Plans for another 'Local Community Harvest Festival' in Galway City Gathers Pace

There was a great attendance at last Tuesday’s meeting in the Menlo Park Hotel called to help in organising a neighbourhood Harvest Festival at 12.00-2.30pm on Sat Sept 10^th in the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden.

The discussions and the resulting proposals were ambitious but nevertheless achievable.

Participants agreed to provide at the Harvest Festival the following:

a) mass display of children’s Scarecrows b) Arts activities including Face-Sketching by local children c) Music & ents (on stage) from local musicians d) Stalls selling locally-produced Organic Veg and Fruit produce e) multi-ethnic Cuisine(Irish, African, Asian f) Family Picnic area g) Bicycle Maintenance Workshop h) Displays of locally produced Crafts i) Recruitment Stall for new Men’s Skills Club (Cumann na bhFear j) Nature Tours (hourly) of neighbouring Terryland Forest Park.

Recent Scarecrow to Garden

Furthermore, it was agreed to continue with the mapping of walking and cycling routes in the Ballinfoile-Castelgar-Menlo localities.

Last year’s Ballinfoile Harvest Festival and the ongoing success of the Castlegar Boreen Festival shows that the spirit of the traditional Irish rural ‘Meitheal’ is making a comeback in Galway city.

Raised Beds, constructed by local volunteers

Raised beds in Polytunnel, constructed by local volunteers

Ballindooley/Castlegar Walking Route

View along the proposed new Ballindooley-Castlegar 'Greenway'

In advance of the Harvest Festival, it was further agreed to support local residents and landowners in a major clean up of a botharín that has been identified as a possible major new scenic walking and cycling route that links the Headford Road (near Ballindooley cross) and Tuam road (near Clooncauneen Castle).

Councillor Frank Fahy has liaised with local farmers and has secured broad support for its development as an ‘Off the Beaten Track’.

The clean-up will take place on Saturday Sept 3rd. Rendezvous: 10am at Ballindooley Stores.

Discussions are also taking place with Rosie Webb of Galway City Council on development of further 'greenways' in the Terryland Forest Park environs.

Terryland Forest Park Clean-Up

Members in attendance from the Lisbrook Asylum Seekers Accommodation Centre agreed to coordinate a clean-up of a section of the Terryland Forest Park in advance of the Harvest Festival (details to follow soon).

Children’s Giant Eco-themed Mural

Last summer, City Arts Officer James Harrold commissioned artist Margaret Nolan to work with local children in creatively coming up with ideas to transform the ugly exterior of the multi-purpose (kitchen, toilets & storage) container into a giant canvass dedicated to Nature, gardening, agriculture and themselves.

The mural covered three sides of the unit. Local adult volunteers spent a week sandblasting the walls in preparation for the painting.

In advance of the Festival, Margaret will once again work with the local children and garden committee to complete the artwork.

Wildlife-friendly garden ethos

Volunteers Urgently Needed

Many Hands Make Light Work!

Next meeting will take place at 7.30pm on September 1^st in the Menlo Park.

Everyone is invited to support this exciting neighbourhood ‘Meitheal’ project. So if you feel you can contribute something and could not attend the last meeting, please contact us asap! This community initiative needs lots of volunteering help and advice to make it a success. So if you have any ideas for:

Children’s arts /crafts activities, nature walks, eco-stalls… or would just like to assist on the day in general volunteering, we would love to hear from you.

Building a traditional Irish rural stone wall

Native Tree Hedgerow preparation along garden perimeter, work carried oout by the youth of Dochas den Óige

Galway city's Largest Community Garden To Be Officially Launched by City Mayor on Sat

Michael Tiernan & Pete Maye Planting Potatoes using traditional Irish farming methods

Michael McDonnell Harvesting the first potato crop!

I am pleased to announce that Galway city’s largest community organic garden will officially be launched at 12.30pm this Saturday (July 17^th) by the Mayor, Councillor Michael Crowe. Located in Terryland Forest Park adjacent to the Lus Leana housing estate, the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden has become a wonderful example of how neighbourhood-managed initiatives can secure long-term social, health and environmental benefits.

Teas for the Volunteers!

Funding and resources for this local community-driven project was provided by an array of agencies, including RAPID, Galway City Council, HSE, VEC, Respond and the Galway City Partnership. Caitriona McMuiris of the latter organisation has been absolutely brilliant in supporting the local committee in this initiative.

