Recycled Eco Buildings and Wildlife Friendly Food Forest Garden. Mosaics and Glass Bottle Walls.
It has been almost a year since we last wrote about the Community Garden that we are part of in our local town, Ballaghaderreen. A lot has happened in that time and we would like to share some of the highlights with you here.
Making leaf mould last autumn.
We have had a very busy, but incredibly rewarding weekend. On Friday we went along when three of our teenagers took the bus to Dublin with a friend to take part in the School Climate Strike. It was an incredible feeling to stand in the middle of the energetic, roaring, chanting crowd of the future. We have to admit to a lump in the throat and misty eyes as the eleven thousand students marched through the streets demanding an end to greed and profit being put above survival of the planet on the political agenda. This movement was started last year by Greta Thunberg, a remarkable young woman from Sweden who is now nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Please listen to her TED talk if you have a moment.
Our Open Garden weekend for Amnesty is over for this year. The sun that has been shining relentlessly on us for many weeks, decided not to make an appearance. Instead we got blustery; wet conditions much like last year. Our marquees were threatening to blow away and we had to bring out the six inch nails and the large roll of duct tape to make a few emergency repairs.
Following on from last year’s very successful event we have decided to open our garden for two days this summer. On Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th of July, from noon to 5pm, you are welcome to stroll through our garden, peek inside our eco-buildings and enjoy some refreshments in our pop up Amnestea café. We are situated close to Ballaghaderreen, in the northwest part of County Roscommon. The weekend is in aid of Amnesty International Ireland and all proceeds will go towards their work.
We are fortunate and very excited to be to part of the creation of a Community Garden in our closest town, Ballaghaderreen. A few months ago we were proud to be invited as members of the committee and since then we have been working as part of a team to realize our shared dream. We are very happy as a piece of land has been kindly offered for our use by Duffy’s Supervalu. Work has started and we are meeting up every Sunday afternoon with a bunch of likeminded individuals to get our hands and wellies dirty but also to share laughs and cups of tea. We are always looking for more volunteers and you can find information about it on the Ballaghaderreen Community Garden Face Book page.
Work continues in our community for welcoming the Syrian refugees who are to arrive shortly. A pilot project, run by community volunteers has been set up called “Friends of the Centre”, Ballaghaderreen. The volunteers will work in collaboration with the Department of Justice and the Irish Red Cross to support the wellbeing and integration of the refugees into the Irish community.
Young swallows hatched in our garden last year.
As most of you know the last few days we have been working on the artwork for the “Welcome to Roscommon” movements wall to welcome the Syrian refugees soon to arrive in the local community.
Last week we were honoured to be asked by the “Welcome to Roscommon” Movement to create the artwork for the welcome wall project. As some of you know already, Ballaghaderreen has been selected to host a number of Syrian Refugees in a transition centre, where they can rest, recuperate and get to know their new country a little bit before being moved to permanent housing across the country. You can read about the many wonderful projects the Welcome to Roscommon movement are initiating to make this transition as positive and easy as possible on their Facebook page.
