Entertainment
Gardening made easy: novel idea takes root
Lifestyle – JUDY MURPHY finds how the recession has helped a hobby become a thriving business
After father-of-four Eoin Flaherty lost his job during the economic crash, his life took a new and unexpected direction.
Eoin has drawn on his love of gardening to create a new product designed to make fruit and vegetable growing easier, for beginner and experienced gardener alike.
There’s nothing like it on sale in Ireland, or anywhere else in Europe, says Headford based Eoin, who shakes his head in disbelief as he describes how simple his GrowGrid mat is.
He had developed a series of polypropylene mats, which have holes pre-punched in them, with the distance between the holes varying in size to cater for different types of fruit and veg. Mats are designed to allow people to grow a mix of vegetables in a small area – everything from potatoes to spinach and strawberries, with holes for the seeds or plant plugs.
The GrowGrid mats, which come in large and small sizes, might be simple in design but they are highly effective, as a walk around his beautifully ordered garden in Ballycasey, outside Headford demonstrates.
There are several raised beds where herbs including lovage, curry and parsley are thriving, while garlic is also doing well. The potatoes are slower than usual, he says, but that’s because of the weather.
Further down there’s a polytunnel, where the mats are laid out in perfect symmetry and a range of food – strawberries, celery, chard, tomatoes, peas, beans and lettuce – are all in various stage of growth.
The holes in the GrowGrid mats are heat sealed to stop the fabric from fraying and the big advantage is that the membrane prevents weeds from growing so the plant is not competing with them for light or nutrients.
Eoin, who is originally from Inis Mór on the Aran Islands, was always interested in food. After school, he trained as a chef at the then RTC in Galway and gained extensive experience in the hospitality industry, working in restaurants from Roly’s Bistro in Dublin, to Park House here in Galway.
But when the property boom came, he changed careers and went into the construction industry. He was newly married and the father of a small family and needed a change. Working as a chef, with long and often late hours, is not a family friendly occupation, he says.
“I had a great career and worked at the higher end of it, but it’s a young man’s game. We were married, and both working shifts, so something had to give.”
However, like thousands of others, Eoin was left without a job when the property bubble burst. His wife, Catriona, is a nurse, so they made the pragmatic decision that, rather than returning to cheffing, he would become a stay-at-home father, while Catriona continued to work.
That’s when the idea for the pre-punched GrowGrid mats first came about.
Eoin had been growing vegetables all his life, except for the period when he was working fulltime, when he was too busy. But once he decided to stay at home, he returned to gardening – the family home is on a three-quarter acre site, which offered plenty of scope. However, a combination of bad weather, which saw weeds flourish, and having four small children to mind, left him strapped for time.
He originally put the matting down around copper beech to inhibit weed growth and it was then he realised its potential in the vegetable patch, as did other people who saw it.
“So I developed the pre-punched matting myself. It’s much the same as membranes you’d put on soil except for the holes. There are four different spaces depending on what you want to grow.”
The mats are made of treated polypropylene and each will last up to five years if properly maintained, but he has several that are older than that. Each one comes with biodegradable pegging which secure the mat onto the ground. The small ones are 1.5 metres wide and 2.2 metres long while the large ones are the same width and are four metres long.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Folk duo Niall Teague and Pádraic Joyce are launching their new album What Will We Be, a blend of folk, Americana and acoustic music, this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in An Taibhdhearc.
The success of their well-received 2020 release Taobh le Taobh, as well as recent successes at the Pan Celtic and Oireachtas Song Contests, spurred the duo on to record this new album which represents many years of collaboration and musical development.
It features Niall and Pádraic on vocals, harmonies, and acoustic guitars, Maidhc Ó hÉanaigh on double bass and Neil Fitzgibbon on fiddle. The catchy title track, What Will We Be, features contributions from percussionist Jim Higgins (The Stunning, Christy Moore, Paul Brady) and haunting, driving melodies on vocals, guitar, and fiddle.
Themes of love and hope are woven through Come Away with Me which features interplay between piano and fiddle as well as rich vocal harmonies.
People, places, and broken dreams are celebrated and lamented on Martin and Tom, Guitar Gold, Memories of You and Achill Island. The influence of David Henry Thoreau’s novel Walden features on the tracks Simple and Wise and Walden, with the beauty of nature, escape and simple pleasures at their core.
The album moves from minimalistic folk ballads such as Galway Ghost to swirling, string-laden arrangements on the song Neptune, both of which are influenced by maritime tales from Galway. Much of the work on this album was supported by the Arts Council, including work with musical arranger Eoin Corcoran and the string ensemble Treo.
The album will be launched this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in an Taibhdhearc. Tickets €22, plus booking fee at Eventbrite.ie.
Dunmore is the place to be this weekend for lovers of traditional music, as the Galway County Fleadh will take place there from this Friday, May 19, to Sunday, May 23.
It is 10 years since Dunmore last hosted a fleadh and the local Comhaltas branch, which has re-formed since Covid, is looking forward to facilitating this gathering of music, song, dance and craic.
The official Opening Concert will take place in Dunmore Town Hall this Friday at 8pm with the acclaimed Mulcahy family from Limerick. Mick, Louise and Michelle are well known throughout the country, thanks to their live performances, television appearances and numerous CDs. They were the winners of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Grúpa Ceoil Award for 2023. Tickets for their concert can be purchased on the door and a great night of music is promised.
Two days of competitions will kick off this Saturday at the town’s Community School, with more than 1,500 competitors taking part. Participants will be hoping to qualify for the Connacht Fleadh 2023, which will be held in Ballina, County Mayo, from June 23 to July 2.
Competitions for those aged Under 10, Under 12 and Under 15 will be held in a large variety of instruments on Saturday, as well as in singing and Comhrá Gaeilge. Sunday’s competitions will be for the Under 18 and Over 18 ages groups, as well as in dancing.
On both days a large entry is expected for Grúpaí Cheoil and Céilí Band competitions across all age groups.
Seventeen Comhaltas branches from across Galway will have participants in this weekend’s competitions, which will result in a large number of visitors to the Dunmore area.
Members of the public are welcome to attend the competitions, which offer a great opportunity to hear and see the talent on display. There will be sessions in local pubs over the weekend as well and everybody is welcome to attend these.
For more information on the County Fleadh, go to www.galwaycomhaltas.ie.
Music for Galway’s concert with renowned Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia which had been due to take place on April 27 but which had to be deferred, will now take place next Tuesday, May 23, at 8pm, in the Emily Anderson Concert Hall at the University of Galway.
This concert of German classics with Bach at its core, will brings the Bach element of Music for Galway’s 41st season to an end.
This world-class pianist who won the famous Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition, has a repertoire that spans many eras from baroque to contemporary and he is widely known for his elaborate programmes. Cédric Pescia describes music as ‘language and movement at the same time’.
Audiences will have a chance to experience his soft, clear touch as he performs a programme for solo piano that will include classics such as Schumann’s popular Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), a suite of nine short pieces, and the penultimate of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, No. 31. These pieces will be interspersed with French Suites by Bach.
■ Ticket for Cédric Pescia’s concert are available at www.musicforgalway.ie, or by phone 091 705962 and on the door on the night. They cost €20/€18. The price for fulltime students of all ages is €6 while MfG Friends can avail of the friends’ rate of €16.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
