DIGGIN’ IT?Gemma Hensey, a Westport GIYer, has loved gardening since she was a girl. Pic:Michael McLaughlin
Down the garden path
Interview
Ciara Moynihan
The grow-your-own-veg movement continues to expand, with new vegetable plots springing up behind town houses and in rural gardens quicker than you can say carrot. Some say it’s the recession – and the economic benefits of producing your own veg cannot be denied – but for many a gardener it’s the simple, primal joy of working the soil and harvesting their own food.
For retired school teacher Gemma Hensey, gardening has been a life-long passion. “Since I was a little child I always had my own garden at home … I’ve always been involved in gardening – anyone’s garden I go to I start weeding! When it comes to growing your own vegetables, it’s lovely to be able to go up the garden, pick or dig your own produce and eat it.”
Gemma, who moved to Westport 40 years ago, retired from teaching in the local Sacred Heart School nine years ago. A few years later she studied horticulture at the local VEC in Carrowbeg College (now Westport College of Further Education) – and she hasn’t looked back since. It’s obvious that she gets an enormous amount of pleasure from her veg garden, a 60m x 10m plot close to the quay.
“Last year we had great broccoli. This year I don’t know what’s wrong with it. It’s not looking so good, but we’re hopeful. We also have lettuce and brussels sprouts… great parsnips, and spinach. We don’t really eat cabbage so I don’t bother with it. We had our early potatoes as well – we grow them early because our garden is too small. We’ve also got apples and autumn raspberries at the moment.”
And expansion plans are on the horizon, with Gemma planning to keep her newly retired husband, John, busy in the great outdoors. “We’ve got six raised beds, and I think John might put in two more. He’s going to build a greenhouse for me too!”
Grow It Yourself groups
Gemma is also deeply involved with the Westport Grow It Yourself (GIY), which meets on the first Tuesday of the month in Blouser’s pub on James Street. GIY is an international food growers’ support association that began in Waterford and spread throughout the country and abroad. Here in Mayo, there are groups in Westport, Ballyhaunis, Kilmaine, Castlebar, Ballina and Erris. Free GIY supports include local meetings, a weekly e-zine, website forums and online articles and tips.
“The Westport group was set up three years ago. We meet for three-quarters of an hour or an hour every month, no longer. You can have a drink in the pub afterwards if you like,” Gemma explains.
“We sometimes get speakers in as well, on topics like using a polytunnel, drying and preserving your own fruit, keeping hens and keeping bees. In the summer we visit gardens too.
“It’s lovely, it’s a really great thing. There’s no such thing as an expert: At GIY we’re all beginners. No question is silly. We’re all there to help each other. It’s a kind of a cooperative really.
“Last month we talked about what our successes were, what wasn’t successful, the way forward for next year. At the next meeting [on November 5] we’ll discuss putting the garden to bed for the winter.”
When it comes to successes and failures in the garden, Gemma, like any gardener, has had her share. Right now, she is happiest with her herbs. “I have good herbs. I use them in Linda Huxley’s recipe for making your own stock. It’s fantastic.”
Failures have included pesky potato worms, Lilliputian cauliflowers and an embarrassing case of mistaken identity. “Years ago, I thought I was growing tomato plants,” Gemma confides, “until someone came to the house and said, ‘They’re nettles you’re nursing!’ – And so I was!”
What are the bets this resourceful woman simply shrugged and thought of nettle soup?
Westport GIY meets at 7.15pm on the first Tuesday of every month in Blouser’s pub. The next meeting takes place on November 5. New members are most welcome. For information on GIY groups elsewhere in Co Mayo, visit
www.giyinternational.org.
