New Leaf Urban Farmers

08/03/2026

A worthwhile experience.

01/03/2026

Another experiment. Here are two buckets of IMO3. With maintenance solution (fpy, brv, ohn and a little struvite in liquid form, extracted over 10 days using brv) The white granules are Struvite. This is a project I'm doing with , a Univeristy of Limerick-led project examining the use of Struvite.
Struvite is an organic fertiliser made from human waste. Very high in phosphorus. It's a slow release fertiliser that prevents run-off as well as being made from waste. Approved for organic use. This is an EU project to explore the possibilities of moving away from mined phosphorus imported from Morocco.
The tree is an apple tree. Its very old and still producing. Cooking apples.
We mulched the base with old woodchips and cardboard underneath.
We then applied about 20L of IMO3. With 1.5kg of Struvite mixed in. Then heavily watered and covered with a dressing of woodchips.
I used IMO3 rather than IMO4 because the former has a more decomposition effect and I am hoping that the fertiliser will break down more evenly using soil biology applied. For fruit trees applying up to a month beforehand is recommended (for IMO, I mean).
It will be monitored over the next three years.

01/03/2026

The old plum tree. In full bloom. We added IMO4 with charred bones (cow) last year. This is the fullest bloom we have seen since being here. I'm not sure if it's coincidence or a culmination of factors, like a warmer winter, it was wetter than last year also not many prolonged frosts either. So it could be a culmination of all these factors. However, this bloom is quite magnificent. We will add more IMO4 and biocharred bones later in the year. To top up.
It will be quantifiable if this happens next year and the year after.

20/02/2026

Setting up our next zone of tunnels. We have 8 to erect in total. These are the first three in the zone.
These are temporary tunnels. Or in correct terms, soft-fruit tunnels. The cover is fixed by rope only. We erected the posts and hoops last year.
Today we attached the ridge bars. Next week we will make the guttering system, which is our own design.
Cost effective and modular.
Now is the perfect time to get these jobs done. It was windy today with showers. But we got what we intended to do, done.
Covers will go on these three tunnels around mid-march. We have two more tunnels to do by then for potatoes.
The current price of potatoes makes them worthwhile to grow.
We have a lot of work ahead of us this season. 💪

12/02/2026

Quite a few years ago, I bought Roscoff onion sets that came from France. I kept saving the seeds but last year's seed saving didn't work. My own fault really, completee neglect on my part.
So this year we're at last chance saloon with these onions. There are just over 40 here in pots of our own compost (2 years old). We hope that there is enough cross-pollination to breed true onion seed.
I really like these onions. They're sweet and mild. And are endangered too. So if we can have viable seed going forward, we're doing our little bit to protect them.

30/01/2026

Today is the final day for signing up to our veg box scheme.
We really want to thank everybody who have re-signed and also to our newest members.
This scheme allows us to front load our seasonal costs which are highest now.

Thanks for supporting high quality, local produce.

And for supporting small-scale Irish farmers

27/01/2026

Just a few days left to sign up to our box scheme.
Thanks to everyone who has already signed up.

Email: newleafurbanfarmers@gmail.com

14/01/2026

Just a quick post to remind everyone that the closing date for our box scheme is January 30th.
Please email : newleafurbanfarmers@gmail.com to register your interest.

Thank you to all who have already signed up. 😊

11/01/2026

15/12/2025

Imo3 second batch. Mixed with woodchips from our ever increasing piles. These had mycellium throughout plus our own IMO2 mixed in.
Temperatures were elevated throughout requiring frequent turning. But the result is satisfactory.

We'll apply to composted beds this week.

12/11/2025

Have a few of these left. Selling quite quickly as usually our veg at the moment. This makes us think that wholesale can take a backseat next year and just focus on our local market with more veg, with a key focus on the veg box scheme, shops and honesty box.
A big thank you to all our local customers for really supporting our honesty box. Wenare delighted with the response and promise to have more variety next year.