Many of the garden's founding members (including myself) are local community environmentalists and members of the 'Galway Friends of the Forests' NGO that successfully fought to save the Terryland Forest Park from being sacrificed to road development (Headford Road Framework Plan).

For over a decade, we have promoted many environmental community initiatives in Galway including heritage cycle tours through rural landscapes in the locality, school and community tree plantings, outdoor eco-arts projects, nature field trips and the protection of wildlife habitats in our city.

Wildlife-friendly Organic Garden

An organic community garden with a biodiversity ethos has been part of our philosophy for a a number of years inspired by green urban neighbourhood initiatives in the USA and Cuba but also with the work undertaken in the nearby Galway suburb of Ballybane.

Harvesting Nettles for Soup & Salads

Since its inception late last year, ‘An Ghardín’ has become a magnet for residents of all ages from across the Ballinfoile/Bóthar an Chóiste locality to work together in the development of this extraordinary resource.

School Children & Parents from the local Scoil San Phroinsias planting flowers & vegetables

One of the partners in the project, the local primary school Scoil San Phroinsias, recently held a weekend planting day when circa 150 parents and children came along to plant vegetables and flowers.

Watering the Plants

The VEC and a nearby child daycare centre too are using it as an outdoor classroom. We are also encouraging disability and older people groups, residents’ associations, the nearby Lisbrook Asylum Seekers Hostel and youth organizations to use ‘An Ghairdín’ as a facility for nutrition and organic farming classes, crafts workshops, nature studies, social interaction and physical education activities.

Katherine Admiring Mike McDonnell's (second from right) work in producing Disability-friendly Raised Beds

Committee members and local volunteers have in a few short months transformed a barren field into a fertile oasis consisting of vegetable beds, a herbal garden, a fruit tree orchid and a poly-tunnel overflowing with crops of corn, peas and tomatoes.

Erecting the Poly-tunnel

Volunteers have laid the foundations of a large pond to nurture indigenous aquatic flora and fauna such as frogs; have provided water piping and electrical cabling and constructed a stage for outdoor cultural performances.

Creating a Pond for Aquatic wildlife

The committee has also made a commitment to promote and utilize traditional rural crafts in the ongoing development of the garden. Hence many of the vegetable beds were planted using old farming methods. Courses were held last week on willow/hazel hurdling with the resulting natural fencing created by the participants being used as perimeters within the garden.Jack planning out the traditional dry-stone wall

Traditional drystone walls will become a feature of the garden over the next few months.

The site for the ‘An Ghardín’ was provided by Galway City Council in the grounds of the Terryland Forest Park as our project complements the wildlife and environmental ethos of this proposed ‘ecological corridor’ due to the fact that our charter includes the promotion of biodiversity by for example constructing traditional hedgerows of Irish trees such as Hawthorn and Hazel around the garden perimeter; by using only organic fertilizers as well as by planting native wild flowers to attract bees and other insects.

Children with their completed Competition Questionnaires on the Wildlife of the Garden & surrounding Terryland Forest Park

Over the coming year, hundreds of local residents will avail of this remarkable green resource that will do much to improve the quality of life in our locality. It is expected that the garden will have many beneficial effects for the Ballinfoile Mór community by its provision of an outdoor nature classroom, by contributing to building up good neighbourliness, by increasing awareness of food nutrition and a healthy living lifestyle and by creating a source of locally produced organic foods. It is expected that many of those that use the community garden will create their own organic household gardens.

So we hope that as many residents as possible turn up for the official launch at 12.30pm on Saturday!

Site for the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden

Early days- Digging in the Garden

Early days: Cennis & other volunteers from the Lisbrook Asylum Seekers Accommodation Centre preparing the ground for planting

Garden Starting to take shape

Des & co Offloading the Seaweed Sourced from a local Beach & to be used as a natural Fertiliser

Planting the first Fruit (Gooseberry, Blackberry & Raspberry) Bushes

The First Planted Fruit Trees

Working on the garden paths

Herbal Garden takes shape, using timber perimeters made from hazel trees produced by local volunteers

Francis, Jack, Frances standing beside the raised bed being used by the children from the local pre-school.

Felicia & friends from the Lisbrook Asylum Seekers Accommodation Centre weeding the potato beds

Myself & Willie Needham holding some of the first crop of potatoes dug from the garden!