Livestock are food bearing crops for humans and, in some instances, their grazing and manure are essential for creating the habitat in which endangered wildflowers and insects and other small critters live.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Friends lived further down towards the south east of the Republic of Ireland ... think there was quite a bit more 'gardening' down there .... they had a market garden.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Livestock are food bearing crops for humans and, in some instances, their grazing and manure are essential for creating the habitat in which endangered wildflowers and insects and other small critters live.
By the time you get as far south as Galway the geology has changed, so the soil is no longer acid - though the weather where my daughter has her garden and allotment is still mild, wet and ferociously windy. There's still no great tradition of veg growing, but she seems to be managing ok.
There are plenty of fruit which will do very well in acid soil (it's what I have in my garden in the Pennines). Blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries etc need acid conditions, and provided the soil isn't waterlogged they'll be fine. Ok in wind too. Rhubarb grows well too.
Spuds prefer slightly acid conditions... though as history suggests, you may have a problem with blight. Peas and beans do well here and also prefer it a bit acid - short varieties to cope with the wind.
I guess you could actually grow quite a lot, given some raised beds and some shelter.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Its once in a Blue Moon that i get an opening to bump one or more of the videos i make,..so below is another,..just off the West Coast,..The Skelligs and Cliffs of Moher,..The Skelligs were really given publicity of late in the recent viewing of it in the new Star Wars Film.
Oops something went astray,..however click on the 'Play Button',..in the middle,.. then click on the bottom right where it reads 'YouTube'
@Wayside - we were on holiday in Donegal last summer, and liked this garden - just near the coast at Shrove (also called Stroove), not far from Derry. Lots of coulour, including some plants too tender for me to grow here, but not a lot of edibles as far as I could see.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
There are plenty of lovely gardens along the north west coast of Scotland which cope with similar weather and less daylight. Gardening in windy conditions is difficult, but not impossible. Polytunnels will survive gales if you build them to the purpose.
According to Yeats you can definitely grow beans and keep bees. Lingonberries grow up near the Arctic so I'm sure you can grow them in Ireland. You'll probably have to develop your own recipe for the meatballs to go with them
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
The National Trust, RSPB and many other ecological and/or historical groups actively put particular types of sheep, cattle or ponies on land to rescue it from bracken, gorse and other invasive plants that impede native flora and fauna such as wild orchids, bilberries (cool, acid soil lovers) and all sorts of naive wildflowers which are hosts to insects and birds.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Posts
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
There are plenty of fruit which will do very well in acid soil (it's what I have in my garden in the Pennines). Blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries etc need acid conditions, and provided the soil isn't waterlogged they'll be fine. Ok in wind too. Rhubarb grows well too.
Spuds prefer slightly acid conditions... though as history suggests, you may have a problem with blight. Peas and beans do well here and also prefer it a bit acid - short varieties to cope with the wind.
I guess you could actually grow quite a lot, given some raised beds and some shelter.
According to Yeats you can definitely grow beans and keep bees. Lingonberries grow up near the Arctic so I'm sure you can grow them in Ireland. You'll probably have to develop your own recipe for the meatballs to go with them
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
The National Trust, RSPB and many other ecological and/or historical groups actively put particular types of sheep, cattle or ponies on land to rescue it from bracken, gorse and other invasive plants that impede native flora and fauna such as wild orchids, bilberries (cool, acid soil lovers) and all sorts of naive wildflowers which are hosts to insects and birds.