Tanguy de Toulgoët runs the Dunmore Country School in Durrow, County Laois. Spurning received wisdom, as only the French will, Tanguy has created a truly French vegetable (and flower) garden. No raised beds, no neat edges, very little watering, just hoeing and a democratic planting scheme where flowers nestle with vegetables and bees swarm all over both. He keeps bees (in the French style of course) and they feed all summer on his mixed garden.
The Goresbridge Community Gardeners visited recently for an interesting guided tour of what we are doing wrong (well that's how it felt).
Drills, familiar to potato growers, are used for all and sundry. The polytunnel is stuffed with 40 odd varieties of tomatoes and barely has room for a gardener to get in amongst them.
He doesn't dig. His compost languishes under cover for 4 years before being used and includes weeds and everything else - all broken down by Mother Nature into useable compost.
If you can get there, it's worth arranging a visit. Be prepared to be told in no uncertain French terms that this is the way it should be done. It works for the French and it works in Ireland too.
