Free Seeds and Rock Painting

The Goleen Easter Egg Hunt was held at the Community Centre on Saturday and it gave us the first real opportunity to show people the new Community Garden. To be honest there is not a lot to see at the moment, the weather has not been really suitable for gardening, cold and wet mostly, but we were lucky to have a lovely sunny day.

We put a couple of tables down at the bottom of the garden near the fence and I got some pots, compost and various bulbs and sunflower seeds for some of the Egg Hunters to have a go at planting. We now have 40 pots with bulbs planted which I hope will give a bit of colour to the garden in the summer. The kids and some parents put their names on the pots so they will be able to see their contribution and hopefully feel like part of the garden. We also have a load of sunflowers planted, as a kid I loved these bright sunny flowers towering over head and turning to face the sun. One French lady told me that they are called Tournesols (Sun turned) in France, how very appropriate.

On the other table we set up some painting gear, brushes, paints, water etc and invited our visitors to paint some rocks. The table got messier and messier as the day wore on but we do have a lovely new colourful rock garden.

I was delighted we had so many volunteers to help out including teenagers who were great in encouraging the planting and painting.

A rare quiet moment as the Egg Hunter watched a movie

We put up a few of the new “Adopt a Pots,” and they provided some colour sat on the fence. We have 42 pots adopted so far and it is very encouraging and a bit overwhelming to see so much support from local businesses, shops, pubs, restaurants as well as local individuals, summer residents and even those now living abroad and reconnecting all helping and sharing with us in this new project.

The Celtic spiral design I cut into the turf attracted a lot of interest and the kids loved running round it. Seeing the kids interact with the design make me think we need a few more ideas in the garden to get kids to explore, a textured path might be an idea. We will also need to leave a space for the kids to roll down the hill which seemed a very popular activity with the younger ones.

The garden is a very new project but I was so delighted to see it being used and the sounds of laughter were very rewarding, seating is also going to be an important challenge so parents can sit and chat while the kids explore.

Bulb planting, fun for all the family

I haven’t managed to get the potatoes into the vegetable part of the garden yet as there have been a few frosts at night but I will take the plunge this week as the potatoes are well chitted at this point and really need to get under ground.

So thank you to all those who helped with the sowing and painting and to all the families that used the garden, I am feeling very confident that we will continue to Grow The Community together.

Growing the Community: Tree Planting Week

A Magnificent Hawthorn Tree in spring

The new Goleen Community Garden Scheme “Growing the Community” are having a Tree Planting Event at the Goleen & District Community Centre on Sunday 11th March as part of National Tree Planting Week. Eight native trees will be planted by representatives of all 8 districts as part of the new boundary hedge, which will act as protection against the wind and as a food resource for our local birds. Hawthorn (Whitethorn) is a native tree that provides blossom in spring and red haw berries in autumn and they will also be planting Crab Apples which many local birds adore. The event will take place at 2pm and all are invited to come along and show support.

The Community Garden were delighted when recently they were presented with an award by Energia and GIY to help start the garden and enable the community to plant food crops, ornamentals and a range of local native trees and plants. You can keep up to date with their plans and activities or become part of the scheme at their website

 

They also have an Audio Diary with regular updates from project co-ordinator Owen Kelly.

It does snow in West Cork!

It’s a rare occurance but there was snow today, not enough to build a snowman but enough to get a few young at heart excited

A couple of us braved the weather and collected some manure for the Community Garden from Mary and her donkeys, with the snow not so much laying soft, crisp and even but hitting us horizontally in the face a top the mountain overlooking Crookhaven.