The Willow house in the backyard.

Here are some recent photographs of us working on a fun project – building our first living willow ‘hut’ in our back garden. Since this was planted, some of the saplings have already started to sprout leaves. Hopefully by mid-summer next year it will be so vibrant that the kids will be able to hide out in it. Hang about, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all…

We are not alone…

Just so you know, by signing up with Grub Not Grass, you’re joining a growing worldwide movement. It is becoming obvious to people everywhere that there is a lot of ‘urban’ land in the world given over to outdoor carpets – lawns, in other words! And that said land could be put to much better use if at least some of it were re-purposed for growing fruit and vegetables, or even beehives! And most of the clever people doing the noticing are in much more densely populated parts of the World than Ireland. Here are some who run what they call a ‘de-centralised urban farm’ in the back-yards of The Streets of San Francisco. ‘MYFarm’ was originally set up because their founder heard a statistic that said the food we eat loses at least 20% of it’s energy between harvest and delivery – now their clients grow enough crops that they can sell some on to their neighbours!

http://myfarmsf.com/about-how-it-works.html

Hello world! (or at least Ireland!)

Hello, and welcome to our blog! One of our missions in life is to do what we can to reduce the area of the world’s surface given over to ‘decorative’ grass. If you’re feeding cattle, or if you have children who actually do play in your garden, fine – your grass has a purpose as dinner, or an outdoor carpet. If, however, the only thing your grass does is provide you with exercise while you try to keep it under control, then what good is it?

If you’re puttering around with a lawnmower, particularly a petrol-engined model, you’re (a) (obviously) consuming irreplaceable fossil fuels, (b) increasing the CO2 in the atmosphere, and (c) using up your own valuable time. Why not put your bit of land to use by growing your own fruit and vegetables? They can be just as attractive as a neatly-mowed lawn, plus they’ll save you money and improve your health!

If, however, that sounds like hard work, well, that’s where we come in. At ‘Grub, not Grass!’ we’re all about Raised Beds – they’re easier on the existing soil structure, and they’re easier to maintain than just digging a ‘vegetable patch’. We will survey your garden and supply, install, plant and maintain custom-built raised beds – all you have to do is tell us what you like to eat! Or if you don’t mind getting your hands a little bit dirty, we can provide an advisory service after the raised bed/s has/have been installed.

We are based in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland, and for the moment our activities are limited to the area, but who knows what the future holds? If you are in a different part of the country, but you’re still interested in our service, talk to us and we’ll see what we can do.