MANY HANDS, LIGHT WORK?Ciara Gallagher, Jane Kelly and Matthew Dillon (with Eanna Casey and Bronagh Flannery in the background) gardening together in Ballina. ?Pic: Michael McLaughlin
Building gardens builds communities
Growing
Hans Wieland
When I first heard about the Tidy Towns competition it reminded me of the old-fashioned competition in Germany called Unser Dorf soll schoener werden! (Our Village Is Beautiful!). Fast forward and Tidy Towns now have the Notice Nature Award, incorporating biodiversity, wildflower meadows and interpretive walks. Similarly, community gardens and school gardens are now part of a movement for a new food culture emerging in Ireland, and it’s all about cultivating the soil, the soul and the senses.
The Organic Centre recently hosted a conference of the Community Garden Network Ireland with participants from all over the country, including Ballina, Waterford, Dublin, Kilkenny and Sligo. The aim of the network is to connect all the community gardens and allotments in Ireland and provide a representative advocate. The website communitygardennetwork.ning.com provides a virtual hub for the exchange of information and ideas.
Community gardens do not have as long a history in Ireland, which as a more-rural country, as they in England and other European countries. However, there are many reasons why they have taken off here.
One is the reclamation of public spaces, such as the Dolphin’s Barn garden in Dublin, which was established on a derelict site of some former urban allotments.
One of the Dolphin’s Barn gardeners explains: “At the time it was just a disused, overgrown area behind a factory, hemmed in by the canal and a row of houses. And so it happened that about 20 of us sat around in a circle by the canal at Dolphin’s Barn and shared our ideas for what the rough patch of land could become.”
Some community gardens have become community enterprises, producing vegetables for the local market like the Glór Na Mara community garden in Bundoran.
Other gardens are initiated by immigrant communities as a means of social and cultural expression, and many gardens play a vital role in integrating people from other parts of the worlds.
Others still have wildflower meadows, insect hotels and mini orchards with native Irish apple trees.
When I asked professional gardener Dee Sewell, who works with community gardens and founded the Community Garden Network, for her top five reasons why people organise themselves around community gardens, she gave me the following reasons:
- They learn new skills and how growing, harvesting and eating your own food is good for both mental and physical health.
- They learn about the seasonality of food and pick up recipe ideas and new cooking techniques.
- They have a better appreciation of how difficult it can be to grow food without chemicals and why organic food is venally more expensive at markets and shops.
- They learn how successes and failures of growing food are normal.
- Community gardens are available to anyone regardless of their age, vendor or social/economic circumstance.
Schools for gardeners
I think what sets community gardens apart from private gardens or allotments is the learning aspect: Community gardens are almost like public garden schools, where locals can learn about soil fertility, best varieties of vegetables to sow, how to control weeds and prevent pests and diseases.
This is a very empowering process as the skill of producing food is very fundamental to human culture. Cooking sessions, summer festivals with a BBQ, harvest celebrations, twinning with local school gardens and seed swaps, are just a few features of community gardens. They are becoming a focal point in towns and cities.
Getting started
Why not go out and find your local community garden, or start one yourself? If you need a hand, The Organic Centre provides a ‘How-to guide’ – a manual how to start a community garden at www.theorganiccentre.ie. Also, have a look at the GIY Ireland website and their new community funding scheme.
Hans Wieland is training manager at The Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co Leitrim, which offers courses, training and information on organic growing and cooking, and runs an Eco Shop and an online gardening store. For more information, visit www.theorganiccentre.ie.
Gardening questions or comments? Contact Hans at living@mayonews.ie.
