Growing vegetables in Ballon Community Garden

Ballon Community Garden

Thanks to Carlow VEC, in a few weeks time I’ll be running a six-week practical course on growing vegetables at Ballon Community Garden.

I was delighted to be asked to tutor in this garden by Ballon Improvement Group as it encompasses so many things I’m passionate about.

For a start the village of Ballon is very community orientated. In March they won an award from Carlow Enterprise Board for Best New Green Business for a project the improvement group set up to support and fund community work in the area.

Using a disused tyre premises they opened the Siopa Glas in the High Street and invited everyone to drop in their old clothes, shoes, bags, bric-a-brac and furniture. All of the money raised in the thrift shop is returned to the community in terms of funding for street lighting, workshops, tidy towns and planting schemes. The shop has proved very popular with all sorts of events operating from it. From Santa visiting at Christmas for the children, china tea parties for visiting parties or cabbage and bacon days on St Patrick’s weekend this group are nothing if not versatile! They also offer shoppers a free cup of tea and a chat in their  village emporium.

The community garden itself is at the front of the village primary school and the children are encouraged to get involved and participate. The group is very keen to link up with other community gardens too and swap seeds, plants and have exchange visits.

I love the way they’ve reused the old tractor tyres, old barrels, electric cord reels and even a pre-cast tank from a nearby manufacturer of them.

All the photos in the post were taken on a crisp spring day in March where snow carpets all the nearby mountains so we’ll have a bit of work to bring the garden back to order.

If you’re interesting in coming along to the practical, hands-on workshops where I’ll be showing everyone how to grow your own fruit and vegetables without the use of chemicals, we’ll be meeting on Tuesday evenings from 7.00pm to 9.00pm for six weeks from the 7th May.

Contact Eileen Murphy on 0872273516 or Marie George on 0872424934 for more details.