Local community garden project is growing steadily
Pearse Turner from Deerpark Road, Athlone, runs a community garden at Tinkers Cross and has said working in the garden is “incredible” for people's mental health.
The non-profit community garden run by volunteers, known as ‘The Community Growers/The Happy Patch,’ is one of many such gardens across Ireland. It is registered with Community Gardens Ireland.
Pearse feels that tending to the garden is a lovely way to relax and connect with others through a chat. “More of this is needed for this fast running world that we have, flying here and flying there. It's a great way of relaxing," he said, before admitting: " It can be hard work sometimes."
The community garden has been in operation for the past three and a half years and has been based at its current location for the past two years. It affords ten locals along with Pearse the opportunity to plant their own vegetables on a small patch of land. The garden enthusiasts grow a host of vegetables such as onions, scallions, cabbage, potatoes, black tomatoes, beetroot, pumpkins and courgette along with parsley, herbs and strawberries.
Pearse is retired now but he worked as an electrical foreman for Dublin City Council for many years and saw that community gardens were very popular across the county which led him to set up his own community garden. He said that a lot of his friends are keen growers and they like to grow crops.
The garden operates using the ‘No Dig’ concept which means vegetable beds and flower borders are simply prepared by covering the ground with organic matter, such as garden compost. Plants are grown directly into this layer of organic matter.
Mostly working professionals make up the growers of the local community garden and they tend to the garden on the weekends or in the evenings after work. Pearse remarked that most of the growers have a good knowledge of gardening and that if they are unsure of anything they will ask another grower or observe them.
The community garden is also very beneficial to biodiversity and the local growers don’t use any fertilisers. Pearse said that they don’t have any problems with bugs as they have organic ways of dealing with them.
The Athlone man feels a place is needed in the town for a men’s or women’s shed and that local people would be in support of this along with a larger, more central location for the community garden. He never had to advertise the community garden and currently has to turn interested parties away such is the volume of interest from locals to grow their own fruit and vegetables.
Pearse would like a larger community garden to incorporate a multitude of activities with a men’s or women’s shed, an area for music sessions and public toilets.
The growers currently have to stand in the polytunnel when it rains so he would love to have a small kitchen for shelter and to make a cup of tea when this occurs.
He thinks that the old agricultural showgrounds off Deerpark Road in Athlone would provide the perfect location for a larger community garden due to its central location along with having running water and electricity. The current garden is a decent size at around 30 metres by 30 metres but Pearse would prefer to have a larger garden and said that they would be able to plant more vegetables.
Pearse has approached local councillors about securing a larger space for the community garden but said that they are “dragging their feet” when it comes to the issue. “Councillors are saying ‘yes, it's a great idea,’ but they're not moving.”
Pearse said one of the most rewarding aspects about developing his interest in gardening was setting up the community garden and recruiting ten growers. He enjoys organising different people along with working on the garden. Pearse added that it was a “big achievement” for the growers when the community garden scooped the overall garden winner prize in the Tidy Towns competition last year.
Pearse’s favourite thing about gardening is planting and watching a seed grow and then cooking and eating the vegetable along with knowing that it hasn’t been sprayed with any artificial preservatives.
The local growers are not charged for the little patch and simply cover the costs of the seeds and soils. Pearse receives a small amount of funding for the garden from the Public Participation Network (PPN) which he said is just enough for him to buy topsoil, manure and compost. The owner of the land also has invested in the site by providing a polytunnel and planting garden beds.
In recent years, Community Gardens Ireland (a volunteer network) has presented at various Oireachtas Committees on the poor legal status that both allotments and community gardens have in Ireland but it was announced last month that community gardens will soon be defined in Irish law for the first time. The upcoming Planning and Development Bill is to legislate for the provision of community gardens by local authorities throughout the country.