Sit back and make a resolution: what GYO gardeners will do

AH YES, dear old wintry January, the month that smokers, dieters and gardeners love to hate.

But at least when it comes to the awkward business of sticking to those new year resolutions, gardeners can console themselves with the fact that they have the slight upper hand. The reason for this is that come January 1st, dieters must attempt to diet and smokers (at least those who’ve resolved to give up the habit) must attempt to quit. But even those gardeners with a list of new year GYO resolutions as long as their arm can’t attempt much gardening, at least until the weather improves, by which stage, they can then be forgiven for forgetting exactly what some of those resolutions were in the first place.

No, instead of gardening, the weather forces the gardener to stay indoors to study seed catalogues and to dream of springtime and the beginning of another growing year. And the happy result of all of this armchair gardening? No strict, self-imposed deadlines, no (as yet) broken resolutions, no self-reproach, no guilt. Despite those itchy green fingers, no wonder that gardeners are probably happier than most when New Year’s Day arrives.

With all this in mind, I recently wondered to myself what other gardeners have included in their 2011 list of new year’s GYO resolutions. With OPW gardeners Brian Quinn and Meeda Downey on holidays, here is what some other well-known GYOers had to say on the matter.

Tanguy de Toulgöet, Dunmore Country School, Co Laois

A graduate of the Pierrefonds School of Agriculture in France, Tanguy de Toulgöet is the owner of Dunmore Country School just outside Durrow in County Laois (www.dunmorecountryschool.ie), where he and his wife Isabelle run a variety of sustainable organic gardening courses and cookery courses. He says “My new year resolutions are usually very short. I have only two: the first one is to save more seeds. The second one is to try more varieties. I am sure it is the right cocktail for a happy gardening year.”

Michael Kelly, founder, GIY Ireland

Michael Kelly is a journalist, author and founder of GIY Ireland (www.giyireland.com), a nationwide organization with 6,000 members that he set up in 2009 to inspire and help people to grow their own food through a network of local GIY groups. Along with growing more fruit, building a fruit cage, buying a glasshouse, more hens and a goat (while also making a concerted attempt to grow asparagus), he’s determined to “organise my seeds: every year I resolve to put some order into my seed packets. I have great notions about putting them alphabetically so I don’t have to rummage through them when I need to find something - but never do it. This is the year.”

Peggy Murray, Cork allotment-holder

Peggy Murray is a Cork allotment-holder, garden blogger (www.organicgrowingpains.blogspot.com ) and the recipient of the inaugural RDS Allotment Award for “experienced allotment gardener.” For 2011, she’s decided that “better, more comprehensive record-keeping is very much in order. I usually start okay but in moving seedlings from home to plot, labels go on the missing list, and seed packets get wet and illegible. We will stick to tried and tested this year as with the recession biting, we will try to be far more self-sufficient for more of the year. We’ll be starting salad crops under cloches as early as possible and sowing little and often to keep a continuous supply of as many veg as we can.”

Michael Viney, author

Author, original good lifer and Irish Timescolumnist, Michael Viney's new year GYO resolutions are as follows: "To listen to Ethna when she says there are only 365 days in the year and when are we supposed to eat all those beetroot/celeriac/ climbing beans in the freezer? To get better at having green stuff to pick in the "hungry gap" of late spring. To get in early with the nematode army when red ants start multiplying in the tunnel.

And not to leave the rake out in the rain!”

Hans Wieland, manager, The Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co Leitrim

Hans Wieland of The Organic Centre (www.theorganiccentre.ie) has a resolution to make 2011 a peat-free gardening year in his own garden, as well as a fruitful one. With the latter in mind, his plan is “to cover the frame of our second unused polytunnel and make it a ‘fruit-cage-tunnel’ or ‘fruit tunnel-cage’ for all sorts of currants, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries and our two new Goji-Berry plants. This was on the cards for a long time, but finally I have the netting now and all I need is good weather and a few friends to help to put it up.”

Nicky Kyle, director, Organic Trust

A former director of the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association (IOFGA) and then of The Organic Trust, Nicky Kyle (www.nickykylegardening.com) is one of Ireland’s very first commercial organic growers.

This year, along with continuing her work to persuade people of the importance of gardening organically, she’s resolved “to stop rushing around trying to cram as much into every minute as humanly possible, and to take some ‘stillness’ time out every day to really appreciate the incredible diversity and beauty of nature in the garden – from the tiniest seed pod or insect, to wonderful birdsong and the ever-changing skies.

“This means I must stop overestimating the amount of work I will get done in the time actually available! Rudyard Kiplings If has a lot to answer for!”

Madeline McKeever, Brown Envelope Seeds

Organic Irish vegetable seed-producer Madeline McKeever is the owner of Brown Envelope Seeds (www.brownenvelopeseeds.com) near Skibbereen, County Cork.

“My new year resolution is the same as it is every year. Make a plan and record everything I grow, from the source of the seed or plant, its variety, the date I sow it, the weather, the first harvest, the first flower, the seed harvest date, the yield, etc.

“I always get to a point in the year that I don’t get around to recording things and then I give up in the belief that there is no point if I don’t record everything. So 2011 is going to be different.”

• The OPW's Victorian walled kitchen garden is in the grounds of the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre, beside the Phoenix Park Café and Ashtown Castle. The gardens are open daily 10am to 4pm.

• Fionnuala Fallon is a garden designer and writer