practices enhance Ireland’s reputation as a green and sustainable Island.

SO HOW CAN WE GO FORWARD AND WHAT CAN THE INDUSTRY DO TO SUPPORT FLOWER FARMERS? Many people appreciate seasonal flowers in much the same way as they do seasonal food. Like the first Irish strawberries or tomatoes, people welcome the first seasonal blooms and the quality of things grown in season. Those who don’t understand the seasonal nature of the product are generally open to learning and this is a gospel we are constantly preaching. People genuinely want to buy Irish flowers. They understand the need to embrace more environmentally friendly practices such as reducing air miles, and they want to ‘shop local’ when possible. Florists want to sell Irish flowers

to give their customers choice and support Irish employment.

Throughout the growing season our members are constantly contacted by florists from across Ireland looking for Irish flowers. Some of the bigger florists can bring in as much as 400 buckets a week to meet the demands of their clients and they would love to buy more Irish flowers. Lorna Stuart Trainor is the owner of ‘A Room in Bloom’. She is also an award-winning floral designer who teaches professional floral design for NOTS (National Organic Training Skillnet), and she said. ‘I wanted to have local flowers, as one of the most common questions I get asked as a florist is; where do the flowers come from? I’m so thrilled to now be able to say some of them are grown in Mullingar! Also, Irish grown blooms add a little something special and extra to arrangements that you can’t get from Dutch blooms. They are not perfect, which is fun, the seasonality means they are picked at the perfect time and not forced.”

Local focus increased during the pandemic. With restrictions on travel, flowers gave people a voice, a way to send good wishes to their loved ones. Yes, weddings were down in both frequency and numbers attending, but being able to send flowers gave people something positive to hold on to. Irish-grown flowers are a lucrative option with minimal input, annual flowers grow well in most soils, some even prefer low fertility, and flowers can bring greater revenue per acre than many salad crops. We already have the interest and support of the public and florists. To progress, we need support from the State. Ideally, that would include backing for research and development in our colleges, but we also need to look at logistics and future employment potential.

As a priority, we need research and development to focus on identifying the best flowers to grow in our climate, that can produce a crop earlier and longer into the season. We need help to be instrumental in continuing to create and support an Ireland where pollinators can survive, and become recognised contributors to the Irish agri sector.

But at the very heart of it, is the fact that people want Irish flowers and Irish florists want to supply Irish flowers, and from every facet this makes sense. ✽

The article was written by Susan Lynch (member) and Britta Baranowsky LEFT CHAIRWOMAN BRITTA BARANOWSKY (Chairwoman) of (THE FLOWER FIELD)AND RIGHT SUSAN LYNCH (THE VINTAGE ROSE COMPANY) the Irish Flower Farmers of Ireland.

Susan is a member of Flower Farmers of Ireland, is the largest Grower of Roses for the cut flower industry in Ireland and runs thevintagerosecompany.com, a flower farm specialising in growing roses for the wedding industry.

Britta Baranowsky (Chairwoman) of the Irish Flower Growers Association members and is an artisan flower grower and floral designer of theflowerfield.net

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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Paul Moran describes how understanding how your customers interact with your business, can improve your customer touchpoints and increase revenue

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You want the customer to love your product and service, to become your advocate and to tell others how great it is to interact with you

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id you ever wonder why a business or customer decided to buy from you ahead of your competitors? Did you ever put yourself in your customer's shoes and assess the steps they took to make the decision to purchase? Infact, did it ever occur to you how and where your customer actually first heard about you? These questions are answered by assessing the customer journey. In this article, I will shed some light on what the customer journey is and how you can use it to increase your customer base and satisfaction.

WHAT IS THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY? The customer journey breaks down, step by step, the behaviours of the

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

customer from first being unaware of your business to finally purchasing with you. It is a strategic tool to understand each interaction or touchpoint a customer has with your business.

By analysing each interaction, it is possible to understand which areas of interaction are flourishing and which areas need improving. Many businesses physically map out the customer journey, on whiteboards, on paper or slides. Regardless of how you map your customer’s journey, the key is to understand each interaction and ensure the stages of the journey work well, with seamless transitions to the next stage. If you don’t engage with such strategic tools you may leave yourself open to blindspots, by not understanding how the customer arrives at your door.

©

UX INDONESIA /UNSPLASH.COM

08 / INSIGHT

NDERSTANDING YOUR

USTOMER JOURNEY

STAGES OF THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY: AWARENESS Making your potential customers aware of you or your business is the first step on the customer journey. This awareness can be developed in many ways, by simply viewing an advertisement in a publication which targets your market, or being flagged in a social media post to an audience who are interested in similar products and services. It is important to target spaces where your prospects are spending their time. It is also essential to understand that creating awareness through advertising is not about selling the product or service, it is about making potential prospects become aware of your business and to move the viewer onto

the next stage of the customer journey, when they have a need or desire for what you sell. Research has shown customers are more likely to buy from businesses they are familiar with or at least a business of which they have heard. The awareness stage is external, requiring you to leverage the networks that already exist in the marketplace.

This is not about updating your website or product line but instead it’s about running advertising in appropriate places. As the saying goes, ‘it’s too late to start marketing when you’re quiet’, which means you consistently have to keep a new funnel of prospects aware of your products and services so they become customers in due course.

RESEARCH & INTEREST Congratulations, by correctly engaging

with your prospective customer, the customer is now aware of your business and a situation has come where they need you and what you can offer.

Perhaps they are looking for irrigation solutions, fertilizer to sell or a food storage partner in the market. This stage is when information is gathered.

Customers typically research products and services using search engines such as Google, by scanning your website, news articles, social media and of course testimonials and reviews. It’s not all online though, as research also happens by informal chatting with colleagues, friends and family about your products or services.

Through this stage of the customer journey, the prospect will undertake research on features, price, reliability, distribution and the technical attributes of your offering. Now, the prospect is really engaged and it’s essential to ensure you manage your publications and reviews correctly. Also ask yourself, ‘is my website easy to navigate?’, ‘can my customers get the information they require and if not, where will they turn to?’. The research stage is becoming internal, as your customers are searching for you. You control how your website or your social media profile appears. To illustrate how significant this stage can be, GE Capital Research Bank reports that 81% of consumers research online before they shop and 57% make a decision before they move to the contact stage.

Tip: Practice putting out high value content for your customers by creating blogs on your website which show your customers that you are an expert in your area, conveying credibility to your customers along with a host of other search engine benefits.

CONTACT The contact stage happens when the customer interacts with you. This interaction is a good sign because it means the prospect is close to buying.

Here, they will ask questions about bulk orders, potential discounts and customisation. Typically your sales team or customer service should be involved in this stage. It is worth noting, however, that some businesses and customers might skip this stage and go directly to

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08 / INSIGHT the next step. It is important that your sales teams are well trained, armed with all relevant information and the ability to build good relationships. Exceptional customer service indicates to your prospect how your after sales service will be if a customer purchases from you.

Simply put, I recommend sitting down with a piece of paper and identifying and mapping each stage of your customer’s journey through your business. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes

CONSIDERATION Now the customer has all the information at their fingertips about you and your products and they have engaged with you offline & online. This is a time where they weigh up the pros and cons of dealing with you. Logically speaking you have ticked the box so the decision will essentially be emotional, based on their experience with you upto this point? How much do they trust you? Have you created a good ‘gut feeling’ for your customer?

customer journey. Sales teams like to take credit for purchase orders but will understand how creating awareness upstream of the purchase creates their future funnel of prospects.

PURCHASE This is where the pedal meets the metal! The critical purchase stage, the transfer of money to your business from the customer is also known as the conversion stage. But always remember, your customer’s journey doesn’t end when the customer walks out the door or pays their invoice. By this

UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMER’S EXPERIENCE Understanding the customer journey ultimately gives you an understanding of your customer’s experience. Better experiences lead to happier customers. Happier customers not only buy from you but are more inclined to return for repeat purchases and to advocate to others on your behalf. It

stage you want the customer to love your product and service, to become your advocate and to tell others how great it has been to interact with you.

is therefore necessary to make your customers’ experiences as painless and informative as possible. For example, how quickly can your customers get answers to questions when they are researching you? Do they have access to real time customer responses or perhaps a comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions section on your website?

BENEFITS OF UNDERSTANDING THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY CORRECTING WEAKNESS A principal benefit of understanding the customer journey is that weaknesses at any stage along the journey can be identified and corrected. A business which is investing heavily in sales teams and new products, but is not achieving awareness penetration cannot expect to build a sales pipeline for this new sales team and product line. You should ask if you are doing enough to ensure awareness of your products and services, to attract new customers and to showcase that you are relevant this year, keeping the company at the top of mind for the industry. Increasing awareness delivers a higher number of customers to the subsequent stages of the journey to the purchase stage. Understanding the customer journey also allows you to specifically understand what tools you are using are driving awareness, for example; are my social media actions producing better results than my radio presence? This may determine where you focus the budget you have.

CHANGING PERSPECTIVE Researching your customers’ journey can change your perspective. Often, we are stuck in a rut in our thinking, different people in the same business can view the customer very differently. You can use the customer journey tool to break down silos in the business, to view the business from a new perspective and to change the normal thought process.

It is also very useful to align the entire company and to bring coordination amongst teams. For example, the marketing department will have a greater appreciation of customer service when they understand the significance it plays in the

CONCLUSION Simply put, I recommend sitting down with a piece of paper and identifying and mapping each stage of your customer’s journey through your business. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. You cannot expect to get phone calls and trade enquiries if you are not increasing awareness of your name in the correct channels, where your target market is listening and viewing. And importantly, when they’ve found you, you must have the available infrastructure of information to pique their interest and answer their questions about your offering.

This could be a once in a year exercise, or as often as you like. Like nature, the customer journey is always changing, as the ways in which people interact with the marketplace is always changing. The important thing is not to lose sight of your customer’s experience of your business from the first step to the last, which will deliver value and revenue for your business. ✽ Paul Moran is a Business Development Executive for Horticulture Connected. Paul has worked in Digital Sales & Marketing with high profile tech companies across Ireland previously and holds a Msc in Strategic Management & Planning from UCD Michael Smurfit Business School. When he is not buried in marketing, he loves to garden and grow his own food. He can be contacted at paul@horticulture.ie

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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CATCH THE BUZZ, THE VALUE OF BEES AND DIVERSITY

Noeleen Smyth describes how increasing the success of pollinating insects delivers benefits for farmers, horticultural growers and biodiversity simultaneously

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MAIN PHOTO: WHITE CLOVER; PHOTO 2: BOMBUS PASCUORUM ON DANDELION; PHOTO 3: CLOVER ©BURRENBEO TRUST

he news these days can be pretty depressing.

