ooted in exford

Mark Cooke invites you to grow along with him every month

The Slaney News is delighted to welcome Enniscorthy man, Mark Cooke, on board with his new monthly column. Mark is a committee member at Enniscorthy Community Allotments, and has a huge passion for growing fruit and veg which he shares on his Instagram platform @rootedinwexford which has over 6,500 followers.

Mark describes himself very much as a ‘hobby gardener’ who is not academically trained in horticulture. He started planting with very little knowledge a few years ago and that knowledge has now mushroomed! Mark says he is “really looking forward to sharing my growing passion with readers of the Slaney News “.

I find the best way to clean the tunnel is using a soft brush with some warm, slightly soapy water. It lifts the algae really easily and maximises the light levels for your seedlings and plants over the growing season. You can do this on the inside too, to ensure you remove all of the unwanted bugs that have come inside over the winter.

FEBRUARY...

At this time of year, I focus mostly on tidying up and planning for the year ahead. If you have a greenhouse or if you start seeds indoors, you can start off with tomatoes, peppers or chillies, to name a few. Read on for some tips. There's plenty of work to do in my greenhouse at the minute. It needs a complete clear out of all the old tomato plants and any stray weeds or seedlings that might have popped up over winter. It needs a thorough clean to remove all of the bugs hidden in all of the corners and the algae on the outside that has grown over winter.

I like to grow organically. This means I don't use any chemicals or pest control that can be harmful to my soil and any vegetables that I grow. Rather, I use natural fertilisers and feed such as granulated and liquid seaweed.

As I mentioned earlier, it is still early to grow seeds, so if you don't have a warm space to grow your seeds you could always wait for another month. I like to grow mine indoors in a warm window that gets plenty of light. It requires a little extra minding but I'm always eager to get started.

If you don't want to grow seeds this month or don't have the space, it's the perfect time to get planning. Think of what you like to eat and stick to growing those things. Although I start chillies, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and some different salad mixes, mostly this month is about planning for the year ahead.

If you don't have a growing space but you'd still like to grow something, try chillies. Chillies don't take up a lot of space and will grow easily on a warm kitchen window. They don't give too much trouble, seeds are widely available and if you have children they always love watching them develop from a little seedling right through to picking that first chilli (big children too).

Last year, I grew 22 different varieties of tomatoes. I never even knew that there were that many varieties but the greenhouse was full of colour from black to white tomatoes with lots of colours in between including white, tie dye, green, red and yellow. This year I hope to grow a similar amount so I look forward to sharing all of those with you.

If you'd like to see more of what I am growing, see the methods I use, or ask me any questions, then make sure to pop over to @rootedinwexford on Instagram or check out next month to get some updates on how February went and my plans for March.