Drumlane Community Garden: season review 2012.
Another gardening season has come to an end. We can proudly say that the garden has celebrated its 5th anniversary. Time flies! A beautiful photo album was made to commemorate this event. Many of you might have seen it already; if not, Declan Fitzpatrick is always willing and very keen to show you!
From a gardening point of view :the weather was quite unfavourable, to put it mildly. Little sunshine, very wet, low temperatures, not the proper conditions for bumper crops. But in spite of all this we did our level best to make the most of it. And quite successfully as well, if I may say so. This year the garden has improved a lot. It is much better manageable, easier to maintain. All the beds have been raised, both inside the tunnel and outside. We bought boards from a scaffolding business to raise the beds and everything looks very neat and tidy. Una Leddy had an old lawnmower in her shed and she gave it to the garden. It makes Lily O’Connor’s life a lot easier because she used to bring over her own lawnmower in the boot of her car every now and again.
We are also very pleased that we have a young gardener in our group;7year-old Sean is very faithful and every Saturday morning he arrives after his football training We all enjoy his company , although his views for what gardening should be like sometimes are a bit different from our approach! But if he keeps coming -and we are fairly optimistic that he will-the future of the DCG (Drumlane Community Garden) is secure! We still remember the huge cabbage he took home one Saturday and he himself was barely visible behind it.
On August, Sunday 12th we went for our annual outing. We visited beautiful Mount Usher garden on the main Dublin- Wexford road outside Ashford. It is often referred to as Ireland’s most romantic garden. Much of its character is determined by the River Vartry which flows through it. The views upriver and downriver are magical and the sound of water tumbling over the weirs adds to the delights. Needless to say that we all enjoyed ourselves very much. To top it off we had a nice meal on our way back home. We would not be good gardeners if we had no plans for the future. Next year we will definitely try to develop a flower garden and further enhance the layout. There are always plans to increase the variety of products and next year we will give it a go again.
The group had 13 members this year. It is certainly a multi-national unit which is clearly shown in the beds: products are labelled in 5 languages; Irish, English, German, Latvian and Dutch. The real value of the project is the companionship,
camaraderie and community spirit that develops together with the learning elements.
Finally, you are very welcome to visit our garden on Wednesday and Saturday mornings from 10 to 12. Don’t be shy, relax and enjoy what you see. And perhaps you might even join us….
Looking forward to next year!
On behalf of Drumlane Community Garden,
Bert van Willigen.