Our favourite Grandad, David Attenborough, is still working away at 95, warning us on as many platforms as possible in the time he has left about the dire situation we are in. His Netflix documentary, “A life on our planet” must be watched, but have a box of Kleenex handy, as you will emerge unnerved and ready to do something positive and radical. One positive and radical action that I suggest is pretty easy is selecting pollinator friendly plants and planting for every situation.

During my lifetime there has been an estimated 70% decline in the populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. One million of the animal and plant species, almost a quarter of the global total, are threatened with extinction. These losses are putting our economies, livelihoods and well-being at risk. In most instances we don’t notice what we are missing, as a particular species has not existed in our lifetime, we visit the museum and see them lined up in a stuffed array, all “dead as dodos”, the infamous extinct island bird. The passenger pigeon in North America once darkened the skies in vast numbers and took days to pass as they migrated, but today this once very notable and dominant species is shockingly extinct. Imagine the loss of such a widespread species yet most extinctions go unnoticed.

WHY SHOULD WE WORRY ABOUT SPECIES ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION? David Attenborough highlighted in the foreword to “The Economics of Biodiversity”review in February 2021 that “we are totally dependent upon the natural world. It supplies us with every oxygen-laden breath we take and every mouthful of food we eat…many of its natural systems are now on the verge of breakdown. “This economic review, also known as The Dasgupta Review makes for fascinating but sobering reading. For the first time we can understand the values and prices of many of the

Some available figures place a value of US$41 million on blueberry pollination services in the USA, £36.7 million for apples in the UK and €3.9 million for oilseed rape in Ireland services nature provides to us, putting the natural world and world economics firmly on the same page.

Some would argue that it’s a waste of time and not realistic to put a price on nature, but there can be no doubt this is a big wake up call. The life-giving income from 'ecosystem services', such as reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, supplying fresh water, preventing floods, protecting our crops from pests and pollinating them, recycling nutrients, essential to agriculture and forestry, an unending list, according to Elrich & Elrich in 1981.

The Dasgupta review states “human economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the economy of nature”, natural capital is the steady flow of income without which we can’t survive.

HOW DEPENDENT ARE WE ON NATURE AND WILD SPECIES? Many of the products we enjoy from coffee to wine and everything in between are dependent on plant and insect biodiversity. From the Dasgupta Review, a study of coffee farms in Brazil found that farms nearest to forest had a 14.6% increase in production related to pollination benefits and in South Africa, it was found that mango yields were enhanced by the addition of patches of wild native flowers in agricultural fields. One-third of the human diet in tropical countries is derived from insect-pollinated plants, which means a decline in forest-dwelling insects has an adverse effect on human nutrition. A study on pollination in Costa Rica discovered that forest-based pollinators increase the annual yield in coffee plantations within 1km from the forest edge by as much as 20%. Similar figures have yet to be replicated in Europe and Ireland but my guess is they would be comparable.

08 / INSIGHT Some available figures place a value of US$41 million on blueberry pollination services in the USA, £36.7 million for apples in the UK and €3.9 million for oilseed rape in Ireland. This is how much it would cost us to send in people to do the work of our pollinators.

While it might well be possible to replace the work of pollinators with people, pollinators do a much better job, animal pollination was found to improve the shelf life of soft fruits and even their nutritional content (naturalscience.tcd.ie/pollinator/ conserve.php).

Farming and transporting bees around already happens in the USA, where 50% of all beehives are transported to California each year to help pollinate the almond orchards. Beehives are loaded onto pallets and transported 1,000s of miles across the country on trucks. These activities seem crazy and should be unnecessary, activities which we don’t want or need in Ireland.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO? Everyone is keen to do something to help our bees and pollinators in Ireland and with very good reason. We have heard the grim statistic that one third of our bees are threatened with extinction. These and other pollinating insects such as hoverflies, butterflies and moths are in dire straits; we can see evidence for this as we drive with clear windscreens, not a dead insect body in sight.

Luckily in Ireland, there are two scientists on the case; Dr Úna Fitzpatrick (National Biodiversity Data Centre) and Professor Jane Stout (Botany Department, Trinity College Dublin), who have highlighted in their All Ireland Pollinator Plans that our bees are hungry and in need of homes. In their document the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (AIPP) they review every sector, from farmers to local authorities, to schools, gardeners and businesses, and they advocate for an Ireland where pollinators can survive and thrive. Excellent resources are available on their website and an updated version of the plan has been developed for 2021-2025. Possible actions in each sector are available on the website at pollinators.ie.

There have been many misguided attempts in Ireland to help pollinators. People want to sow wildflowers for the bees, looking to packets of wildflowers and the easier option of wildflower turf but in these packets and turf grass are a ‘mishmash’ of species from everywhere. These mixes are totally fine in garden situations but putting these in the wider landscape threatens our native biodiversity. I have seen instances where Irish wildflowers have been removed in favour of exotic species. Dare I mention the dreaded imports of ash dieback and blackgrass; this is what we risk when we import untested and exotic versions of our own native species, and species we have never grown before into a landscape setting. Farmers have been encouraged to keep areas with wildflowers around their field verges but many of the seed sources are not Irish. Seed mixes of

native wildflowers should be grown in Ireland to ensure enough supply of genuine native Irish wildflower seed.

AMENITY SECTOR AND NATIVE AND NONNATIVE PLANTS FOR POLLINATORS Bord Bia figures published in March show Irish consumers spent 1.2 billion on their gardens last year, up 50% on 2018. County Councils, Local Authorities and commercial landscaping projects spent an estimated value of €250 Million in 2019. Demand for nature friendly products and pollinator friendly plants is very high according to industry sources.

Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) led research into whether native or non-native plants best support pollinating insects such as as bees, butterflies and hoverflies found that choosing plants from native and local sources result in abundant flowers which can cover all seasons. Seasonality was also highlighted by the AIPP, as the crucial times of the year for bees are early spring and late autumn. It was estimated that in early spring, one bumblebee queen needs to feed on 6000 flowers a day, to have enough energy to raise her young, so having nectar and pollen rich plants that flower in March and April is critical. There are suggested species lists of suitable plants available from the RHS at https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/pdf/ conservation-and-biodiversity/wildlife/plants-for-pollinatorsgarden-plants.pdf and at https://pollinators.ie gardens.

More investigation is needed in Ireland, Irish bees are tough, battling our Atlantic wet and windy climate. Our local and native species have not been cultivated at a commercial scale. An issue with our usual summer garden plantings, highlighted in The Irish Times a few years ago, is that most of our traditional summer bedding plants like Geraniums, Begonias, Busy Lizzy, and Petunias have virtually no pollen and nectar and are of little value to pollinators. Labelling and identifying plants as “pollinator friendly” has been a boon to industry in the UK with the “RHS Perfect for pollinators” raising the profile of species to consumers as proven nectar and pollen resources for pollinators.

Irish people north and south of the border are enthusiastic supporters of the All Ireland Pollinator Plan. The horticulture industry here has just begun to tap into the “buzz” but lots more thought, information and research is needed to ensure that “value” is added to both sides of the equation, that is value to the hard working horticulture industry and to our native pollinators and biodiversity sector also working hard to ensure we all survive. Let’s get Grandad Dave off our case and build a sustainable and biodiverse world for our grandkids. ✽

NOELEEN SMYTH is a botanist and horticulturist. She holds a PhD and Hons Degree in Botany from Trinity College Dublin and diplomas in horticulture from Teagasc and The RHS. She is currently a Biodiversity and conservation specialist working at the National Botanic Gardens (OPW). As part of her current role, she acts as the CITES Scientific Authority for Ireland, advising the government on rare plant imports.

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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INSIGHT / 08

THE IMPORTANCE AND VALUE OF DATA Emer Gallahar Hall outlines the multiple benefits to your business of keeping your data accurate and relevant to your activities

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ompanies generally hold on to a lot of information and one of the most valuable assets you hold is your customer information. Having up to date and accurate information is important for everyone. Accurate customer information is vital, so that you can know your market better and contact customers if and when needed. Having the newest, most accurate information also helps to get the most out of sales and marketing efforts. You may have data on 100 ‘customers’ listed on a database, but what percentage of the data are accurate, and what percentage of those customers have you been in contact with over the previous 12 months? On average, data decays at about 35% per annum, so it's safe to assume that at least 35 of those 100 records are either inaccurate or outdated.

DATA CLEANSING Data cleansing is important, it improves data quality and in so doing, increases productivity. When you clean your data, outdated or incorrect information is removed, leaving only the highest quality information. This ensures your team does not have to go through countless outdated documents and allows employees to make the most of their work hours. Now that you know what data cleansing is and why it is so important, you may be wondering how to start the data cleansing process! There is no ‘one size fits all.’ Data cleansing methods often depend on the type of data you have. However, here are some general tips to help you get started.

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ASSESS YOUR DATA Data cleansing usually involves cleaning data from a single database, such as a spreadsheet. If your information is already organised into a database or spreadsheet, you can easily assess the volume of data, how easy it is to understand, and what may or may not need updating. If your data is currently in individual files and spread across your computers or network, you will need to compile it so you can evaluate it in entirety.

These are some questions you need to ask: ● Does my data seem to make sense? ● Are there any duplicates, and if so, why, and is that okay? ● Does numerical data add up and make sense? ● Are there spelling errors or numbers where there should not be? ● Is there any information that you would like to add to your data? ● Does it leave options open to add data in the future?

This initial evaluation will allow an estimation of how much there is to do. If you notice all your data is from 2015, you may have your work cut out for you! But if you simply notice a few outdated numbers and a spelling mistake or two, a quick update may be all that is needed.

CLEAN DATA IN A SEPARATE SPREADSHEET Before making changes, create a copy of your spreadsheet and make any changes within the copy instead of the original. This will protect you and your

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

09 / INSIGHT 08 information in case you make a mistake! When working with business information, a single mistake can be serious. Once the data is cleansed, you can copy your updated sections back to your original spreadsheet. It may take extra time and effort, but it will be worth it for peace of mind and to ensure your efforts have not gone to waste.

MAKE USE OF FUNCTIONS It can be difficult to clean up every single error or outdated piece of data manually. When working with spreadsheets, make use of functions and let the program work for you! If you are using Microsoft Excel, there are many “functions” to choose from that will do some of the cleansing for you. ‘Remove Duplicates’ is a function that you can use in both Excel and Google Sheets. This function works for text-based columns. If you have accidentally entered the same customer information or contact information twice, the “remove duplicates” function will go through the column and delete copies.

Using the TRIM Function takes the cell reference (or text) as the input. It then removes the leading and trailing spaces as well as the additional spaces between words (except for single spaces).

