By Andy Spearman
Julianstown Community Garden is a very special place, an oasis of calm in a fast-paced world, and yesterday it was awarded a special innovation award at the 2023 Green Flag Awards.
The awards which were announced by An Taisce’s Environmental Education section, are in recognition of Ireland’s best managed public parks and green spaces.
The Chairperson of Julianstown Community Garden, Niamh Uí Lionsigh, told Drogheda Life this morning that everyone involved in the project was really delighted with this award.
“We’ve won awards before including the biodiversity award for the past two years, but this is the first time we’ve won the prestigious Innovation award” she said.
CE workers Bob Doyle, Kevin Mullen, Omar Elneihum and Gerrard Desmond look after the day to day maintenance of the garden but beyond that they have a huge input into its future plans.
For instance, it was Bob’s idea to install four raised beds, which were built by Pilltown Men’s Shed, to demonstrate crop rotation and to encourage people young and old to develop an interest in growing their own vegetables.
This has proved to be a very popular feature of the garden, especially with the children from the local school, after school club and Little Joey’s crèche who are all regular visitors. People are also encouraged to help themselves to fruit and vegetables which are left out for them when ripe.
The garden, which was first salvaged from a strip of waste ground beside the busy Dublin Road in 2007, has benefited greatly from the local Men’s Shed groups in Pilltown and Drogheda and among the lawns and flower beds are intriguing items such as a bee hotel in the form of a thatched cottage, a giant sunflower and a storyteller’s chair all made by the men in their sheds.
The garden is not just used by Julianstown locals however. Niamh says they often get motorists and cyclists stopping for a break and in the summer it is a favourite with families bringing picnics. It is also a very popular location for first communion photographs.
In all some 101 Green Flag Awards were presented to parks, gardens, grounds and wildlife sanctuaries around the country. The award benchmarks excellence in the management of green spaces which are open free the public.
Once again more Green Flag Awards have been secured by Irish Parks and Gardens than by any country, other than the UK where the scheme originated in 1996. Out of 150 awarded in Europe today, 101 were won by projects in Ireland.
Other parks in County Louth to be awarded green flags include St. Dominic’s Park in Drogheda, Blackrock Community Park, Ice House Hill Park in Dundalk and St Helena Park also in Dundalk, all of which are managed by Louth County Council.
The Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre was awarded a Green Flag Award and Heritage Site Accreditation. The Green Flag Community Award Scheme is supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development.
