{"id":12348,"date":"2015-03-15T15:00:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greensideup.ie\/?p=12348"},"modified":"2021-03-01T13:35:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T13:35:04","slug":"an-gairdin-beo-carlow-community-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensideup.ie\/an-gairdin-beo-carlow-community-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Come Inside and Have a Look at An Gaird\u00edn Beo"},"content":{"rendered":"
An Gaird\u00edn Beo is a lovely Irish saying that literally translates to ”The Garden Alive”. It’s the name a group of us agreed upon last autumn for a very special urban community garden project that’s coming together in Carlow town.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Last year, the Mercy Sisters offered a 36 year lease on a two acre wilderness that sits next to St Leo’s College and Convent, giving the community an opportunity to create a garden that will be:<\/p>\n
\n“based on an ecological orientation, on valuing diversity, sustainability, organic methods and indigenous species. It recognises that we as humans, are part of nature too. It is committed to the preservation and protection of the site as a green area for the greatest diversity of life possible.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
For the past few months I’ve been one of around twenty people who’ve volunteered to get this project off the ground, many representing communities and groups within Carlow town and several with links to St Leo’s College that stretch back to their childhood and beyond.<\/p>\n
Watching a Community Garden Evolve<\/h2>\n
Excellently facilitated by Chris Chapman of The Change Exploratory<\/a>\u00a0and encouraged along by Srs Mary Carmody, one of the drivers behind the Baltinglass Community Garden<\/a>,\u00a0back in September we split into three teams – governance, landscaping and catalysing. It’s the later that I offered to help out with and since then our group have worked to create the garden’s vision, community involvement and put together documents that will help with funding applications. As one of the coordinators of the Community Gardens Ireland<\/a>, the experience has been an enjoyable and valuable learning opportunity.<\/p>\n
Over the coming months there will be a tremendous amount of physical work to do, money to be found and community engagement to be coordinated. However, a lot of groundwork has taken place already, the foundations of the project have been laid and we hope this community garden will now begin to grow and thrive, helping to positively contribute towards the ongoing development of the town centre and bring some life and purpose back to it. Time and care has been taken to engage everyone from the beginning with the hope that An Gaird\u00edn Beo will evolve gradually to “become a space\u00a0in which diverse people can connect more to nature, to the growing and making of food and to each other”.<\/em><\/p>\n
Come and Have a Look at the Wild Community Garden<\/h2>\n