HOW DATA MANAGEMENT CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS When you have great data management practices in place, data files will be much less likely to get out of hand with incorrect or outdated data. Data cleansing also reduces the waste associated with physical marketing strategies like direct mail marketing.

With an up-to-date data list, you can ensure you are contacting people that have a genuine interest in your products or service. This reduces the likelihood of your mailing being thrown away before it is read. Cleansing also helps by removing incorrect details that may affect accuracy. This includes details on people that have changed work or home address or even passed away. By excluding these contacts you reduce the amount of printing and distribution

required for mailings. This saves money and minimises the environmental damage of your campaign.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS OF DATA CLEANSING PROTECT YOUR REPUTATION. People do not want to receive information that has no relevance to them. More often than not spam mail and unsolicited contact will damage the reputation of your brand. By maintaining accurate data, you ensure that your communications only reach people that benefit from them. Not only does this increase the likelihood of generating business, but it also helps maintain your brand integrity and reputation.

MINIMISE COMPLIANCE RISKS With the introduction of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations), data security and permissions are more important than ever before.

Regular cleansing of databases helps businesses to keep tabs on customer contact permissions and ensure people who have opted out of communications are not contacted.

Maintaining a clean and organised data set will also help you avoid the large fines associated with breaching GDPR and other legislation. It is sometimes necessary to get help, ask someone else within the business to look over your data. For example, not everyone will know the difference on paper between a landscaper and landscape architect, your local knowledge is key here, you know your customers.

Horticulture Connected have recently undertaken a data project to; cleanse our data, organise the data set into categories or segments and ratings and to update our data. After cleaning, organising and updating our data (for example we replaced 100 inactive florist subscribers with 160 new, active ones) we can now use our data to give up to date and clear details on industry sectors, highlighting sectoral gaps in the data, that we could act on. For example, we previously had only 74% of golf courses on our mailing list, this has now increased to 96% coverage.

THE BENEFITS OF SEGMENTATION The Pareto principle that “80% of profits are usually derived from 20% of customers” generally holds true in most businesses. Identifying and understanding your customer types by sector or segment can deliver significant benefits to your business.

This information enhances your company's competitive position by providing direction & focus for your marketing strategies. By examining the data growth opportunities can be realised through identification of new customers, growth segments or new product uses. Segmentation also promotes effective and efficient matching of your company's resources to the targeted market segments, giving you the greatest return on marketing investment (ROMI).

After you have cleaned your data, it's time to start using it to your advantage.

Taking a landscaping business as an example, the business may want to contact those customers who they provided a service to more than a year ago. By asking the customer for feedback on the project, if they require any design revisions or upkeep and maintenance services, you maintain contact with your customer base and potentially create more business and increase customer loyalty and referrals.

It all starts with the data. Data leads to insights and actions, but you need to have the right data first! ✽

EMER GALLAHAR HALL has worked in Horticulture and the Fresh Produce industry for over 30 years, since graduating from the Botanic Gardens. She has just finished an MSc in Supply Chain and Account Management with Bord Bia and UCD Smurfit where she was based in the UK market. She is currently working on a Data Project with Horticulture Connected. Contact Emer at emer@horticulture.ie

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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INSIGHT / 08

GOING FOR

GOLD With Irish eyes turning to Tokyo for the Olympics this summer Pat Fitzgerald discusses his winning mix in Japan with Dónall Flanagan of Teagasc

IRISH WASABI PRODUCTION ON FITZGERALDS NURSERIES IN KILKENNY

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ost of us will be well familiar with FitzGerald Nurseries. Pat Fitzgerald has developed a Japanese Carex into a globally recognised plant and branded under the EverColor trademark on 4 continents, selling in garden centres worldwide. In conversation with Dónall Flanagan, Pat described his journey from Stoneyford in Co. Kilkenny to Utogi in the mountains of Japan.

This story began in 1989 when, before setting up the nursery, Pat acquired some Japanese sedges – Carex oshimensis Evergold, as a birthday present from his wife Noirín.

This variety had been sold by Duncan and Davis in New Zealand and was not under breeders rights protection. Carex oshimensis is native to Oshima island in Japan. It is an evergreen, mound forming sedge with strong resilience

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to cold and drought conditions.

Pat began breeding work with the Carex in Stoneyford and in the lab in Enniscorthy. The lab is FitzGerald Nurseries and sister company Beotanics micropropagation R&D and production laboratory where new plants are multiplied in vitro as well as undertaking breeding and selection programmes there. Having taken charge of the lab in 2005, by 2008 there were a number of promising lines being mass produced.

When the plants were launched at the international trade fair for plants (IPM) Essen in 2008 they caused a bit of a stir. Carex has a niche trailing characteristic in containerised plant displays that require plants that have “thriller, filler and spiller” characteristics.

The Carex Evercolor range was launched and was immediately spotted by a Japanese plant breeder agent Satoki Matsui of Plant Network. Pat was

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

JAPANESE PLANT BREEDER AND AGENT SITOKI MATSUI ISPECTS IRISH PRODUCED WASABI

invited to visit Japan by Mr Matsui in 2010. This was Pat’s first of more than six visits. He commented, “Japan is my favourite place to visit and my favourite in terms of diversity of plant based foods. There is such a strong emphasis on quality of produce and respect for the small artisan producer.”

It was on one of these early visits that Pat became aware of the cultural importance of the Wasabi plant. The vegetable is prepared for sale by hand by the farmer and their families, and treated with the same high regard as a special fruit. Soon Matsui was arranging for Pat to visit plant breeders and growers including wasabi breeders. Pat recalled, “we would make two visits a day, and they would take the whole day.

There is a strict but respectfully friendly protocol and ritual in making the visits and there was great respect shown to us for taking time to visit because of

08 / INSIGHT

SWEET POTATO FARMERS

our interest in their crops”.

He went on to say that visits always followed the format of sharing small gifts, taking traditional tea, a long meeting of about three hours and finishing with a meal or snacks, IRISH WASABI commenting ruefully, “you have to take your shoes off every time you go into your host’s home so I soon realised my lace up boots were all wrong for Japan”. In 2012, Pat also noticed the Japanese obsession with sweet potato, baked and sold as street food. Beniazuma is the variety known to all, like our rooster.

Pat made a number of visits over 2018 and 2019 specifically working on developing wasabi production in Ireland. Pat noted, “we are working with a wasabi breeder who is an eleventh generation wasabi farmer.

He has visited Ireland and the UK also, to develop a grower network. We are sharing genetics and selecting seeds that will suit the Irish climate and other parts of Europe also”. This grower and many more are situated in Utogi in the Shizuoka prefecture nestled in the mountains, considered the birthplace of wasabi. Pat went on to say, “wasabi is grown with water from cool mountain springs as it needs a lot of water and grows best in temperatures of between 7 to 18oC, the Irish climate is ideal for wasabi but it needs shading between June and August.” Ireland has benefits

PAT MEETS AN 11th GENERATION WASABI FARMER IN UTOGI

for pest and disease of these plants also, as Pat pointed out “As an island with a temperate climate, compared to subtropical areas of Japan, we have few pests that are troublesome to carex, sweet potato and wasabi. Aphid is probably the only issue here”. This has allowed the nursery to develop a

in Ireland but should do”.

successful market, exporting “basic certified material” of the highest plant health status for export across the world. The range of sweet potatoes produced by the nursery includes some from Japan and Louisiana State University. The export market for these is mostly to Europe and Africa.

With the Olympics taking place, there have been substantial orders for Carex for use in public landscaping. Its use as a functional, ornamental plant has a great benefit where site lines, security and minimised “cover for ill intent” are paramount. Carex Evercolor range is widely used throughout Japan and is produced there under licence. There are now ten distinct, robust varieties in the Evercolor range, with Plant Breeders Rights established across the world. Nandia Obsessed is very popular in Japan also, this is produced in Stoneyford and shipped to Japan as young plant material.

The next phase in the journey will be to maximise the health benefits of these plants. Beotanics, a sister company of FitzGerald’s Nurseries, is developing powders of wasabi and syrups and flours of other tubers which have high levels of anti-inflammatory properties.

Pat concludes “Japanese people are understated but highly professional.

Japan is a very important country for us as a family business and we have high respect for their rural culture, something we don’t learn enough about

and this gave him an introduction that allowed him to collect wild seed from remote parts of Japan with the assistance of Mikinori Ogisu and Roy Lancaster. The collected seed was dispersed amongst botanic gardens in Ireland and the UK. Irishman Lafcadio Hearn born in 1850 spent his life travelling. Working as a writer, journalist and translator he became famous for his writing on Japanese culture. An extensive commemorative Japanese garden was planted in his memory in Tramore, Co. Waterford. Carex evergold, is amongst the wonderful plant collection to be seen there. ✽

OTHER IRISH JAPANESE NOTES OF INTEREST: Pioneering Irish nurseryman John Joe Costin developed strong links with Japan during his career. He represented Ireland at the Japan Expo in 1991

DóNALL FLANAGAN is a nursery stock/ ornamentals specialised advisor working with the Teagasc Horticulture Development Department in Ashtown. He has been working with Teagasc since 2007 and in his current role since 2016. Contact: Dónall Flanagan, Teagasc, Ashtown Food Research Centre. Mobile: 087 703 5823.

Tel: 076 111 402. Email: donall. flanagan@teagasc.ie

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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LANDSCAPE / 09

FARMWALKS

After a visit to the Inishowen peninsula, Féidhlim Harty is hopeful for the integration of sustainable farming practices and the protection of watercourses

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ast month, I visited the beautiful Inishowen peninsula to walk some farms. I was there at the invitation of the Inishowen Rivers Trust, a young and dynamic organisation, tasked with exploring opportunities to protect and improve the water quality of the rivers and streams in the area. This northerly peninsula is a broad spread of hilly ground sandwiched between Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly. Small rivers and streams flow from the centre to the sea on all sides, with the usual pressures of effluent from septic tanks and farming affecting the quality of the water. I won't even begin to reflect on the potential impacts on water quality if gold mining in the peninsula is permitted.

On the day of the visit our task was down to earth, to walk those farms that had watercourses on the land and talk with the farmers and farm walk participants. We explored ways to improve water quality and habitat value using a variety of measures, many of

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which had been implemented already in recent works. One farmer was just beginning to explore the potential options on her farm, whereas two others had already excavated new ponds to act as silt traps and accommodate wildlife. On one of the farms extra in-channel silt traps and generous belts of upland tree-planting had already been introduced. There were also areas of steep land that had been fenced off to protect vulnerable sloping woodland from erosion by overgrazing.

