Gardening week is growing

Green fingers at the ready as National Allotments and Community Gardens Week is just around the corner.

Community growers across Cork are being invited to celebrate and share the positive impact allotments and community gardens play during the upcoming week.

This year will see the second National Allotments and Community Gardens week taking place from 12-19 October.

It is organised by Community Gardens Ireland (CGI), a volunteer-run national organisation who support community growers across Ireland.

The aim of National Allotments and Community Gardens Week is to raise awareness of allotments and community gardens, to highlight the importance of community gardening for communities, and show the huge benefits for biodiversity and the local environment.

Community Gardens Ireland Chairperson, Dónal McCormack said: “Last year’s National Week involved over 30 events organised across the island of Ireland, which encouraged discussions on community growing in communities throughout Ireland and led to the development and growth of new community gardens.”

He added: “We are calling on community groups across Ireland to get involved with National Allotments and Community Gardens Week and to celebrate their community growing spaces.

“Communities could organise a public tour of their community garden or allotments, post their story online about how their community growing space started, or start a conversation locally about how important their spaces are to the local community.”

The theme of this year’s National Allotments and Community Gardens Week is healthy soil and CGI hopes that allotments, community gardens, school gardens, tidy towns and local growers throughout Ireland will get involved and celebrate how important community growing spaces are to local soil health.

“Our vision is for every community in Ireland to have access to a space to grow.

“We look forward to officially launching our general election manifesto, GROW2030 during the opening of the week. In it we call for a community growing space to be provided in every community by 2030,” Mr McCormack concluded.