Green Party Senator, Déirdre de Búrca, says that Community Gardens in
County Wicklow need to be supported by both Wicklow County Council and by
other statutory and local bodies.

Senator de Búrca says that public interest in Community Gardens is growing
rapidly across the country as these gardens answer a need in local
communities for food grown locally and organically, and also as an area for
wildlife.

“We have a very promising model of a Community Garden in Baltinglass which
was established by the Tearmann Community Organic Gardening and Wildlife
Committee” says De Búrca. “The garden involves one and a half acres of
parish land in Baltinglass on which there is a wild flower area, a woodland
area with meandering paths, an orchard area with a variety of fruit trees,
eight raised vegetable beds, a wetland for frogs and water life, and a
number of compost areas and wormeries”.

According to De Búrca, the development of these Community Gardens is a
response to a growing public awareness of the need to promote greater
self-sufficiency in local food production, as well as providing habitats
for wildlife and developing a sense of community spirit and pride.

She has called on Wicklow County Council to support groups involved in
establishing Community Gardens by providing them with some council land on
which to develop the gardens. She has also called on statutory and other
local funding bodies to give favourable consideration to funding
applications by groups who are developing Community Gardens, as she says
they are an important community resource and will become more so in the
future.

“Six groups are involved in the Baltinglass Community Garden at the moment”
says De Búrca. “These groups involve the local Primary School, Secondary
School, people from the local Special Needs Centre, the local Active
Retirement Group, an Adult VEC Group, and a Women’s Group. I believe that
there is a plan to have local pre-school groups involved as well”.

The Green Party Senator says that the Baltinglass Community Gardens venture
has generated a lot of interest both locally and nationally and that many
groups have visited the garden with a view to establishing something
similar in their own areas. She is encouraging any group or individual or
group interested in establishing a Community Garden in the county to
contact her at her

Constituency Office (01) 274 54 02 or on her mobile (086) 806 14 50

Filed under:
Press Release by Deirdre