As a guest to the area, I was excited and encouraged to see the work being done here, both by the Rivers Trust itself and the Inishowen Uplands EIP (European Innovation Partnership), which facilitated the recent pond and tree planting works. All across the country similar solutions are urgently needed. Small streams and farm drains are the headwaters of our river systems. The degree of pollution in these small headwaters sets the level of pollution in our nation's watercourses which suffer ill health and

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

have poor quality as a result.

The corollary is also true. If we can keep all the small drains and streams clean, clear and vibrant, our river water quality will have a chance to recover and revitalise. That's no small task.

If your kitchen tap, toilet or milking parlour wash-water eventually ends up being the spring that feeds your local headwater, then treating the grey water, sewage or farm run-off is crucial if we want pristine rivers and groundwater.

But it's doable. It's readily achievable.

Just as our collective lack of focus on this area up to now has led to a steady reduction in water quality, so too a collective focus can reverse this trend.

So, if I had a wish-list of measures to roll out around the country, what would it include? Well, all of the measures I saw on my visit to these farms in Inishowen: Farm-scale buffer zones along drain and stream edges; silt traps and settlement ponds; in-channel wetland planting with check-dams to slow the flow and create mini pools in each drain section; upland tree-planting and strategic fencing for protection of vulnerable ground from livestock.

09 / LANDSCAPE Also, as is being done in Donegal, changes to main farm practices. On one farm, the intention is to graze a herd of Galloway cows in upland areas to provide a different grazing pattern to lands traditionally grazed by sheep. This measure is designed to shift the vegetation type away from purple moor grass, preventing it from becoming a monoculture, as is typical with sheep overgrazing. Closer to my own home in Co. Clare, the Burren Programme uses similar measures in the management of grazing patterns, ultimately helping to create a sward of spectacular Burren wildflowers. In general terms, what is good for wildflowers, wildlife and soil is good for water quality. Permanent pasture holds soil in situ and prevents silt spreading into nearby streams. It’s not rocket science, but it’s all important work that needs to be done.The more diverse the pasture the better. Multispecies swards are used on a third Inishowen farm, providing variability in root depths, in turn providing a greater spread of micronutrients for livestock and greater drought resilience due to the use of deeper rooting species within the mix. Variable root depths also ensure that nutrients from dung and urine are captured at multiple levels within the soil, compared with shallow rooted ryegrass, which will absorb a more limited amount of

and protected space. We will never have enough human knowledge to ignore the process of evolution and the experimentation active in wild nature. Yet we can learn from nature and enjoy the many gifts that nature gives; crops and livestock for fuels, fodder, food and fibres. But we still need wild space, untamed, protected space, on our farms and off them, where nature can do its thing, unseen, unregulated and uncontrolled.

It's the edges that I love on farm walks. The wildflowers that push up through the grasses around newly fenced stream edges, the scrubby corners yearning to be ancient forests, the watercress pushing into the exposed sediments where a drain enters a newly dug pond. These are the meeting of worlds, where the busy farm life meets the space for the bumblebee, and crucially where water gets time to settle, to rest, to drop silt and release nutrients to the plants that emerge.

As I walk the works of Rivers Trusts and EIP projects I have hope for the future. Policy will catch up. Previous policy positions served post-war Europe at a time when we were hungry. Now policy needs to serve a new balance that honours the origins of agriculture itself, the foundation

the valuable Nitrogen and Phosphorous that may otherwise slip through unused, and become groundwater pollutants adding to waterway eutrophication.

Other measures are also available for protection of our waterways. New forestry grants for silvopasture are now encouraging tree planting within grazing lands. Agroforestry offers other ways to diversify farm incomes and use trees in the productive landscape, with all the associated benefits of carbon sequestration, water quality, flood control and wildlife habitat provision. Land management techniques and farm practices such as farm-scale permaculture, farm composting and holistic planned grazing offer multiple benefits for food, farmers and future.

I can't pretend to have a fraction of the knowledge that any farmer has of their land and farm, but I know that if our farm payments policies push farmers in the direction of everincreasing intensification without due regard for wildlife, water or soil health, then our farms, rivers and inhabitants – human and non-human alike – will be the poorer for it.

The EIP programmes, conservation agriculture groups and Rivers Trusts across the country have a growing role in striking a balance between the need for productive land and the needs of nature; the balance between food production and other values the land provides such as flood protection, water filtration, pollination and space for nature. On so many levels the measures that we need to roll out will have benefits for everyone. For example, contour hedgerows protect farm animals from biting weather, provide habitats for pollinators, catch rainfall run-off from fields, filter out silt, recharge groundwater reserves, mop up nutrients and protect rivers and streams further down-hill. The benefits are manifold.

This isn't complicated. Jump in. Get muddy. Try it out.

Learn from mistakes and move forward. As I write, the next round of CAP is stalling in the apparent conflict between productivity and nature. Who are we fooling? What is farm productivity but the evolution of our relationship with nature.

We need to seek out the balance between productive space

of wild nature in which farming ultimately has its roots.

I believe it will not only give us better soil, cleaner water and fewer floods, it will also give us abundant healthy and delicious food. ✽

FÉIDHLIM HARTY is the director of FH Wetland Systems, a writer and advocate for the introduction of catchment-scale riparian buffer zones. His most recent books are, Permaculture Guide to Reed Beds and Towards Zero Waste. www.wetlandsystems.ie.

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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RESEARCH / 10

HARNESSING NATURAL PRODUCTS

FROM THE SEA FOR USE IN HORTICULTURE In this article, Karen O’Hanlon describes the numerous trials, using seaweed as a crop biostimulant, taking place across Ireland

A number of natural marine products found off the coast of Ireland have a role to play in plant and soil health.

SEAWEED

Seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum and Laminaria digitata) has multiple benefits in terms of land management. ● The better-known attributes of seaweed are as a biocontrol and biofertiliser in helping to improve roots, nutrition and the quality of crops by supplying vitamins and minerals whilst also producing phytohormones that act as biostimulants to encourage immunity to disease, healthy growth and colour. ●S eaweed can absorb as much CO2 as trees and hence can contribute to CO2 sequestration.

Carbon sequestration is the process by which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and held in solid or liquid form; Plants can absorb CO2 during growth and store it in different tissues. The most important tissue for

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carbon sequestration is the root. Good organic practices encourage healthy soil-root interactions with the accumulation of microbial life around the root. ●M any biofertilisers on the market encourage such symbiosis between soil life and root. Seaweed as a foliar spray activates the plants own growth and protection systems to produce plant growth regulators, phytohormones, to protect from diseases and biomolecules to counteract drought, heat and frost. Numerous progressive wholesale horticulture growers in Ireland are using seaweed as a biostimulant (Seaweed is currently classified as a biostimulant and does not need to be registered as a plant protection product) at a 1:200 dilution during watering and enriching further with microbial mixes (including Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescence) to control root issues such as Rhizoctonia and Fusarium.

Chitin is found in the skeletons of crabs and can act as a food source for chitinase-producing organisms. Once chitin is ingested and the population of chitinolytic producing

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

10 / RESEARCH microbes increase in the soil, this results in a cascade of biological benefits including an increase in lytic enzymes which control the level of pathogenic nematodes in the soil, thus contributing to the integrated pest management of insect and nematode pests in the crop.

Fish emulsion is an organic garden fertiliser made from whole fish or parts of fish. It provides a NPK ratio of 4-1-1 and is most often used as foliar feed to provide a quick nitrogen boost.

SeaMeGro, a seaweed company based in Connemara which is registered with the Irish Organic Association, is carrying out crop trials across Ireland in 2021, most notably on hemp, barley, wheat and forestry. Crop results will be available by Autumn 2021 and these trials will be used as efficacy data for fertiliser approval across the EU. SeaMeGro purchase seaweed directly from the Connemara area thus helping to support local incomes for those with long established fishing rights. SeaMeGro also has a hatchery in Co. Kerry where they continue to research and grow different seaweed species such as Asparagopsis as an animal feed for reducing methane emissions.

SEAWEED TRIALS UNDERWAY 2021 There are numerous and diverse crop trials underway across the country utilising seaweed as a biostimulant.

Coillte are carrying out forestry trials using a mixture of seaweed, plant growth promoting bacteria and fungi. The trees receive intensive fertilisation at the nursery stage and are then transplanted onto sites for the establishment phase. In the past, on certain sites, the first three years of growth involved the application of chemical fertiliser. For this trial, Coillte are applying the seaweed, bacteria and fungi mixes, to the root, a day before planters move them to the site for planting. The trees will no longer receive chemical fertilisation. The seaweed and microbial mix should offer some resistance to weevil infestation, and result in higher establishment rates, healthier trees, cost reductions for Coillte and an important move towards further enhancing the sustainable practices of the custodians of our forests.

Hemp Trials are underway by Daniel Lyons and Laura Jane Foley in Wild Atlantic Hemp in County Clare. The hemp growing business is heavily regulated and growers are always looking to reduce their chemical inputs. Current typical inputs in hemp production range from 80-120Kg nitrogen per hectare. The humid climate in Ireland tends to favour disease development, which can result in significant yield losses for hemp growers. Leaf spots, southern blight and corn earworm have been the most destructive pest and disease problems over the past several seasons. There have also been other disease issues, for example, with hemp rust, powdery mildew, Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, Sclerotiorum and Phytium. Nematode damage from flea beetle (Phyllotreta

SeaMeGro also has a hatchery in Co. Kerry where they continue to research and grow different seaweed species such as Asparagopsis as an animal feed for reducing methane emissions nemorum) is also prevalent in hemp. Seeds are sprayed with a microbial mix and seaweed in pots before transplanting to the field. The hemp then receives two more sprays of seaweed in the field.

Barley trials for beer production are underway with Maurice Deasy, Canvas Brewery in Tipperary, Jim Galvin in Tralee plus barley and wheat trials with Seed Technology in Waterford. Spring barley is the most grown tillage crop in Ireland. Thanks to Ireland’s warm and humid climate, Irish producers are capable of achieving some of the highest grain yields in the world. In an ever-changing world, both financially and environmentally, grain growers are being challenged to produce greater yields that are more profitable but also more environmentally sustainable.

These trials are exploring the addition of biostimulants to improve crop yields and decrease fungicide dependency.

Three bacterial cultures were added as a seed dressing and crops will be sprayed with seaweed 3 times during the seed development stage. The benefits of these treatments will be evaluated under a number of headings including yield, grain quality, protein content, disease resistance and plant and grain counts.

Grassland trials are being undertaken with Enda Buckley, Carbery Group Limited in County Cork. This farm is proactively seeking to become a zero emissions farm. The use of biochar, and biostimulants such as microbes and seaweed are being explored as alternatives to the chemical fertilisers traditionally used in farming practices.

