WE ARE REGENERATING A 19TH CENTURY WALLED GARDEN FOLLOWING REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURAL PRINCIPLES.
In 2024, GIY embarked on a new, exciting (and slightly daunting) endeavour. We signed a lease with Curraghmore Estate in Portlaw, Co. Waterford to manage and regenerate the historic walled garden, bringing it back to its former glory through organic means.
Having not been touched by humans in many years, the walled-garden has proven to be full of surprises, adventures and sometimes minor heartbreak.
But the promise of being able to make a 19th century market garden work in the 21st century using organic principles make it so worthwhile.
The 13-acre market garden currently supports production for GIY’s veg box scheme with plans to develop into a food education campus offering immersive education experiences through courses, visits and events for children and adults.
Not only are we growing acres of organically-grown veg, GIY farm is also home to honey-producing bees, egg-laying hens and our weed-clearing pigs.
At over 800 years old and one of the largest walled gardens in Ireland & UK, Curraghmore Estate was once considered Europe’s first commercialised farm. William Robinson, champion of the naturalistic style of gardening, started his horticulture career at Curraghmore and later became a famous garden writer and author of ‘The Wild Garden’ (1870).
The estate contains some of Ireland’s most remarkable surviving trees – sweet chestnut and oaks, beech, China Fir, Japanese Umbrella Pine, a Maritime Pine, Lebanese Cedar and the estate and Ireland’s tallest tree, an enormous Sitka Spruce.
VEG BOX
Enjoy a weekly box of seasonal, sustainably-grown and delicious food!