Forum home› Garden design
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

North-West Ireland

WaysideWayside Posts: 845
in Garden design
Just visited, and had a week of pretty much no rain.  Which I am told is very rare.

I couldn't really get into many gardens, but I did view front lawns.  I was awestruck with some beautifully kept and cut evergreen hedging.  But I didn't really get a sense of what grows well.  There were conifer plantations.  And peaty looking soils.  But much of the land seems to be handed over to small-scale livestock farming.  I didn't see any edible crops grown at all - except for some grasses.  With global warming an the like, what food crops would grow well in those conditions?  Are there orchards?  Or anything like that?  My slightly sceptical nature suggested to me that many are milking EU subsidies - and that's why I didn't see anything else.  But perhaps the climate is just too challenging?
«134

Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Cynical -much?
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    They can’t grow crops and definitely not fruit on peaty acid soil.  They could cover it in lime every year but it’s best for each county to play to their strengths and grow what suits. 
    i know that well enough from my garden. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Mary370Mary370 Posts: 2,003
    The land in the West of Ireland is not very fertile, never has been. If you had travelled around the South West and East of the country you would have seen fields of crops.  As you mentioned most houses have fairly well maintained hedging but gardening, as in growing and maintaining flowers etc. is just not as popular as it is in England.  Don't get me wrong,  hanging baskets and bedding plants will adorn many a front garden during the Summer months.......especially in recent years when the supermarkets and large English diy stores have started selling plants.  My friends, family and neighbours have admired my garden and have said so in passing, but I also know they would be beyond horrified if they realised how much money I spend on potting compost and bark every year.
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    edited July 2018
    Forgive my total ignorance, but peaty acid soil isn't all bad is it?  Our one foot of dust on chalk appears to sustain life, so something must suit that hasn't got four legs.

    Thinking of uprooting from England and moving over - what with the Brexit cluster-feck - but I'd rather grow some plants on a piece of land, than have it festooned with the white plague.
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    I found some soil maps:  http://gis.teagasc.ie/soils/map.php it says Peat!  I'd heard of burning turf and what not, but I didn't actually expect to see pure black soil.  Quite a contrast to our chalky lime here!
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Wayside said:
    Forgive my total ignorance, but peaty acid soil isn't all bad is it?  Our one foot of dust on chalk appears to sustain life, so something must suit that hasn't got four legs.


    I love my peaty acid soil, but I won’t be able to grow fruit trees or most veg without liming it, which I don’t want to do, so I’ll find things that will grow on it. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Lyn's right - and it's not just soil - it's a whole lot of things. Length of day when you head north, means plenty of light but not necessarily warmth. Soil gets easily waterlogged [ this year is a freak in many parts of the country ] and that alone makes it difficult to get things thriving. East and west, even in a small country, can be very diverse in their climate and conditions. 
    We have the same issues up here - the west is much more tricky to grow in than the east side of the country because of rain and wind. We're further north than Ireland [ N. Ireland is about the same latitude as the south of Scotland] Our summertime temps are low, and it also takes the ground a long time to warm up in spring. The growing season is shorter. 
    The reason you can't grow tomatoes outside here, for example, is because night time summer temps are often in single figures. I'm only at 400 feet, but the  last three nights have been single figures, or touching 11 degrees. Daytime temps have been around fourteen apart from a few hours when it's been around 17 - 19, but with a wind.   :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • floraltipsfloraltips Posts: 89
    Pretty much everything that Fairygirl has said really. 
    Add in rocky ground and badly drained peat soil then you have really challenging conditions. You wouldn't have to dig deep before hitting solid rock.
    The small scale holdings ( historically hard won) that you mentioned are passed down the generations and really not fit for anything other than livestock with a few fields providing the winter fodder. Most tenants would have jobs elsewhere.
    Don't know where you were @Wayside but I'm talking Donegal here where the coastal road through it is called "The Wild Atlantic Way" for a reason.
    Beautiful rugged county.
  • Mary370Mary370 Posts: 2,003
    The Wild Atlantic Way is a route for drivers/tourists to travel from the North West of Ireland, down the whole West Coast to the South East of the country.  It is a very scenic drive through coastal towns, villages, countryside and beaches.
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    I'm trying to get my bearings, yes talking Donegal here.  Ireland boasts that it's pretty good at exporting some crops, like wheat/oats etc.   Yes, the north-west is very pretty, but there does appear to be bands of hills, so there must still be a difference each side.  Is it not even good enough light and heat wise for poly-tunnels?
Sign In or Register to comment.