Airfield Gardens head grower Colm O’Driscoll is also carrying out growing trials with seaweed and microbes on a range of crops. Progress on these trials are updated regularly on the following blog www.airfield.ie/stories_news/ regenerative-soil-practices. ✽

DR. KAREN O’HANLON works with SeaMeGro Ltd. developing a full range of seaweed based pesticide-free products for use in agriculture, she is also founder of Probio Carbon Ltd. Contact: kohanlon@seamegro.com Telephone: 087-9816569

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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DESIGN / 12

EASY STEPS

DREAM GARD THE PLANT LOVERS’ GARDEN DESIGNED BY PATRICIA TYRELL

Bord Bia's Carol Marks outlines the Bord Bia Bloom initiative to help novices and uncertain gardeners realise their own dream garden at home, according to the aspect and functionality of their garden, provides a blueprint for success

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eople visit Bloom to get inspiration for their own garden and planting. However, once they have left the festival the key challenge they face is how to translate their ideas into a reality in their own home. To help overcome this barrier Bord Bia has, as part of this year’s Bloom at home campaign, launched ‘Easy Steps to Dream Gardens, a suite of seven designed gardens which come with planting plans, designed to help people plant their own show garden at home, in their own time and within their budget constraints. Bord Bia has worked with seven Bloom award-winning show garden designers to create garden designs that are suited to a range of different locations. Each of the seven garden designs in the series is available to download from the www.bordbiabloom. com website, and includes an easy-to-follow planting plan and detailed planting list that can be implemented in the garden according to the aspect of the garden. The seven designers have also chosen plants that are generally available from Irish nurseries and in local garden centres.

The gardens are all 15 metres x 9 metres in size, and have

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been designed for different aspects (e.g. north, south, east and west-facing gardens). The plans illustrate a variety of functional features, such as patios and seating areas and where to place them. The planting plan for each design is a comprehensive guide which shows you what to plant where, how many plants you need and where to place them according to your aspect so as to create a similar look and feel to your favourite garden design.

Commenting on the initiative, Carol Marks, Horticulture Sector Manager, Bord Bia said, “We are thrilled to have worked with award-winning garden designers to create these step-by-step garden designs which can be implemented at home. The plans have been designed to suit a range of different needs and provide inspiration for transforming your garden. A top tip is that the border details from each design are accessible for any gardener to implement, based on their garden aspect. Each garden design comes with a range of inspirational images, an animated walk-through and a full plant list to make buying the plants as simple as possible.”

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11 / DESIGN

The planting plan for each design is a comprehensive guide which shows you what to plant where, how many plants you need and where to place them according to your aspect so as to create a similar look and feel to your favourite garden design

PS TO

RDENS THE COASTAL GARDEN DESIGNED BY JAMES PURDY

THE COASTAL GARDEN Designed by James Purdy, Garden Designer and Chartered Architect This east-facing garden is inspired by the Irish coast but will suit any location. ‘This garden is designed to be robust and will tolerate arid and windy conditions that are typical in coastal locations but it will work just as well inland and lends itself to a good family space,’ explains Belfast-based James Purdy. Everything in the garden has been chosen to withstand the elements. Borders are cut into the garden to add interest and feature different heights, textures and colours. Taxus baccata (Irish Yew) is clipped into dome shapes, while perennial grasses such as Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ and Melica ciliata ‘Silky Spike’ add texture and movement. Perennials are repeated throughout the garden to create a sense of rhythm. Croscosmia ‘George Davison’ adds a splash of yellow in late summer and autumn while the purple-hued Geranium ‘Rozanne’ blooms for months and suits all conditions. Japanese anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’, with its delicate stem and pretty white flowers, moves gently in the wind.

THE NATURE ENTHUSIAST’S GARDEN Designed by Jane McCorkell, garden designer, landscape architect and landscape horticultural consultant.

Nature enthusiasts of all ages will love this south-west facing garden that is a haven for wildlife.

THE NATURE ENTHUSIAST’S GARDEN DESIGNED BY JANE McCORKELL

‘People often think that a natural garden has to look uncared for but that is not the case. You can add form and function and still achieve a natural style,’ reveals landscape architect, Jane McCorkell. This garden has been designed for a family of nature enthusiasts and will suit every age group. Young kids will love the hedgehog house and strawberry pallet wall while older children and teenagers will appreciate the easy-access bike storage and the outside room which can be transformed into a den or home office as the need arises.

The garden is planted in Jane’s signature natural style, with a wildflower grass area and pollinator-friendly flowers. ‘The shrubs and flowers have been selected to encourage birds, bees and other insects. Bird feeders, butterfly houses, and bug hotels can easily be added to attract more wildlife.’

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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DESIGN / 11

THE SHARED SPACES FAMILY GARDEN DESIGNED BY NICOLA HAINES

A living wall and green-roofed storage further boosts this garden’s eco-credentials.

THE ENTERTAINERS’ GARDEN Designed by Linda McKeown, Garden Designer and Horticulturist This east-facing garden provides flexible spaces for easy entertaining. ‘Dividing your garden into separate zones that you can use at different times of the day really makes full use of your garden,’ says Belfast-based award winning garden designer Linda McKeown. She has taken advantage of this garden’s easterly aspect by including a patio space where the owners can enjoy early morning sun, a sunken patio with dining table that offers an enclosed space for entertaining throughout the day, and a raised platform at the back of the garden that provides a casual space to relax in the evening. ‘When planting your garden, place the largest plants, such as trees and hedges, first, then add climbers, followed by shrubs,’ says Linda. ‘A clipped Box hedge (Buxus sempervirens), a line of upright grasses, or some topiary add structure and interest throughout the year and interplant with colourful perennials. Think about how plants perform through each season and how they will work together, if your garden is very small incorporate plants with two seasons of interest.’

THE SHARED SPACES FAMILY GARDEN Designed by Nicola Haines, Landscape Architect This west-facing garden is designed for a family with teenagers and young adults but can be tailored to suit any household. ‘If you put the right structure in place a garden should last through a family’s life,’ believes landscape designer Nicola Haines, Partner in Tierney Haines Architects.

Her design for this west-facing garden is a prime example.

‘The structure is very simple, with three distinct spaces that can be reformatted and customised as your lifestyle changes.’ Each space can be used by all of the family together or separately, with a raised bed of grasses and herbaceous perennials providing a semi-screen to other spaces, adding privacy for each area. Vegetable beds in the middle of the garden are followed by a relaxed seating area at the rear where a pergola gives an additional sense of privacy and also serves as a mount for a hanging chair.The garden is designed in a series of layers with planting in the foreground, midground and background.

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THE EASY CARE GARDEN DESIGNED BY OLIVER SCHURMANN

THE EASY CARE GARDEN Designed by Oliver Schurmann, Garden Designer, Plantsman and Co-founder of Mount Venus Nursery Though formal in structure, this north-facing natural garden is relatively easy to build and maintain. ‘The idea behind this design was to create a garden that people can build themselves if they wish. The materials are all widely available and, while the raised beds are quite large, you will excavate enough topsoil to fill them when constructing the foundations, paths and pond,’ says Oliver Schurmann.

The two interlocking raised beds define the overall formal structure of the garden and create an instant feeling of space. Trees and shrubs are the backbone of this garden and because the garden is quite small, you can constrain their growth allowing other plants to flourish alongside. Shadetolerant plants that will provide interest throughout the year have been selected. ‘This garden is designed to inspire people,’ says Oliver. ‘You don’t have to replicate it entirely, just take the elements that you like and adapt them to suit your space’.

THE FAMILY-FRIENDLY GARDEN Designed by Maeve O’Neill, Landscape Architect, Sculptor, and Artist This south-facing garden is designed to grow with your children. ‘There are many practical things to consider when planning a garden for a family with small children. The space has to work for the parents as well as the kids and it needs to adapt as the children grow up,’ points out landscape architect, Maeve O’Neill. The design for this split-level garden features three distinct zones: a patio with a vibrant raised bed encased in Cor-ten steel; a lawn with a solid wall where the children can play ball; and a relaxed seating area at the back of the garden, where a playhouse is also situated. The planting is designed to encourage pollinators and wildlife and has been carefully selected to ensure the colour palette, height and textures work together. As well as being low maintenance, the planting suits a busy family with young children who have a keen sense of adventure. ‘The plants are robust and will stand up to exuberant play,’ says Maeve.

THE PLANT LOVERS’ GARDEN Designed by Patricia Tyrrell, Landscape Architect, garden designer and horticulturist This south-east facing garden features an abundant display

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

11 / DESIGN

THE PLANT LOVERS’ GARDEN DESIGNED BY PATRICIA TYRELL

of flowers and will suit any location that enjoys good sunshine.

The design of this garden is quite natural. It has been inspired by meadows with lots of flowers and grasses. Patricia notes, ‘I like to feel like I am enclosed in the plants in my garden so here I have brought the planting quite close to the house’.

The hard landscaping in this scheme has been kept simple, allowing the plants to be the main attraction. The patio closest to the house includes a built-in bench, ‘the ideal spot for morning coffee’, while the centre of the garden features space for a table and chairs with a second built-in bench and barbecue. The garden has been designed to give enjoyment throughout the year, while the planting, set out in Patricia’s planting plan, is a very easy arrangement. Boundaries are greened up by using climbers rather than a hedge and include the fragrant Trachelospermum jasminoides (Star Jasmine).

information is available on the website, that enables users to successfully execute the plant designs in their own gardens.

The Easy Steps to Dream Gardens will be a long term and evolving support tool for garden owners, with ongoing information for each garden design available at garden centres and nurseries including; focus border full plant list by garden design, focus border list of plants supported by images on the website, an alphabetical focus border plant list, and a full alphabetical plant list of almost 300 plants across all seven gardens. There is also an Interactive Garden Centre finder map on the Bord Bia website, found by clicking on ‘where can I buy the plants’.

The website includes lots more information, hints and tips on how to successfully recreate the gardens at home and the plants are readily available in 103 garden centres nationwide signposted in store with Dream Gardens point of sale material provided by Bord Bia bordbiabloom.com. ✽

A WEALTH OF SUPPORTING INFORMATION One of the core objectives of the Easy Steps to Dream Gardens initiative is to make it easy for the homeowner to choose and plant up their gardens themselves. For each garden there are inspirational design drawings, 3D renders, a master plan and a planting plan, along with a plant list, which are all available on the Bord Bia Bloom website. Each planting plan shows where to plant each specified plant, and how many to plant. This is accompanied by a list of plants (shopping list), with the numbers required to achieve the same effect in your own garden. While a design layout and 3D render is shown for each garden, the plans focus on the plantscaping as opposed to the hardscaping and accessories being specified.

