Herb Spiral in St.Finian's NS, May 2012

In May, we continued with our ongoing school garden programme at St. Finian's NS in Finglas. This time we  built a herb spiral in place of the old herbacious border that the school wanted removed from the front of the school. With 4th class we built a very magical spiral bed into which we planted a huge variety of herb plants, from medicinal to colourful to culinary herbs, rosemary, sage, thyme, marigolds etc.

Progress being made at Piper's Hill, April 2012

The ladies are making huge progress in the new school garden we're building for the students down at Piper's Hill School in Naas, Co. Kildare. I'm working with a parent's group to develop the garden, and it has turned out to be an all women's group, but let that not deceive you, there has been trojan work done by the ladies, during April we built the beds for and planted up the herb and fruit areas in the garden. We planted raspberries, currants, strawberries, and rhubarb to name a few!

GROW - growing for 'EDIBLE' at the SCIENCE GALLERY!!

GROW have recently been asked to get involved in the next exhibition at the Science Gallery in Dublin. The next exhibitions' theme is 'EDIBLE', so it deals with contemporary concerns around food, eating, heath, biodiversity, local food, slow food etc. We've been asked and have been working on for the past  month a project with heritage potatoes and seeds, specifically working with Irish Seedsavers, who have kindly sent us up several heritage potato varieties and seeds to grow and work with. The potatoes are currently chitting in my office! And we are trying to trick the seedlings into thinking its spring already in a heated propagator in Mairtin's polytunnel in Newbridge! These heritage seeds and potatoes, look to raise people's awareness around preserving the diverse heritage of our native seeds, potato tubers and apple trees. The exhibition is opening on February 10th and should be well worth checking out!

www.sciencegallery.com
www.irishseedsavers.ie

Summer - NFRC Family Grow Your Own Day

Family Day - Grow Your Own at NFRC

 In July, we were asked to hold a family Grow Your Own day at the Newbridge Family Resource Centre. We had a lovely day planting up window boxes with a mix of edible plants, lettuce, scallions, parsley, and herbs. We planted tomato and pumpkin plants with the kids, who painted the pots in gorgeous bright colours first. We dug up potatoes from the vegetable garden and the kids chopped and cooked them into chips, which we feasted on before the day was out. We made dream catchers to finish off and the families went off laden with plants! Lovely day all around.

School Organic Garden Book - practical guide for teachers

Kick start autumn in the school garden with this pracical teacher's guide...


The Year Round Organic School Garden
 - ON SALE NOW -

 'The Year Round Organic School Garden'  is a hands on manual for teachers and anyone working in schools setting up school gardens with children!

I co-wrote the book with KEEP and Irish Seedsavers, so if you're at all interersted in the book, they're selling at 17 euros, to buy them contact me on 087 6508226 or email growingardens@gmail.com and we'll be in touch!

Lucy in the Irish Times!

Lucy in the Irish Times!

It's only my picture, but the article is about the fantastic school garden in Donaghmede, that I worked on with Ian when I was still working for KEEP in Kerry! Great article on promoting school gardens!

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/property/2011/0526/1224297777007.html

Spring Madness!!

Spring 
Madness!

It's been a fierce busy spring for GROW, we've been teaching in Allenwood, Newbridge, Athy and we've just started a new horticulture group in Celbridge in the new ACRE Project that's been kicking off there. The ACRE Project is a very innovative community project that's looking to develop an all inclusive community garden project beside the Salesian College on the Maynooth Rd, we're expecting great things from this project!

On the schools front, we've been busy with setting up vegetable patches and especially busy doing willow structures this year. we've built a willow dome and fence in Nurney NS in Kildare and most recently I built a unique structure for the lucky hens at Derrinturn NS. With 4th class we built two mini domes and a joining fence, we're hoping they're going to provide some nice shelter for the hens, if we ever get some summer sun!

School Gardens in Full Swing!

School Gardens in Full Swing!

Well, it's been one busy spring and early summer! We haven't stopped to draw breath or get our own vegetables planted it's been so busy! School gardens are in full swing. New vegetable patches have been set up in St.Finian's and St.Malachy's in Finglas and most recently in Scoil Mhuire, Nurney, on home turf. Most of the beds were built with the capable hands of a variety of 4th, 5th and 6th class, the favourite part being the 'shovelling of cow pooh'. Other ongoing projects such as with the Holy Trinity N.S. in Donaghmede, which I still do with KEEP, are looking great too, they have 16 vegetable beds in full swing now, and the native woodland and soft fruit area has been extended over the last few visits. The potatoes are jumping put of the ground and there's radishes and lettuce for munching on. They have the biggest garlic I've seen anywhere this year. The kids are hoping there's enough blackcurrants to make home made ribena this year! We're hoping to get back to a few of the schools and do some nice projects such as living willow fences and domes in the autumn. don't forget you can book us through the INTO/Heritage in Schools scheme, and they pay half our fee!