An interesting article from Organic Matters Magazine on community gardening:
Organic Matters | Therapy for the soul.
Or read it here by clicking below:
On a pleasantly clement Saturday the South Circular Road garden in Dublin’s city centre is a breath of fresh air. A wooden table is piled high with winter onions and garlic ready for sowing, sunflower heads are drying in boxes nearby and rows of lettuce are sitting pretty, oblivious to their imminent emancipation from the earth. Although located on one of Dublin’s busiest roads there is an aura of calm in the garden and a quiet sense of satisfaction in the air.
Winter work
Community Gardening
Want to set up your own community garden? Here are some top tips from the South Circular Road garden:
- Start small and grow – if you take on too much at first your enthusiasm may wane.
- Introduce companion planting. This system involves the planting of complementary plants which can help to stave off pests – try planting carrots and garlic together to prevent carrot fly.
- Don’t be too ambitious. Gardening is supposed to be therapeutic, not backbreaking – always get help with the big jobs.
- Aspire to be 100% organic.
- Canvas your local counsellors and local politicians. There is a wealth of funding and financial aid out there, whether small grants for the purchase of seeds and tools or funding for insurance.
- Realise that it is hard work but great fun and emotionally and physically beneficial.
- Look after your soil. Use organic manure and green manure. Manure (from brown bin collections) is now available from some local councils.
The majority of the bounty has been obtained for this year. The beetroot was especially delicious and the spinach did well, as did the strawberries. The peas were a success this summer while the tomatoes and beans were less successful due to the inclement weather. This year’s crop is not complete however – the carrots are still to be harvested, the milk thistle is growing strong and the kale is awaiting cooking.
Willie Brennan, one of the thirty or so community gardeners on the site, says there is still plenty of work to be done despite the time of year. There are beds to be weeded, plants to be staked, tools to be maintained and winter vegetables to be sown. As a gardener at the formal gardens of nearby Drimnagh Castle, Brennan knows too well that just because the days are getting shorter doesn’t mean that it’s time to down tools. Winter is the best time of year for planning the garden he says. The winter vegetables have gone in, winter garlic and shallots – these will be ready for harvest in March or April. “Once you get into a system things will fall in to place. Just because its winter doesn’t mean there is nothing to be done in a garden. We need to look at what was successful this year and what we’d like to grow or plan to grow next year.”
Varied reasons
The South Circular Road garden has been running since April last year, and is a continuation of the successful Dolphin’s Barn community garden which was previously located on a nearby site by the Grand Canal. The gardeners here vary from a retired American couple to local teenagers. The gardeners participate for a variety of reasons. “Some people like to grow their own food, some people like to do it to learn new skills and some do it to meet other people,” says Brennan. “For others it’s maybe because they are interested in wildlife or wild birds.” For others such as Kieran O’Byrne, a gardener who pops by after a long absence, it is the notion of ‘guerrilla gardening’ that appeals – the idea that you can occasionally drop in to the garden, help out and maybe sow surprise crops for fun. Brennan believes that the public’s interest in gardening is growing all the time. He gets increasing numbers of people enquiring about the plot and talks of the shortage of supplies in the local gardening shops. “We have all sorts of ages from teenagers to retirement age. We also have a variety of people from different ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities who come down as a group and get involved in weeding and watering.”
Therapeutic effects
Brennan knows the benefits of gardening and is passionate about the subject, while exhibiting the signs of the many health benefits he believes are inherent in the outdoor pursuit. For him gardening is about more than food, it’s about the effect it has on both the body and soul. “I firmly believe in the therapeutic effects of gardening,” he says. “I believe a lot of hospitals should have gardens. The therapeutic effects of gardens in hospitals have been proven in the States. There are ways around people’s illnesses and disabilities – you can adapt tools and raise beds and make things wheelchair accessible. Horticultural therapy is big in America and I think if we grasped it over here we could cut our health bills significantly.”
Unlike the allotment system whereby a certain area of land is purchased or rented by a gardener who then reaps the fruit of their own labour, the community garden has a more communal approach. Everyone participates in the tending of shared beds, everyone has the power to make suggestions regarding the running of the garden and everyone then shares the crop when it is harvested.
Social benefits
Brennan believes that the origin of our food has become extremely important and that this is what entices people to sites such as that at South Circular Road. “I firmly believe that when you grow something yourself, you know where it came from and what went into it. I think with the recession that people will be getting back into gardening.” There are a variety of factors at play for Brennan and the other gardeners – from the origin of their food, issues of fertilisers and pesticides, the carbon footprint of food importation and spiralling food costs.
But it’s not just about the food, it’s about getting out doors, getting exercise and de-stressing as well as the fostering of community spirit – something that is of particular benefit to elderly people and young families. The notion of the community garden is also, Brennan believes, something that can discourage antisocial behaviour and put an end to the isolation suffered by many people in society – particularly the elderly.
Brennan believes it is “colossal what can be achieved by setting up a community garden” – harnessing the creative energy of the community for positive means. For him the idea of the community garden is both a social and an economic one. “I think the Irish have always been culturally associated with the soil. It has lain dormant for a while but it’s starting to sprout up again.”
If you would like to get involved in the South Circular Road community garden and food growing project pop by the site on Saturdays from around 12.30pm. See southcirculargarden.blogspot.com for more information.