First ever School Garden Conference to be held!

The First Conference on Organic School Gardens - TEACHING IS EASY IN A SCHOOL GARDEN, was held in Marino College, this weekend gone by, SAT 5th Oct 2013. It was a fantastidcally succesful day, organised bt SEED, our first ever national school gardens network (www.schoolearthed.ie) Fantasitc and memorable day-great to see school gardening getting the attention it deserves! With Trevor Sergeant giving our opening address and old stalwarts of the school garden world such as Paddy Madden and Ian McGrigor in tow. There were workshops and talks throughtout the day, and more to come in the near future we hope! 

Aine from www.irishseedsavers.ie giving a talk on seed saving at the SEED school garden conference at the weekend in Marino College(picture right).


http://www.schoolearthed.ie/conference.html

Weaving willow in the woods...

Willow lanterns made with kids on our summer camp in Huntingbrook gardens, this August 2013, with Earthforce Education and Ciara Hinksman, check out www.earthforceeducation.com 

Summer Camp with a twist...

Wildcraft summer Camp.

Your kids will finish this weel with a new curiosity about nature and have creative tools to go outdoors and make fun for themselves!
at Hunting Brook Gardens, nr. Blessington

Age: There are three age groups: Teens 13-15 yrs, 9-12 yrs, and 6-8 yrs.

Cost: Five days €120, three days €80, or per day €30 When: 10am–3pm daily, Mon 19^th – Fri 23^rd Aug

Wildcraft * Storytelling * Camouflage * Wildlife Tracking * Wild-Plant Identification * Games 

* Plant Food and Medicine * Folklore * Ethical Foraging & Eating * Indigenous tools * Camp-Craft

Travel: Drive via N81 or take No. 65 Bus, bus stops just a few minutes walk uphill to the gardens.

To Book: www.earthforceeducation.com or call Ciara 086 3199 515, or Lucy 087 650 8226

Woodland Education-getting our kids out playing in the woods!

Check out my friend Ciara's great coverage on Nationwide this week...
getting the kids out into the woods!

http://vimeo.com/65611610

Tree Nursery Project at Donadea Forest, October 2012

In the autumn of 2012 we carried out our LA21 funded project - Native Tree Nursery Project at Donadea Forest in North Kildare. We worked with three local primary schools, three different classes, 2nd class from Scoil Naomh Mhuire, 4th class from Rathcoffey NS and 6th class from Tir Moghan NS.

The schools came to Donadea for a full immersion in the woods, we gathered tree seeds from the sweet chestnut, maple, beech, sycamore, Hawthorne berries and rosehips from the wild rose, horse chestnut and a small amount of ash keys, there were no oak to be found this year, and we were too late for hazel.

We also played various sensory games to raise the childrens' awareness of their surroundings, we did bug hunts and pond dips, and had wonderful days all in all in the woods.



We followed this up with a trip to the schools to build and set up a tree nursery in the school itself. With the class we built a small raised bed, filled it with soil and leaf mould, and then put in our gathered tree seeds, in separate sections so we can identify the baby trees as they grow, this was topped with leaves to replicate the forest floor, a system called the Dunemann System.

To finish we made a wire mesh lid to keep the vermin at bay, mice especially love to eat tree seeds. And tree nursery beds done. The class have to keep an eye on the beds, water it in especially droughty periods and take the lid off in spring when the trees hopefully start to grow!

ONE MILLION TREES IN ONE DAY at The Acre Project

Earlier this year I put in an application to the ONE MILLION TREES IN ONE DAY Project for the ACRE Project in Celbridge. We were successful in the application! So, on Friday 26th April we will be planting over 1,000 native trees and hedgerow plants at the ACRE Project in Celbridge! If you're interested in getting involved just let me know, we'll have students from the Salesians, the TY's and LCA's and my adult  FETAC class involved on the day. Really excited to be involved and leading the planting project! Check out more about this really exciting project at: http://www.onemilliontreesinoneday.com/

From the Ground Up...representing Holy Trinity School Garden

Fionnuala Fallon, horticulturalist and Irish Times journalist has published a book, 'From the Ground Up' that tells the stories of some very talented and very different `ticklers of the earth', all of whom live and garden in Ireland today. From schoolchildren to retirees, amateurs to experts, what they share in common is a delight in growing their own fruit and vegetables.

Most notable for me, she visited our amazing organic school garden in Holy Trinity National School in Donaghmede in North County Dublin over three years ago now, I had completely forgotten about it until I saw myself in print and in photos in the book at Christmas. It's a really good read, and really promotes the positive aspects of developing gardens in schools! To read more about rthe book see below.

http://www.collinspress.ie/from-the-ground-up.html