TRUFFLES

Photo: No truffles yet but it won't be long.

GROW YOUR OWN TRUFFLES

I have been trying to train my dog Max to find truffles in the woods. Up to now he hasn’t come up with the goods, this could be because I’m not the best teacher when it comes to dogs noses and of course Max isn’t a pig, which is the usual animal that tracks down these delicacies. Another reason is that there probably aren’t any truffles around Inishowen anyway. Things might change soon as scientists in New Zealand have found a way to infect trees with the spores of truffle fungus. The truffles will grow happily under trees such as oak a few years after the tree has been planted. Can’t wait!

Horticultural.

CREOSOTE

BYE BYE TO CREOSOTE
Creosote, the gardeners’ favourite wood preservative for 150 years, has been banned from domestic use following an E.U. directive. DIY shops have already stopped stocking it and if you have any in your sheds you should use it up as the deadline for having it ended in June. The ban follows research on mice showing that contact with creosote increased the potential for cancer.
If you have any creosote to use up it could come in handy for keeping rabbits off the garden. I was told last week that you soak natural rope in the stuff and put it around the area you want to keep the pesky rabbits off. Apparently they won’t cross the boundary. Make sure that the rabbits are the right side of the rope though!

Horticultural,environmental.

SPRING PLANT PICTURES

Photo: Victoria plum blossom

Photo: Wood anemone

Photo: Fritillaria meleagris

MICROGENERATION

Last week saw a large wind farm opened by Duncan Stuart from the RTE programme Eco –Eye. The farm outside Ballybofey is said to be the largest one in the country. For all the positive news that comes out of this form of energy production there is a growing number of people that are questioning their viability. The first group of people that object are the organisations that say that the countryside should come first. There only needs to be a couple of turbines on a hill to ruin a landmark. The turbines kill a lot of birds as well so the bird societies are also wary of their use. Surveys have revealed that the increase of wind power can only decrease a tiny proportion of the greenhouse gasses that are used. This is because electricity generators account for only a third of the emissions. Transport and industry produce the rest. The other criticism that wind power generates is the fact that at present the system fluctuates with the production depending on the weather conditions. It simply cannot cope with big surges in demand on a still day. Solid fuel and oil are getting scarce and there will need to be a shake up in the use of energy. A start would be to use the energy that is produced more effectively. With conventional power stations, only about half of the fuel put in comes out as electricity. The rest is heat, which is lost. There is also a loss of ten percent during transmission and distribution. So the most obvious start to reducing emissions would be to use less electricity in the first place. Turn off lights; do not put electrical goods on standby etc. The other method of reducing emissions is to equip houses and offices with a system called microgeneration.

WHAT IS MICROGENERATION?
“Microgeneration” or micropower is the production of power on the smallest of scales. Micropower technologies emit low amounts of carbon dioxide, or in some cases, no carbon dioxide at all. Unlike large power stations, micropower appliances are situated very close to where their power is used.

Micropower takes the electricity industry full circle. Thomas Edison, father of the modern electrical age, had small-scale, localised power in mind when he built the worlds first power plant, Pearl Street Station, in New York in 1882. His vision was for a decentralised energy industry with dozens of companies generating and delivering power close to where it was to be used – or even putting systems in the homes and factories of their customers. By 1907, fifty-nine percent of American electricity came from small-scale generation.

Micropower units are growing in popularity because they are more efficient and less hazardous to the environment than large, centralised power plants, and with many units producing electricity, they provide greater diversity and security of supply. Some can even provide back-up power during blackouts. Micropower is cost-effective. Often micropower technologies are able to use heat that would otherwise be wasted. Micropower is good for the environment. Some forms of micropower use fuels or energy sources that produce no greenhouse gases. Those that do use fossil fuels do so with efficiencies typically of greater than 90%.


MICROPOWER AND THE CONSUMER
By putting generators in people's houses, micropower brings energy issues home to the public. Because they are visible, micropower technologies form a daily visual reminder of energy use and associated issues such as climate change. As a result, micropower could help bring about a shift in the way people use energy, and will help the country achieve its ambitions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.


The following are amongst the most common approaches being developed:

Microturbines
About the size of a refrigerator, a microturbine unit generates 30 to 60 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power a small business. Maximum thermal efficiencies can be achieved when the exhaust is used in a combined heat and power, or cogeneration, application. With its flexible design, generation capacity is unlimited when running in parallel to the electric grid -- up to 1.2 megawatts of electricity, coupled independent of the grid.

Like a jet engine, the unit mixes fuel with air to create combustion. This combustion turns a magnet generator, compressor and turbine wheels on a revolutionary single shaft, air-bearing design at high speed with no need for additional lubricants, oils or coolants. The result is a highly efficient, reliable, clean combustion generator with very low Nitrate emissions that, unlike diesel generators, can operate around the clock without restrictions. And, unlike combined cycle gas turbines, these power systems use no water.

Fuel cells
A fuel cell combines hydrogen with oxygen (from air) in a chemical reaction.

Ground Source Heat Pumps
Ground Source heat pumps tap the heat within the ground and convert it into energy.

Solar Water Heating
This is the most commonly used form of solar energy currently used today. Solar water heating typically uses roof-mounted panels to provide 40-50% of a household’s hot water needs

Biomass Heating
This involves the use of fast-growing trees such as willow or poplar as commercial energy crops.


