Anamcara School Garden

When I set out to design the garden for the school I listed what I wanted from it :

Fun for the children, A meeting area for children ,A quiet area, A nature walk where the children can see our native wildflowers, Something mystical, Something with a celtic basis,.

I wanted it to be a journey with a starting point and a finish. An outdoor area for circle time or story telling. A place where children can plant and harvest vegetables .A composting area

I had a flat and uninteresting site! And so it begins…..

I spotted this beautiful burren stone lying in a landscapers yard, I knew it had to stand proud, I rang príomhoide Niamh and got the ok to bring it to school. It has such strength and beauty that the children are naturally drawn to it.

Beautiful beech and ash trees were cut down for the widening of Maryborough Hill. It was so sad. They were being ground down into mulch those majestic tree that stood so tall for years, their roots were like mythical creatures being dragged out of the earth. The builder (thanks Maurice from Sorenson’s) very kindly offered to bring them down to the school.

It took 2 lorry trips and a rubber duck to lift them over the school fence. They had found their new home. I thought of stone circles, druids, magic and mystery and decided to put a ring around the big stone with mounded earth and then the passage leading into it almost calling you in. The paths on the outside are where the woodland walk is going to develop and will be planted with bluebells, alliums, ferns, primroses and oxeye daisies. The tree stumps will be stop points along the walk and hiding points for the children. The stumps are wa

iting to be reborn …. We are going to clean out the roots to expose the natural art therein and blunten the sharp ends with fire! The vegetable beds are waiting for weeding and hopefully next summer and autumn we will have a bountiful harvest.

All a work in progress and all help with be very gratefully received. Thanks to Dudley and Anne Duarte for their help to date.

I would especially like volunteers to help with

Preparation of the vegetable beds for planting

Dig weeds out of the grass

Help with ‘cleaning the trees’

Plenty of strimming to be done around the edges

Weeding of paths

We now have a garden where we can walk, chase, roll, tell stories, picnic, play music, come in experience the peace in the enclosure, lie down in it and it becomes a sky garden ……. The sky is the limit!