Alongside this, concise, accessible and simple supporting

CAROL MARKS, sector manager for Horticulture at Bord Bia, is a graduate of the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. Carol has a background in business management, publishing and public relations, she returned to study horticulture as a mature student. She worked in private gardening and gardening publishing before joining Bord BIa 15 years ago. Carol works across the whole of the horticulture supply chain.

Summer 2021 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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DESIGN / 11

MUSEUM

IN A GARDEN

Landscape designer Nicola Haines describes the inception and creation of a new public garden in Limerick city centre which opened at the end of June 2021

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he end of June marked the opening of the new 'Museum in a Garden' in the grounds of the Hunt Museum in Limerick city. The opening has been eagerly anticipated by the garden team for whom this project has been long in the planning. Covid restrictions delayed the start of the build but it will be open for the summer and hopefully be used and loved by Limerick locals and visitors to Limerick for many years to come. The Hunt Museum houses an eclectic collection of antiquities and fine and decorative art that reflects the tastes and interests of the people who formed it, John and Gertrude Hunt. It is a diverse mix of pieces sourced from all over the world.

Smaller artefacts are displayed within drawers that have to be opened to 'discover' the objects hiding within. This element of discovery has been brought into the design of the garden with areas providing semi private spaces waiting to be discovered by visitors.

The museum is housed within the former Customs House, a Palladian

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Georgian building designed by the Italian architect Davis Ducart in 1765. The rear garden is approximately 3000m2 flanked by two rivers, the Shannon and the Abbey, with views towards the 12th century St. Mary's Cathedral and the Potato Market. Existing trees are major assets to the space, giving a timeless quality of maturity and solidity with the largest, a London Plane, having a canopy diameter nearing 20 meters. The former garden was laid to lawn and split in two parts by iron railings that closed off this substantial space to the public.

The museum decided to remove the iron railings with the intention of giving over the entire area to public amenity use.

The design brief was partly to create exhibition space for supersize replica museum pieces, to allow the museum to escape outdoors and blur the boundaries between internal and external displays.

Above all else, the design had to create much needed community amenity space to entice everyone from local residents, office workers, and museum visitors to schools and charitable groups to use the garden. An outdoor chess set was to

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

be included, as were areas for growing vegetables and fruit in a community garden. The design had, of course to respect the beautiful protected building and manage seasonal flooding which has plagued the area in recent times.

The museum ran an open landscape design competition in January 2020 with submissions appraised in two phases by a team of judges and engagement sought from the public over social media.

A key aspect of the brief was that the garden be designed to use, reuse, and recycle and use as much locally sourced material as possible.

We were delighted to win the competition, and design development started in May 2020. The design for the garden draws on the maritime connections of the building and museum collection by creating 'tide lines' of grass and planting that ebb and flow around the garden, creating undulations and alcoves of shelter for exhibition space, seating and play. Semi-private places are created by sculpting the earth into berms providing for a diverse selection of areas for visitors to meet, chat or sit quietly and enjoy the outdoors. Parts of the garden are 'discovered' in the same way the collection pieces are uncovered within the museum. Three main alcoves create exhibition spaces for replica museum objects and their shape offers people sitting within them some protection from the wind. The internal

11 / DESIGN faces of the alcoves are planted with ornamentals that aim to give interest to people and pollinators from spring to autumn with a community bulb planting event planned to extend the season of interest into the winter months too.

The plants within each alcove give a flavour of the origin of the museum piece exhibited within. Alcove A exhibits the 'Olmec man,' a key piece within the collection of Aztec origin. Planting in this alcove reflects a vibrant and colourful Mexican palette with Nepeta, Geum's and Achillea's providing a zing of energy in the early summer, to be surpassed by Kniphofia, Rudbeckia and Crocosmia later in the season. Alcove B will exhibit a piece of Roman origin and the planting is more muted with a Mediterranean palette of rosemary and sage with the glaucous blue hues of Euphorbia characias and Festuca

boules and a myriad of community gatherings. The large open area in this location is designed as a kind of plaza, and the universally accessible gravel dust should allow children to run around and play on scooters in the manner of any Italian plaza!

glauca in harmony with butter yellows of Santolina chamaecyparissus and Phlomis russeliana. Alcove C will house a piece of Asian descent and the palette is a calm and serene collection of greens with ferns, Hakonechloa macra and ground cover roses. Each section has scented plants to bloom at different times of the year. Oak curved benches have been made to fit the alcoves and we hope they will be wonderful places to sit.

The earthen berms were largely created using subsoil and topsoil recovered from groundworks and a minimal amount of waste was removed from site. The hard landscaped areas were created using limestone from a local quarry which may have been the same stone used to build the building itself. This allows the garden to bed down comfortably next to the museum, which unusually for Georgian architecture, is constructed of limestone not brick.

Circular beds of wild flowers have been grown and supplied by Summerhill Lawns and will provide drama and interest for people and a source of nectar for pollinating insects over long periods. Elsewhere, the grass will be kept trimmed for play and sitting but allowed to grow long in areas off the beaten track to provide shelter and habitats for insects. Earth is sculpted into a low amphitheatre in front of the cafe to provide informal seating and allow visitors to enjoy musical performances, chess tournaments,

The project was part community funded by a series of initiatives that allowed supporters to sponsor aspects of the build. One such initiative, Fund a Cobble, enabled sponsors to donate an engraved cobble to a Covid hero, and these hold a prominent position fixed to either side of the main path running from museum to river. Other sponsored inscribed pebbles used old river pebbles dug up from beneath the former tarmac path and placed next to a specific plant in the alcoves, for their sponsor to visit whenever they want.

A community garden is located at the northern end of the garden with raised beds, wheelchair accessible planters and a base for a future greenhouse. It encompasses a sensory garden and area for composting which were requested by local school groups asked to contribute to the original brief. We hope to have seedlings of Indigofera tinctoria, Flax and Hemp which were all traded through the Customs house in the late 18th Century.

Even before its opening, the garden has attracted attention from community groups keen to get involved and use the space. A member of the local mens’ shed made all of the raised beds in the community garden and another mens’ shed in Doon have made accessible planters. A group from Limerick Mental Health Association meet every week at the garden to tend to the plants and enjoy face to face meeting after such a long absence.

It is hoped the garden will become a place of learning and community togetherness, much needed in the wake of Covid, and will prove a great resource for all.

Client: Hunt museum, Jill Cousins, Dolmen Catering, Helen O’Donnell Landscape design: Tierney Haines Architects, Nicola Haines, Contractor: ACS Construction, David O'Sullivan, and Castlegrey Landscapes, Conor Moore. With much help and support from Limerick City & County Council, the OPW, LIT-LSAD and Arup. ✽

NICOLA HAINES works as a landscape designer in Tierney Haines Architects, a firm she established in 2004 with her husband Stephen Tierney. Having worked in the UK and France their business is now well established in Dublin, with a variety of jobs across Ireland. Work varies from architectural design, landscape design, furniture and conservation.

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OPINION / 12

MENTOR MAZE ?

Terry O’Regan on the benefits of having a trusted business advisor

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ecoming self-employed, a desire to have control over an enterprise is high on the agenda, coupled with an ability to take your own decisions rather than implement the decisions of others. But to be successfully self-employed, an openness to take advice is useful, coupled with the mental sharpness to separate ‘the wheat from the chaff’ when seeking out that advice.

There are many variations of a well-worn anecdote about someone who is lost in the countryside. He asks a local for directions and after a series of confusing instructions finds himself confounded with the local’s concluding advice, “If I wanted to get there, I wouldn’t have started from here!” It’s reputed to have originated around 1924 with an Englishman, lost in the west of Ireland, who sought advice on how to get to Letterfrack from an Irishman cutting turf. It’s a welltravelled yarn that has been transposed into other cultures, undoubtedly because of the wisdom buried in the fable, not least about advisors and advice.

If you enjoy a varied career you will wear many hats, and along the road you will be a seeker, a giver, a taker of advice and sometimes an ignorer of advice. You will meet many advisors, some seeking you out directly or indirectly, but to

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get the best advice you may have to make the move and pay directly or indirectly.

Since retiring, I have added another hat to my own rack, working with landscape contractors in an advisory role. It set me thinking about the evolution of such a service and the range of diverse scenarios in which the service is delivered.

Some come with specific titles nowadays, such as business mentors, coaches, consultants, gurus, trainers or even angels!

Many of these business training concepts originated in the USA in the 1960’s, making their way across the Atlantic over subsequent decades.

In 1970’s Ireland, few such exotic creatures existed, except for a few early bird business consultants nesting in the Irish Management Institute in Sandyford, Dublin. I remember little of the IMI course I attended, courtesy of Goulding Horticulture (of the Fitzwilton Group and the launching pad for many self-employed landscape contractors). I do, however, remember one consultant suggesting a memory training trick involving a visualisation of a horse race, with your list of business priorities sequentially riding the horses.

It sounded like a good idea, but I soon found myself with the Grand National in my head every day!

When I became self-employed in 1975, such sophisticated

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

12 / OPINION advice was well beyond our means, our advice came through our bank manager, accountant or insurance broker. When we met with our bank manager we did not always see it as an advisory session, it often felt like a return to secondary school! Yet the bank managers of those days were a vital source of sound business advice, often on the conservative side, but it is a pity that now access to such managers seems to be as extinct as dinosaurs. Of course we paid for this advice indirectly. I well remember discussions over pints with my peers, when fees for services were compared and sometimes derided. You came away wondering if you were being had by your trusted advisors, but good sense usually prevailed following mature reflection, when you realised the value of the advice that came as part of the service.

Much is made of the perceived merits of on-line transactions today. I am an advocate of the old-fashioned ‘horses for courses’ rule and the current gallop down the internet racetrack has yet to take full account of the number of Beecher’s Brooks that may lie ahead , some of which are being constructed by cyber-attackers. The changes have morphed our banks into a robotic row of Las Vegas style slot machines coupled with a website in the sky. This was sharply illustrated to me in the closing years of my business enterprise. Our request for a temporary overdraft increase drew us into an impersonal world of a phone call from a young man (am I being ageist?). He appeared unaware of our 40 years of custom with the bank and knew even less about the landscape sector. Instead, we trudged our way through his list of tick boxes but business advice did not have a box to tick. In pre-robotic days a short-term overdraft request involved a phone call discussion with the manager and based on our record we were always facilitated. So, bank services no longer come with an inbuilt advisory or mentoring bonus, in fact it is questionable if they are now even a financial service. The same applies to on-line insurance providers and other such modern ‘conveniences’.

