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Last Saturday we got together in a friends house for a GIY meitheal (pronounced meh-hill). A meitheal is a wonderful Irish term for a working gang – it has its origins in rural Ireland where neighbouring farmers would come together on a farm to help with a time-sensitive task such as harvesting or ploughing.
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Weeds are a downer. Many the great GIYing dream has been dashed against the rocks of a bed full of weeds. We start off with a lovely clear bed, we sow some seeds, there’s a shower of rain and some sunshine, and hey presto, the bed is covered in weeds. Lots and lots of weeds.
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There’s a wise old GIYer I know who says that the “sap starts to rise” in gardeners in March. It’s an odd expression and I yet I completely get what he means by it. The sap is of course starting to rise in plants, but it feels like something is stirring inside us GIYers too – spring is in the air everywhere we look and the desire to get out there and stick your hands in the soil is palpable.
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Though St Brigid’s Day (Feb 1st) is considered the start of spring, it’s really still winter outside in the veggie patch. Come February I am always itching to get started with my seed sowing and of course you can get lots of vegetables started in seed trays on a sunny windowsill indoors.
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