Green Limerick: Get busy this spring with a free sustainable gardening course

SEASONED and aspiring gardeners are invited to put their green thumbs to use and get their hands dirty in an upcoming sustainable gardening class being sponsored by Limerick City and County Council (LCCC).

The gardening class is running in collaboration with Kilmallock, Ardpatrick, Galbally and Kilfinane Tidy Towns with Aoife Munn delivering the gardening class.

Aoife, originally from Dún Laoghaire, Dublin has been running sustainable gardening classes for over 10 years.

Aoife started the classes as “everyone gave out” about her when she was the only judge for the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Tidy District competition (similar to Tidy Towns).

“I didn’t give any points for tree hanging baskets. I only gave points for things that made a difference,” Aoife began.

“I wrote this course as a result and to explain to people why I gave points for some things and not for others but it ended up taking off from there,” she added.

The course has now been running in 14 or 15 different county councils across the country.

“I run it to give Tidy Towns, community groups and residents associations a bit of an idea about what makes a difference and what doesn’t and also how to do things practically.”

Everything Aoife teaches in the course is all about planting for biodiversity.

“When we look at planting we want to meet several goals. We want to plant for biodiversity, we also want to make sure what we put in is drought resistant as every summer is getting drier and drier.

“We then look at how we plant… What time of year we plant and what the soil conditions are like when we plant.

“Once people have this knowledge and they better understand all of this then they can do simple things like planting a little bit earlier in the year or a little later in the year and avoiding the driest months,” Aoife mentioned.

Planting earlier in the year than normal is beneficial to plants as there is more rain and the soil moisture is high. This gives the plants more time to establish before the droughts hit.

“We want everything that people do to be more successful and they feel more rewarded by any efforts they put in,” she said.

This is the third time Aoife has brought the course to Limerick and she says it's all thanks to Limerick City and County Council and particularly Sinead McDonnell, Environment Awareness Officer at LCCC for their continued support.

“I ran the course a few months ago in the Hunt Museum and we also did it near Adare.”

Fifty people are taken on the course and Aoife says it books out every time as the demand for the classes is quite high.

“If people want to sign up there is a waiting list and the council has indicated that if the waiting list keeps ticking over they will keep bringing the course back,” Aoife added.

Aoife also undertakes follow-up courses and she also works with schools, and community groups individually. Aoife’s sustainable gardening class will take place from 10am to 4pm in Coote Hall, Kilmallock on April 2.