If there is one thing that characterises the human race it is its love of novelty and its capacity for reinvention in response to that human trait. Without the stimulus of novelty we get bored and disinterested. I wonder when we will begin to reinvent genuine financial services. In the meantime, if we want advice now, we must engage with people often wearing a hat with ‘Mentor’ on the band. In fact, you might feel there is a ‘Mentor Maze’ out there. With the benefit of hindsight, I will try to describe a way out of that maze.

The term mentor goes back a long way to Greek mythology. The original Mentor was a friend of Odysseus and tutor of his son Telemachus. An old-fashioned definition of a mentor is ‘an experienced and trusted friend and advisor’. Exploring the internet (beware!), we are assured that business mentoring is about accessing the knowledge and experience of a seasoned business professional so that you can learn how to run your business more effectively. It is not about getting someone to run your business for you.

Mentoring is a well-developed process sometimes combined with business coaching. Your trawl of the internet will bring up a range of service providers, but I recommend an initial engagement with your Local Enterprise Office (LEO), they

If you enjoy a varied career you will wear many hats, and along the road you will be a seeker, a giver, a taker and sometimes an ignorer of advice have a panel of mentors and will guide you to a possible good fit for you and to the financial support available.

However, you may not need the ‘Full Monty’ and it is important to grasp that there are a wide range of options out there that will deliver advice and support for SMEs. I found that membership of representative organisations such as the Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland (ALCI), Irish Hardy Nursery Stock Association (IHNSA), The Irish Small & Medium Enterprises (ISME) and the Chamber of Commerce were valuable sources of information, advice and support. Both Teagasc and Bord Bia play a similar role.

Often, the most valuable nuggets were mined in social settings after meetings. In 1995, I joined the Plato Ireland network in Cork and found it a particularly supportive and informative experience. I am still part of that network today.

Plato Ireland provides small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a unique business support forum for exploring business growth and expansion.

Business owners in our sector are very busy people, actively engaged with their enterprises, time is always at a premium and the work-life balancing act is a continuous tightrope walk. The right advice at the right time can save you time, money and more, but you should be selective when choosing your advisor, recognising that nobody has the right answers all the time, you need to build and use a network of trusted advisors. For my part, I don’t have a business mentor label on my hat, but I am happy to be a part of that network, working with young landscapers as an experienced and trusted friend and advisor. ✽

TERRY O'REGAN pursued a career in the Irish landscape sector for some 50 years as a contractor and consultant, before retiring recently.

For much of that time, he was also an active advocate of ‘bigger picture’ and ‘outside the box’ thinking. He is still active and can be contacted at 087 240 7618 and terryjoregan@gmail.com

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EDUCATION / 13

HORTICULTURE, EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY

IN BLAKESTOWN DRIVE, DUBLIN 15

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n 2016, Rachel Freeman wrote of the role of horticultural education within communities in Ireland and the wide ranging benefits for community, students and the industry. In this follow up article she reviews the impacts of those engagements five years on.

The 2016 article described a community project with Blakestown Drive Community Group with horticulture students from Technological University Dublin Blanchardstown Campus, focusing on the role horticulture education can play in wider society, on the benefits of learning for students outside the university and for the community and local school. The article also highlighted challenges and positive social impacts of community green space. In the period since much has changed, and looking at the impacts five years on there is much more to consider, this green educational injection into the local Dublin 15 community had a ripple effect few could have imagined. But in order to look forward we

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must first look back.

The first year students of September ‘15 engaged in a community horticulture module as part of their practical learning, which was unusual as this was off campus in Dublin 15, with a community and school, acting as the client.

Community engaged learning is unique in allowing students to engage in learning in a real world environment, with a real client. Outside the shelter of the classroom, they encounter challenges that provide opportunities to hone their skills, work as a team and engage in problem solving. They become familiar with the iterative process of developing a project, with the added complexity of doing it with a client, and in the community. Students took the opportunity to design and build, working alongside their client at all stages of the process, and transferred knowledge, allowing the community to maintain the space once finished.

The Dublin 15 community, the Blakestown Drive Community Group (BDCG), seized the opportunity to learn from and to

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13 / EDUCATION aesthetic of what was once a litter black spot, creating a beautiful garden which not only enhanced the entrance to their road, but also linked and enhanced the school entrance.

The placement by the university of its teaching and learning in and with the community was a catalyst for change and even changed one community member’s life course. Michelle Maiben who now works in the landscape sector, and enjoys it immensely, shares her story: ‘For as long as I can remember, I have had an interest in what I now know is horticulture! At the age of 11, I successfully grew lettuce sown straight into the ground.

From then on I was hooked. In secondary school I studied agricultural science and enjoyed it immensely. After finishing school, it didn’t occur to me that a career in horticulture could be a career option. I didn’t know what horticulture was at that time. Over the following twenty five years the garden was where I felt happiest. Even before I decided to study horticulture in college, I would research the latin names for plants and cultivation techniques. As my knowledge grew so did my desire to keep learning.

My decision to study horticulture as a mature student was prompted by my involvement in a community project with

Community engaged learning is unique in allowing students to engage in learning in a real world environment, with a real client share knowledge with students. Multiple benefits for participants were realised, from socialisation for older residents, sharing an apple pie and cup of tea with the students and community members, to schoolchildren and the students connecting. Among other things, the students demonstrated ground preparation, planting, watering, seed sowing and pruning, promoting learning. This allowed the school and community to grasp the learning opportunities, and take the learning forward. The school children and their teachers raised seed and planted their school garden and the community worked on their garden, improving the

Blakestown Drive Community Group and students from TU Dublin Blanchardstown Campus as part of their horticulture in the community module. After speaking with the students, I decided to enrol for the following semester in September 2016. At that time I was also at a crossroads in my life. My youngest child was 8 years old. I needed to return to work after taking a 5 year break. The prospect of returning to office work did not appeal to me.

Being a mature student was a pleasant experience.

Studying something you have a real interest in is not a chore.

Although studying full time whilst parenting alone was quite difficult at times, my determination to learn, succeed and be a role model for my children spurred me on to graduate in May 2020 with a level 8 Honours degree in Horticulture'.

Blakestown Drive Community Group (BDCG) have connected and shared the knowledge gained over the past 5 years with other community groups throughout Dublin 15 through their Community Connect partners.

SCOIL MHUIRE JUNIOR AND SENIOR BLAKESTOWN, CLONSILLA ROAD, BLANCHARDSTOWN DUBLIN This school garden is within a large site hosting two primary schools, surrounded with groupings of large, mainly deciduous trees, all tagged, assessed and labelled.

Sited within this boundary are an assortment of open grassy areas, hard surface play space, and several smaller dedicated growing spaces, which facilitate growing of a mix of ornamental plants and food, including seasonal bulbs, flowering shrubs, herbaceous flowers, herbs, salad crops, fruit, and potatoes. The garden features a bug hotel, composting facility, growing beds and containers, bird and hedgehog houses, log piles, outdoor seating and a nature trail. Over the years, this garden has developed into an outdoor educational, recreational, and environmental haven.

The input of the TU Dublin students and the local community is central to its success, and the school agrees that it would not be possible without the continued involvement of the

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EDUCATION / 13 local community. The space, like any garden, is a continual work in progress. The goodwill of a few individuals, organised by Maria Tormey from BDCG has helped its inception, continued development, and success, the owner of a show garden at Bloom gave plants to get the garden started, neighbours and local community activists help regularly in the garden, the green school activities, and inputs ABOVE: MAYOR MC CAMBLEY from the horticulture students AND MARIA MARIA TORMEY from TU Dublin (Blanchardstown Campus). Yet engaging volunteer help hasn’t been easy. Each person, volunteering in the school garden, is required under law to be Garda vetted, a necessary step to keep children safe.

However, it can put volunteers off as it is often a cumbersome process, fraught with delay, particularly if an applicant has lived overseas. The school garden not only provides a valuable recreational space, it also supports nature-based teaching

an outdoor classroom. Observing the primary children at lunchtime, they sit on logs eating lunch, they get twigs and create houses. The bug hotel has offered such a wealth of joy and knowledge to the children, during planting, they're in heaven, the muck, the feeling on their hands…it’s far better than any education in a book, we have samples of everything here, the children don't have to go to the park to find it. You can see it all here. We're the luckiest school in Ireland with our facilities right now.”

It is well known that enabling children's participation in school and community, supports healthy outcomes for children, their parents and the wider community. For many children the school garden is the space where they engage most. As an industry, our interest in the school garden is one of hope, a collective hope that this interest is carried through their lives to entice interested individuals into our industry who see it as a real career choice.

In a world altered immeasurably by a pandemic, society has changed, in particular society's engagement with the outdoors. This change should make us think about our choices, the value of the environment and our health. People are considering their daily routine, their work life balance.

elements of the curriculum and the Green Schools Programme, from which Scoil Mhuire Junior and Senior are the recipients of numerous green flags. Scoil Mhuire Junior has also recently won a Gala Supermarket competition and received a geodome which was officially opened on June 11th 2021.

Over the past eighteen months, the garden was the only space that people could enjoy and socialise in safety, whether it was the back garden, the local green or the Phoenix Park.

The connection with and restorative effect of nature offered opportunities to de-stress. Access to and connecting with nature has maintained and improved peoples’ mental health during the past year and half, and people have understood and acknowledged this.

People have taken up gardening as never before, Bord Bia figures published in March show Irish consumers spent 1.2 billion Euros on their gardens last year, up 50% on 2018, with spending on herbs, fruit and veg at an all time high. The increased spending has taken many forms, from increased frequency of maintenance, to the installation of outdoor rooms, but people often want to undertake a garden project themselves with some expert advice and support, a professional, open to discussion and perhaps collaboration in the work, sharing their expertise. A qualified advisor who can do some of the ‘heavy lifting’, part consultancy, part landscape work, and here lies a niche area ripe for the picking. We can capitalise on this positive change, horticulturists can develop opportunities for a professional practice,in nature based therapeutic activities, or fostering continued engagement in the garden for older adults, and young families. This might take the form of supporting vegetable growing areas in domestic gardens, perhaps helping those new to gardening with plans for crop rotations and 12-months cropping plans, all whilst earning a living.

Communities all over Ireland are keen to engage professional horticulturists and get expert input to their gardens, they do this though the county council, professionals working locally but also with the help of industry. This in turn leads to opportunity for industry, through increased plant sales and demand for landscape services.

Educational qualifications are no longer something that a student must travel for, that must take place on campus or in a classroom. From our community-engaged learning

The children are in heaven, the muck, the feeling on their hands… it’s far better than any education in a book, we have samples of everything here, the children don't have to go to the park to find it. You can see it all here. We're the luckiest school in Ireland with our facilities right now The garden programme at Scoil Mhuire is managed and resourced by the teachers and its usage extends across all classes, however, the garden is also a key resource for learning support teachers, working with children with additional learning needs. Each day on rotation one class eats their lunch and spends time at free play in the garden, exploring, and engaging with the features of the garden.

