Organic Garden Project - A New Beginning

Brendan Dickerson (pictured centre above) reports on a new Transition Year project this year - an Organic Garden!

This year the TY Biology classes plan to prepare and maintain an Organic Vegetable Garden. The classes are excited about the opportunity to plan and grow vegetables as well as soft fruits such as raspberries and blue berries. The group have been allocated an unused bed and green house in the farmer’s old garden, both in need of some attention. 

The project kicked off during evening activities on Saturday the 17th of September 2011. At 6pm a group of eager gardeners started work, with the help of Ms. Hennessey. We arrived to find all of our equipment, neatly laid out in the greenhouse, spades, shears, pitchforks, gloves and a rake all kindly supplier by the school gardener. 

The bed was in desperate need of some attention. The first task was an assault on the weeds, and trust me, there were a lot of weeds. The team worked with great focus and we managed to clear the bed in about half an hour. After most of the larger weeds were removed we dug the ground and used a pitch fork to turn the soil around so it would look nicer, pulling out smaller weeds as we went. Once the bed was weed free we raked and levelled the soil. 

Our find of the day was a leather jacket grub, the larva of the Chafer Beetle, a pretty ugly looking beast! 

Next, the grass around the raspberry bushes were pulled out to make them look neater and the surrounding area clipped with the shears. The Greenhouse was next on the task list. It was raked, to get rid of the grass, and old dead poppies were pulled out. At the end of our session the area was looking a lot better, and neater. The large red skip that we had been given was almost full from all the weeds we had pulled out. All in all it was a great evening and I hope soon enough we will have the garden up and running. 

Week 1 gardeners included – Brendan Dickerson, Alex Bisgood, Tosan McLarn, Anna v. Schintling, Emily Speckter, Sadhbh Sheeran, Stephan Koethe and Ugo Onwurah. Here are some before and after shots!

Before the onslaught.

The Green House

Hard at work.

The bed - ready for planting.