New Books - From the Ground Up: How Ireland Is Growing Its Own

“I hadn’t expected it to be quite so vividly, brazenly and unabashedly beautiful, so bursting out all over with life, as well as with fruit, flowers and vegetables.” So Fionnuala Fallon describes one of the many impressive fruit and vegetable gardens featured in her timely and comprehensive new book on Ireland’s burgeoning grow your own movement. As a renewed enthusiasm for fresh, home-grown food sees vegetable gardens and allotments spring up all over the country, The Collins Press proudly presents this practical, informative and lavishly illustrated book featuring some of Ireland’s most experienced and skilled GYOers. An evocative and descriptive feast for the eyes, From the Ground Up is written by the garden writer Fionnuala Fallon and photographed by her husband Richard Johnston.

This is an Irish gardening book about people - young and old, amateurs and experts - all of whom share a love of growing their own food. It’s about why, how and where they grow their own, whether that’s on a tiny city balcony, an allotment, a community garden, a school garden, a city garden or a country farm. Generously and beautifully illustrated with photographs throughout, it’s about their successes and their failures, their favourite tools, their most-hated weeds, their top tips, and the books, websites and suppliers that they’ve found most useful.

Sometimes their successes have been completely against the odds, as in the case of the Dublin-based computer scientist Adam Bermingham, who gardens on the tiny, windswept balcony of his Kilmainham apartment. That’s also the case for the children of Holy Trinity School in Donaghmede, who under the leadership of their inspiring principal, Jerry Grogan, have created a beautifully productive school-garden in what was once a weed-ridden, neglected corner of a city playground.

Others featured in the book include the former Green Party leader Trevor Sargent, the much-respected columnist Michael Viney, GIY Ireland’s Michael Kelly, and the internationally renowned vegetable expert and author Joy Larkcom. Now living in West Cork, Larkcom has been a torchbearer for the GYO movement ever since she first set off on her Grand Vegetable Tour of Europe nearly forty years ago.

Whilst packed with uplifting stories of success against the odds, From the Ground Up is also tempered with realism and full of practical tips. So whether you garden on a windswept balcony or a couple of acres, this book will inspire you to connect with nature ‘from the ground up’ and truly savour the joys of producing your own home-grown food. From the Ground Up: How Ireland Is Growing Its Own by Fionnuala Fallon and Richard Johnston is published by The Collins Press, price €24.99. It is available in bookshops and online from www.collinspress.ie

Fionnuala Fallon, horticulturist, writer and garden designer, is a weekly contributor to The Irish Times. A longstanding contributor to The Irish Garden, she has written on a range of subjects. A frequent collaborator with her husband, photographer Richard Johnston, this is their first joint publication.

Richard Johnston, an experienced freelance Irish photographer, has a broad portfolio of work, ranging from gardens and lifestyle to art and interiors. It is reproduced widely in magazines, newspapers and books.

The Collins Press is a Cork-based independent publisher of non-fiction books, established in 1989. Recent titles include Window and Mirror: RTÉ Television 1961-2011 by John Bowman and The Time Has Come: Ger McDonnell – His Life & His Death on K2 by Damien O’Brien. www.collinspress.ie

Source: HortiTrends News Room

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