During class time, teachers use the willow dome as an outdoor classroom, and the garden as a teaching aid in the delivery of nature-related topics. The garden also promotes creative play through its features and access to a range of natural materials such as sticks, leaves and flowers.

Commenting on the role of the garden in school activities, teachers observed, “The early start pupils cycle through the garden on their bikes. They dig, they plant, they play, they get mucky, education there is via the garden, it’s becoming

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13 / EDUCATION

with BDCG we already knew that off-site learning was possible and Covid forced our hand to teach and learn off campus. Through it, we now know it is possible to learn at home, in your own community, to do online teaching and demonstrations remotely, with focused labs and practicals on site. Students all over the country have utilised their parks and open spaces, community gardens, and their own window sills to learn. At TU Dublin Horticulture, the pandemic has changed our teaching and learning delivery mode, yet in many ways it just accelerated what was already happening with the move to more online delivery for students. In this way, we also broadened our geographical scope and student base. This flexibility makes it possible to learn from anywhere in the country, with the need to be on campus reduced to encompass essential activities.

We retain an emphasis on quality education for our students, with these flexible learning programmes, through small class sizes and a supportive learning environment with the uniqueness that learning in and with community brings.

In a world where environmental sustainability is key, we have an enhanced focus on the interrelated TU Dublin themes of people, planet and partnership, and continued close connection to industry.

At TU Dublin, teaching through the lens of the UN sustainability goals, gives an approach to educational, research and engagement practices, which will enhance Horticulture programmes at TU Dublin, delivering real educational change,

The input of the TU Dublin students and the local community is central to its success, and the school agrees that it would not be possible without the continued involvement of the local community innovation and impact for society and environment as a whole.

Horticulture at TU Dublin - Watch This Space! ✽

RACHEL FREEMAN is a lecturer in horticulture at Technological University Dublin (TUD).

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EDIBLES / 14

Describing a collaboration between Teagasc and TU Dublin to include life cycle thinking in efforts to reduce food and packaging waste in horticulture crops, aligning with the International Year of Fruit and Vegetables 2021 “ Innovate, cultivate, reduce food loss and waste ” MAIN PHOTO: SPINACH CROP AT MCCORMACK'S FAMILY FARM

BY GREG CAREY

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HE SITUATION WE SEE

How many of the food products on display at the supermarket, including fresh fruit and vegetables, are placed in sealed and packaged punnets or bags to ensure safety and freshness? This packaging is either plastic, or a mix of plastic and cardboard containers, often with modified internal atmosphere to improve the shelf life (longevity) of the product. Packaging ensures our food is safe to consume by minimising the risk of food borne pathogens and reducing food waste among perishable, fresh products like spinach by extending their shelf life.

However, the horticulture sector faces a trade-off between minimising food waste (through increased shelf life) and minimising packaging waste. There is widespread concern about the volume of food waste and packaging waste generated in our daily lives. In Ireland we generate an average of 54kgs of plastic waste per person every year (Sunday Business Post 19/01/2021, Eurostat data (2021).

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

14 / EDIBLES Food waste by Irish consumers is estimated at one million tonnes every year (EPA 2020 www.StopFoodWaste.ie).

THE LEAF NO WASTE PROJECT

The horticulture sector faces a trade-off between minimising food waste (through increased shelf life) and minimising packaging waste

So, how can we reduce both the reliance on plastic packaging and the risk of food waste? This question underpins the Leaf No Waste research initiative. We are taking part in a research competition supported through the Science Foundation Ireland Food Challenge, and we are undertaking research to answer this question over the course of 2021. The Leaf No Waste team is an interdisciplinary team with backgrounds in horticulture, food science, packaging technology, and sustainability. The team includes Dr. Lael Walsh and Dr. Shivani Pathania at Teagasc, working with Professor Jesus Frias and Lorraine Foley at TU Dublin (Principal Investigators on the project), and societal impact champion, presenter of RTE’s GROW COOK EAT, Karen O’Donohoe.

Through engagement with growers and advisors we became aware that the horticulture sector is facing increasing pressure to reduce plastic packaging and switch to compostable packaging options, while maintaining shelf life of their products. Growers have found this a challenging shift

The next phase will entail the field scale commercial validation of the intervention over the summer at McCormack's Family Farm. In addition to repeating the work in the pilot study, further testing of packaging film

to make because it is difficult to understand which materials are appropriate for different crops. For example, crops with a higher water content like herbs, lettuce and spinach have a short shelf life and compostable packaging performs significantly worse than current plastic options.

types, atmosphere packaging and packaging thickness will be undertaken, in tandem with a life cycle assessment to generate information on the impact indicators. For example, we aim to measure the impact of interventions on greenhouse gas emissions.

WHAT IS LEAF NO WASTE TRYING TO DO ABOUT THIS?

CONCLUSION

The primary goal of Leaf No Waste is to reduce food waste and minimize single plastic use in horticulture products.

Specifically, we focus on fresh spinach and herbs because they are most prone to food waste with no secondary market. The aim is to fortify the crops with silicic acid which may reduce respiration in the crop after harvest and extend the shelf life under more sustainable or compostable packaging options. This addresses the trade-off between extending shelf life of perishable spinach leaves and using compostable packaging.

This is novel because traditionally, shelf life interventions have focused on the post-harvest management of the product, overlooking the importance of interventions taken in the field, and during production. Our interdisciplinary approach addresses all stages of the product’s life cycle from production through to consumption. The team will assess how a targeted agronomic intervention can improve crop shelf life under reduced plastic options, can lower waste levels and how this improves the sustainability profile of the crop.

PRELIMINARY FINDINGS The team at the Technical University Dublin designed a pilot study by growing a mixture of mustard (var. Ruby Streaks) and baby leaf spinach (var. Amazon) crops enriched with proprietary products containing silicic acid. Treatments were applied at different rates and the crop was harvested in March 2021. Harvested material was packaged in Teagasc using oriented polypropylene (OPP), polylactic acid (PLA)

and cellulose plastics. All packages were transported to the Greenway Hub in TU Dublin where extensive shelf life testing was conducted. Although this pilot study was small, it did show a treatment response in both baby leaf spinach and mustard leaves from silicic acid application, as crop quality and freshness was maintained in certain packaging types.

This has prompted further investigation at a field scale to replicate the treatments and at a packaging scale to test out different film characteristics.

FURTHER RESEARCH

The Leaf No Waste project brings together expertise in agronomy, post-harvest technology, packaging and sustainability to address all stages of a crop product life cycle from production, through to consumption. At the same time, it will assess the sustainability criteria of different options to ensure environmental metrics are available and can be considered by producers and retailers when taking decisions on production and packaging, as they endeavour to reduce waste. We anticipate increased flexibility in addressing the horticultural sector’s trade-offs between food waste and packaging waste, which can only improve the sustainability profile of important crops in Ireland’s food system.

For more information about the project, contact researchers in the Horticulture Development Department at Teagasc: Lael Walsh (Lael.walsh@teagasc.ie) or in the Horticulture Department at TU Dublin: Lorraine Foley (Lorraine.Foley@tudublin.ie). ✽

DR LAEL WALSH is a research officer in the Horticultural Development Unit at Teagasc. Lael continues to develop a research programme in support of sustainable horticulture with a particular focus on waste and food loss reduction, life cycle impact assessment, urban agriculture, horticulture resilience, and all aspects of sustainability. Contact Lael Walsh: lael.walsh@teagasc.ie

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EDIBLES / 14

THE LIGHT FANTASTIC Dr Eamonn Kehoe, Teagasc Soft Fruit Specialist, outlines the benefits of using light supplementation in berry crops

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CAN WE GROW STRAWBERRIES ALL YEAR LONG?

ne of the recent webinars run for soft fruit growers focused on the latest advances in the use of light supplementation.

The presentation was given by two speakers from Philips N.V. Philips is one of the biggest electronics companies in the world. They are also one of the leaders in lighting technology and have a specialised unit devoted to lighting in various horticultural crops.

Their centre of excellence is based in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands and as a result Eindhoven is often called the 'Philips city'.

Peers Hermans,the main horticultural lighting specialist gave an amazing presentation on the benefits of light supplementation, focusing specifically on strawberry crops.

Light supplementation is primarily delivered by using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Technology development has allowed for many husbandry improvements. An LED light array can be designed for a specific crop and tailored for a particular part of the growing season. The amount of white, red and far-red light, for example, needed by a grower for their crop can be engineered in the factory.

LEDs are also very energy efficient. delivering huge energy savings and a much lower carbon footprint. For example, a 9w LED will give a similar light output as a 100w incandescent light bulb. Growers in Ireland mostly use incandescent light bulbs as ‘night break’ lights. Night-break lighting is needed to break crop dormancy. Without this treatment, crop yields and strawberry quality are much lower.

Night-break lighting is even more crucial during a mild winter when the strawberry crop receives inadequate chilling.

Philips ‘GreenPower 2.0 ‘night break’ lights were recently installed in our strawberry glasshouse units in Teagasc, Ashtown Research Centre. The light produced gives the optimum amounts of deep red, white and far-red radiation for the strawberry crop. The lights are used for about 40 days, once the strawberry crops begin to actively grow. The lights are working extremely well, and are also delivering energy efficiency of over 90 per cent compared to incandescent light bulbs.

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LED technology offers huge potential for the strawberry industry. In the Netherlands,at least 40 hectares of heated glass are now using LED lights to grow strawberries all year long. This means Dutch consumers can buy strawberries for the lucrative Christmas market and Dutch producers can command a higher price for their produce. The Philips scientists expect the use of LED light treatment to increase quickly as growers adopt the new technology.

More research and development is ongoing, exploring the effects of the LED lights on crop growth but also beneficial insects and bumblebees. So far the bumblebees do not seem to be affected by the LED light wavelengths.

EXTENSION OF THE CROP SEASON LED's could also have a big role to play in the season extension of ever-bearing strawberries. Ever-bearing strawberries are very dependent on a combination of increased temperature and increased day length to continue to flower and produce fruit.

Whilst the temperature in a heated glasshouse could always be controlled, controlling the day length in spring and autumn was not possible. Peers Hermans described several examples where growers in Belgium and the Netherlands were now able to extend the growing season using LED lights. This means, for example, that a grower could continue to pick an ever-bearer crop well into the winter without any loss of fruit quality. The scientists maintain that the fruit quality is improved when LED supplementation is used for all berry crops. ✽

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Summer 2021

DR EAMONN KEHOE is a soft fruit adviser and research scientist with Teagasc. For more information contact: eamonn.kehoe@teagasc.ie

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