Blennerville School Garden Makes Final Four In National Competition

Posted by
Kerry ETB New Insert

.

Ready to start planting flowers at the Blennerville National School 'Secret Fairy Garden' were pupils from Ms Doyle's forth class and Ms Brassill's senior infants, David Conlon (Head Horticulturalist Woodies DIY Tralee) and Louise Brassil. Photo by Gavin O'Connor.

Ready to start planting flowers at the Blennerville National School ‘Secret Fairy Garden’ were pupils from Ms Doyle’s fourth class and Ms Brassil’s senior infants, David Condon (Head Horticulturalist Woodies DIY) and Louise Brassil. Photo by Gavin O’Connor.

ST BRENDAN’S NS in Blennerville is in the running to win a national garden competition where the winner’s story of their entry will feature at the Bloom Festival in Dublin on the June Bank Holiday Weekend.

In October 2015, the school agreed to take part in the pilot of “The Garden Squad”, Woodie’s School Garden Awards programme.

Continued below…

Tralee 800

.

The aim of the programme is to get schools around Ireland growing their own flora and food, ensuring that pupils are creatively connecting with nature.

The project is aimed at 3rd to 6th class pupils. Ms Louise Brassil agreed to co-ordinate the programme which involved her own Senior Infant class as well as 3rd and 4th classes. The garden is located adjacent to the new school.

“Firstly we decided on the type of garden we wanted to grow,” said Louise. “We had recently won 5 fairy doors in a competition with the “Irish Fairy Door Company” and this was our inspiration to plan, build and grow our own sensory garden, one that would attract butterflies and fairies. We also won a wooden ‘Worry Plaque’ which we have just placed at the entrance to the garden at child height. Children place their hand on the imprint before entering the garden and they leave their worries outside.”

During May, parents of the school volunteered to paint the garden wall a very bright green colour.

“This will heighten the colour of the garden once it begins to flower,” said Louise. “An escalonia hedge was planted between us and our neighbouring filling station, and this will take five years to grow. This will add hugely to the privacy of the garden, which will be hidden from view eventually. It is to be our ‘Secret Fairy Garden’. We saved tree trunk stumps too, from the old school which was recently knocked and these will be turned into fairy houses. Each child in the school will also paint their name on their own stone to be left in this secret place, long after they leave the school.”

The Garden Squad sent them seeds, tools and a project pack, with lesson plans for the classroom. They planted our own tomatoes from seed, and even from tomato slices, as well as beans, lemongrass and other herbs, such as mint, rosemary, chives.

Parent Julie Hannafin, who has a background in Horticulture came in weekly and guided them through the experiments.  Julie also designed the garden, complete with winding paths filled with plants to tickle the senses.

These plans are available to see on our Greenschool page of their website www.blennervillens.ie  They will be seeking parents help for donations of sensory plants that might be suitable in the coming months.

Woodies sent out a representative David Condon who advised them on plants and presented them with some plant gifts including a ‘tricolour’ during Proclamation week.

He returned on Friday to photograph their progress, which he will convey to the overall judge Leonie Cornelius of the RTE television show ‘Super Garden’.

The winning garden’s journey will feature on Woodie’s stage at Bloom, Ireland’s biggest outdoor garden festival June 2-6.

“We are keeping our green fingers crossed here in Blennerville,” said Louise.

Comments are closed.

image