The gardening way of life

Youtube’s Irish Mammy aims to grow all of her family’s vegetable needs

“It started as a hobby and it’s a way of life now,” says Cathriona McKiernan of her passion for gardening.

She’s standing in the garden at the rear of her Ballyconnell home. To the front is a beautiful semi-formal garden alive with cottage plants - fragrant beauties like lavender, buddleja and chamomile border its circular lawn tended to by a petite robotic mower.

The back garden is no less charming and would be the envy of every wannabe homesteader. An iron arch opens onto the plot’s two orderly rows of raised beds standing two feet tall - a real back saver. All but one - her cat undid her bed of carrot seeds - is brimming with foliage from herbs, onions, spuds, celery.

“It’s a world of difference growing in these,” she says. “The weed pressure is so much less, and it’s easier to focus yourself to weed a six by three bed rather than a huge expanse of a garden where you think it’s never ending.”

The pathway between the raised beds leads to a greenhouse where tomatoes clamber up support chords, next to cucumbers and bell peppers, while newly established basil plants make themselves at home at the expense of recently harvested cabbage, lettuce and cauliflowers.

“I’ll get a good harvest out of here in another, six weeks,” she predicts. All going to schedule, that should coincide with the arrival of the newest member of the McKiernan clan. Cathriona is already a mammy of three - Rose 13, Ruby 10, and Rory “going on eight” - and this fresh larder will be just a dozen strides from her kitchen door when child number four arrives.

Behind the greenhouse is her potting shed - the ‘She Shed’ - where she’s keeping perennial flowers alive till she gets the headspace to move them out front.

A rented field merning the garden boundary is where she keeps her expanding collection of hens, and generous ridges for staple veg - spuds, onions and cabbages.

It’s quite the set up. She’s grateful she had a “blank slate” to work with when they moved in, back in 2018.

“I did the plan - I had a very strong idea of what I wanted, Gary just executed it for me,” she says with a laugh acknowledging she has underplayed her obliging hubby’s role.Cathriona admits there was an initial outlay, not to mention Gary’s time, but insists it was worth it.

“I’m producing 80-90% of my own vegetables - I’d like to get the same for fruit, but I don’t know if that’s realistic or not. It’s definitely paid for itself, many times over.

“Gardening can be an expensive hobby if you let it, but you can do it on the cheap too.”

She guesses she falls “somewhere in the middle” in terms of splashing out, and laughingly concedes: “I can’t go into a garden centre without spending a fortune - I’m a danger to let into it.”

Cathriona has a natural, easy going way that would be familiar to anyone who follows her horticultural journey as ‘The Irish Mammy’ on Youtube.

“Of all the hats I wear, it’s the most important thing to me,” she explains of the mammy part of her handle. “Everything I do now - my cooking and growing revolves around the kids - and it’s just making it known that it’s Irish as well.”

A chef by training - initially in the Slieve Russell before opening the Realta Cafe at SuperValu at just the age of 20 - it was Cathriona’s love of food that sparked her interest in gardening. Working as an admin and marketeer in Camcas allowed her to nurture that interest. The social enterprise on the outskirts of town - that’s now under a different name - ran a range of courses, including a strong focus on horticulture. Tutor Barry Kavanagh from Bailieborough was a key influence in giving her a greater awareness of the environment and directing her towards organic growing.

“Having fresh produce without chemicals, that was definitely one of the big drivers for me,” she says of the benefits.

“You are eating your own produce, but you are eating in season as well so you are getting all the nutrients you need when you need them - so you are getting your cabbages and brassica over the winter when you really need that shot of iron.”

Cathriona volunteers that her early gardening efforts were disastrous, but with support she persevered.

“When I learned more, and realised how easy it actually is when you get into it, I wanted other people to feel the same. Because so many people are put off when they have those failures - like I almost was. If Camcas wasn’t here I probably would have given up.”

Now Cathriona has become a go-to person for others in the local Grow It Yourself group - and beyond through her Youtube channel - seeking advice.

“I started realising, anytime anyone had a question about gardening I was able to answer it, that was what made me realise: I’m a gardener now.”

She has been “heavily influenced” by American homesteaders on Youtube and felt there was a gap in the market for an Irish equivalent, hence The Irish Mammy was born.

“So it was my way to educate people a little about how things grow in Ireland and what you can achieve in our climate,” she says.

While she enjoys bountiful harvests this year, Cathriona happily acknowledges the many setbacks along the way.

“There’s lots of things that I fail at - cabbages were a failure for a long time. This is my first successful cabbage year - wait till you see them!”

A short drive to the other side of town we visit the former Camcas complex where she has this year rented a polytunnel of such epic scale, it will surely see her produce all of her family’s vegetable needs and much more. It’s here she grows her giant cabbages - along with everything from sweetcorn to purple sprouting broccoli, to spuds, carrots, cauliflowers, tomatoes, and multitudes of peppers.

Such large volumes of veggies means she has to be able to preserve and store them. In addition to freezing, she has bought a pressure canner from the States.

“That’s a whole other realm to get into - it’s preserving them in glass jars so they can sit on the shelf so we don’t have to freeze them or use any other power to store them over winter. They are quite an investment as well, but sure we use them year after year.”

The Celt can confirm it is indeed the year of the cabbage. Great big heads of cabbages lounge against each other like a huddle of walruses.

“They’re attacked from all ends,” she explains of young cabbages. “They are attacked from the ground by the slugs, they are attacked from the air by the butterflies and caterpillars. So I’ve put nets on them and organic slug pellets trying to get rid of them - and then they’re full of aphids. I can’t win! But this year has been a great success.”

Such successes mean her own children - who, putting Youtube aside are her real longterm audience - will know little other than the freshest organic food.

“The kids don’t show a huge interest, but I’m hoping down the line when they get past their 20s they will remember what it was like and will eventually come to it themselves.”