Wind turbines: Last but not least is the wind turbine. These devices don’t need to be plonked on a hillside. Smaller versions can fit on your chimney!

Environmental.

RAISED BEDS

RAISED BEDS AT CASHEL NA COR

This week I have been at the Cashel na Cor site on the Carndonagh road working with a group of 14 people who are on the Job Initiative Programme. The reason we have all come together is to take part in a landscaping and basic garden design course.

So much work has been done already on the riverside garden by the team working there full time, but one of the projects of the week was to create some raised herb beds that will look attractive with the minimal amount of maintenance at the far end of the garden.

There was an area set aside for the beds, but apart from that we had the freedom to come up with a design that would fit in with the existing landscaped areas. Most of the garden is already natural stone so the similar stone that had been donated for the beds will fit in nicely, this will be far longer lasting than building a bed out of wood for example.

There were a few factors to take into consideration before the beds were created. The first thing was to make sure that the path in between the beds were at least four feet (1.35m) wide or more to cater for any wheelchair users or people that need a carer to walk along side them. Steps were intentionally left out because they could cause problems for people with mobility difficulties

The next thing was to come up with a good height for the beds, not only for showing the plants off to their best advantage, but also to be the right height for most gardeners to be able to do the weeding and pruning without any back strain. The decision was made to put the beds at around two feet high (0.7m), which would hopefully satisfy most of the requirements. I use the word “around” because as I found out this week building a raised bed isn’t exactly a straight forward science. The spirit level was gathering dust in the storeroom, and rightly so. The beds are built on a slight slope and to get the benefit of the beds from all angles when you are walking around them they were lowered in certain areas and raised in others. At first I was a bit doubtful whether this method would work, but seeing them in place I realise that it does. The secret is to do a small section of wall and stand back to see if it looks right. If it does, then it is right. Then carry on doing another small section and standing back again.

The stones were held in place by a mortar mix, the effect was to give a dry stone wall look, so the excess cement in the gaps was brushed off before it had time to set, then small gaps were left with no cement, into which trailing plants were put. These were mainly slow growing alpines but in one of the four beds that have been done there are around thirty strawberry plants that hopefully should give a healthy crop in summer.

We started the course by sitting down and getting our heads together to come up with an attractive design that would fit in the area. This done we set about putting the ideas into practice. But like all things organic the ideas changed dramatically by the time we got onto the site. Fixed plans are probably vital when building a house but in this case every change that was suggested by the team improved the look of the beds. We started off with two semi circular shaped beds facing one another, these are now kidney shaped beds offset from one another. There has also been a seat incorporated into the narrow area of the beds for anyone to sit down on a warm sunny day and eat their sandwiches.

The raised beds were heaped full of good quality topsoil to allow for any settling and after a soil test, found that it was around PH7, the fact that the beds will be free draining makes them ideal for most herbs to grow. The beds have been planted up with a few aromatic herbs such as Lavender, Thyme, Chamomile, Fennel and Feverfew. There will be more plants such as creeping Thyme, Rosemary, Lemon Balm and Sage, but at the moment they are small plugs and cuttings so they have to grow up a bit before they can be planted into place. For now they have been potted up and will sit on the windowsill in the building until they are ready for the outside world. The fact that the beds have very few plants doesn’t make them less attractive because we have used a thick mesh covered with gravel to keep the weeds down.

I must say I feel we all worked really well as a team, there were a large number of us on the project, but that didn’t stop us all pulling together, and I think coming up with a very attractive and practical piece of garden sculpture, that hopefully will be enjoyed for years to come.

I’d like to end by thanking everyone that took part for a very enjoyable and enlightening week.

Horticultural.

GIANT VEGETABLES

(Click on the title for a link to Robinsons mammoth seed website)

I was in Belfast last weekend visiting friends. These friends of mine are lucky enough to live very close to the Botanic gardens, and we thought it would a good idea to let the children get some exercise hunting for conkers (creating a small diversion as I tuck a few seed heads in my pocket from the herbaceous borders). When we got to the gardens though, we were surprised to see a very large marquee set up on the grass. The tent was set up to house three things, firstly a Dahlia competition; here people entered their choice specimens, usually in threes to, be judged. Secondly there was a competition for bonsai trees and cacti. Thirdly the grand competition to find the biggest and best vegetables.

There were parsnips measuring 8 feet long (including the fibrous roots) onions weighing in at a little over 5lbs (2.5kg) The marrows needed four people to help lift them onto a table and leeks that were as wide and tall as fence posts. I was in awe at the size and quality of all the vegetables from the celery to tomatoes and felt as though I was doing something wrong in my own veg patch, until I happened to spot a catalogue from a company called Robinson’s, this company specialise in mammoth vegetable seeds (Sunny Bank, Forton, Nr. Preston, Lancashire PR3OBN tel: 00441524 791210) Now I don’t know whether it’s classed as cheating buying these seeds, I’m sure it’s not, there is still a lot of work to do to grow these seeds into prize winners. There’s a wide range of seed available to fill the vegetable patch most of them range in price from £1.75 to 2.50 sterling per packet. For those people that want a head start though you can buy specially grown selected plants for the exhibitor.


There are individually potted onions and leeks for you to buy at £27 sterling for ten plants, they have elephant garlic as well, which costs £10 per head, which will make the chilli con carne pretty expensive to make but there’s sure to be plenty of it!

Horticultural.