New Pond

Pond has a few more adjustment before it is set in place.

Yellod bricks we salvage from the near by skip.

Final touches to the pond.

"Freddy" our garden frog.

Busy at work, never to let a change of some bricks go by .Remember the 3 R`s Reduce,Reuse,Recycle.



Hi all,

Just got delivery of our new pond on Saturday 13th.Feb 2010.We all got stuck in and have it in place and water filled with the rain water from the water butts from around the garden.We have our own frog "Freddy" the frog,and the weater plants are placed around the pond both inside aswell as out.

Regards

Willie B.

New Year start in Community Garden 2010

Warming big and small hands by the fire.

Discussing what to do at the fire.

Saving energy by cycling to the garden.

Doing some work and having a chat in the process.

Making use of the old bricks we removed from the garden to make a small raised bed to plant into,well done Jimmy.

Hi all,

Well a new year has started and time to dust off the festival season.We have only got over the very cold snow and frost period within the last few weeks.We started back in the garden on the 16 Jan. we are doing general tidying up as it is still not time to start planting seeds yet.We have got our seed ordered and some of our own saved from last year plants.

This Sat 23rd.was a cold one in the garden,but Jimmy got the fire going and it was very welcome to be able to warm cold hands and faces.The community members got down to work and did some general maintenance in the garden,I enclose some photo`s, we also had some visitors to the garden as the students are hoping to start up their own small student garden to help in their projects and to grow their own food.We wish them the best of luck and look forward to visiting the garden in the summer months.

Regards

Willie B.

saturday 12 Dec. 2009

Clearing of bramble and young tree saplings.

Area cleared of unwanted weeds and mulched to let Daffs have agood start,as they are showing their heads above ground.

Getting down to basic`s in weeding and gerenal maintance in the garden.

Some more of our people helping out.

Young Daff`s showing their heads after weeding.

We had a good turn out of people on the saturday.There we did some general garden tidying up as you can see from the photos I enclose.The area we mulched was to ensure that the spring bulbs ie daffs have a change to get a head before the weeds got a foot hold.

Enjoy your Community Garden,

Willie B. ;>)

Kale in the garden

Some of our plants gone to seed

Kale growing with nasturtiums.

More kale growing note;the soil covered after we spread our own compost on it with old carpet to keep weeds from growing.

Not many Cabbages left,also compost spread and soil covered to stop weed growing.

Hi all,

Bill & Dott took these photos of the kale growing in the community garden on sat. 14/11/09.

regards

Willie B.

LASC Conference

Community Gardens are radical spaces by Seoidín O’Sullivan

During the LASC conference I was re-reminded that community gardens are radical spaces through Alberta Carino Trujillo a Mixtec woman from Oaxaca. I spoke at a workshop about Dublin’s community gardens in which the term 'Food Sovereignty' emerged. ‘The Right to Produce’ explained Alberta ‘ …in South America the term 'Food Security' is associated with Food Aid and GMO crops so is not used by grass root organizations.’ Within community gardens we create and encourage 'Food Sovereignty'. A collective share a piece of land in Dublin’s inner city. We skill share, we grow our own food, we create a positive public space where trust is central. Community gardens provide a way for people to take responsibility for their localities and their means of food production. It gives marginalised and poorer communities access to fresh organic fruit and vegetables and learning on how to grow their own . This leads to empowerment. It provides agency. It’s a space that challenges the status quo and norms often based on fear and only concerned with profit. It’s a place where issues of ‘Food Sovereignty’ in Dublin can be directly addressed. A beautiful anecdote from Alberta during the workshop was that in her culture they do not just think of the next generation but they prepare and think about the next 6 generations of peoples. Now that is sustainability! The learning and solidarity that workshops like the one recently organised by LASC provide are invaluable.

Seed Saving in September

Roisín and her son at the picnic table (top picture). We discuss plans for a project to build a conservatory and water collection system in the community garden. Today we collected and packaged seeds. It was a beautiful warm sunny day.
Bridgette collects cabbages (bottom picture)to take to the sisters of charity local soup kitchen.

Enjoying the Bring and Share in the community garden.

Hi all,

On Saturday 5 Sept.09 the South Circular Road held a Harvest day gathering in our community garden.The day was sunny with abit of a breeze,we all brought food to the harvest and what was in season in the garden we brought to the table in a Bring and Share .Plenty of food was had by all,and a Big Thank You for those who brought along cooked food and special prepared mixtures, as it went down very well along with the wine and bubbly.

The day finished off with a small talk on seed saving,what to look out for when gathering seeds,and how to pot up strawberry runners into pots as a way to increase your supply of plants for the coming year.

Many of our fellow community interested friends chat and discuss the many different topics regarding community actives.

Thank you all for making it a wonderful day and for the pleasure of your company.

Regards

Willie B.