Not just holly! Laurel, redwood, ferns, hawthorn, spruce, cotton lavender, ivy, heather, artichokes, alder, willow, spruce and many, many more. Take a sprig of laurel, no ordinary laurel, Otto Luyken’s low growing one. Add a spray of a bronze leaved conifer wearing its winter clothes, darkened from summer green, Microbiota decussata from Vladivostok. A spruceContinue reading “Deck the halls with boughs of Holly – Christmas Wreath Workshop”
Category Archives: THE GARDEN SCHOOL
National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin, November 17th 2012
A beautiful sunny day in the National Botanic Gardens. I was there with students today. Lots of nice autumnal colour, some flowers and fruits too.
The New Growth Project – The Seed is Growing…
The days can be long. The days can be lonely, boring, and hopeless. It is a different world when you are unemployed, time moves slower, shops are more expensive, the cloud has no silver edge. One afternoon in January I had an idea. This happens sometimes, especially when I garden. Digging a vegetable bed, pullingContinue reading “The New Growth Project – The Seed is Growing…”
Autumn Fire – early autumnal morning in our garden
A cool start, a foggy dawn. The mellow light tinted the milky haze of fog rising from the earth, too beautiful for even the wind to disturb. The usual west of Ireland wind stayed respectfully still and silent. As the sun sleepily woke and rose over the horizon the fog dispersed to the air, leavingContinue reading “Autumn Fire – early autumnal morning in our garden”
The Magician and the Glasnevin Potato Vine – Botanic Gardens Dublin May 2012
It should be warm, warmer than today. I am not under any illusion, I do not expect the sun to shine every day, this is Ireland, but this is May, it should not be freezing! I met a group of my students this morning in the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin Dublin, one of ourContinue reading “The Magician and the Glasnevin Potato Vine – Botanic Gardens Dublin May 2012”
The Garden School at Bloom 2012
GARDENING IS FOR EVERYONE, YOUNG AND OLD! WE ARE EXCITED TO BE INVOLVED WITH THE KIDS ZONE AT BLOOM THIS YEAR. EVERYONE WHO VISITS BLOOM CAN DROP INTO THE GARDEN SCHOOL AND LEARN HOW TO MAKE A POT FROM NEWSPAPER, FILL IT WITH PEAT FREE, ORGANIC COMPOST AND THEN SOW A NASTURTIUM SEED. THEN YOUContinue reading “The Garden School at Bloom 2012”
Gardening with Children – Teaching The Teachers…
One of my earliest memories from my childhood is being with my grandfather when he was digging potatoes in a garden in Wexford. He used to do some gardening work for a neighbour after he had finished his postman’s work for the day. I remember too, shifting wheel barrow loads of gravel with my dadContinue reading “Gardening with Children – Teaching The Teachers…”
Ciaran The Gardener 