Grow your city

Pearse College Allotments, Photo: Tanja Goldbecher

Eugene Ryan puts down the orange wheelbarrow in front of the green container. Strong lines run through his rough hands with dark soil underneath his fingernails. As soon as the clock strikes five Eugene leaves the warmth of his bed to come to the Pearse College in Dublin’s South side. At the back of the school the pensioner leased one of the 80m² allotments.

Not only gardeners are walking around the site on this drizzly Saturday afternoon. The Dublin Cycling Campaign and the Dublin Community Growers organized a cycling tour around the city to visit some of the community gardens. Three separate routes lead the cyclists through the north, the south and the central gardens of Dublin.

Eugene’s eyes are bright when he shows visitors lavender on one side and the raspberry bush on the other side of his organic emporium. Neat and clean is the order of his potato, garlic, onion, beet root and carrot plants. The retired Dubliner tried to make the most of the available space in his small fruit and vegetable garden. Digging and planting are a lot of work until harvest season. Only watering is unnecessary due to the wet summer in Ireland. On most days of the week the Eugene works for three hours in his allotment.

Eugene Ryan in his plot, Photo: Tanja Goldbecher

Gardening projects in between highways, housing estates and shopping malls are quite a new and persistent occurrence. Some of the urban dwellers are using the smallest fields for planting trees, flowers or vegetables. The blogging list around the topic “City farmers”, “Healthy lifestyle” or “Grow it yourself” are exploding over the internet. London’s movement of “Guerilla Gardening” has also spread out over Ireland. Its supporters plant on public grounds without permission to fight against the “neglect and scarcity of public space”.

In Ireland’s capital about 40 different community gardens have been set up in the urbanized area. The Dublin Community Growers state their aim is to get people from the neighborhood involved in local gardening projects because most people have forgotten how to grow their own food.  “We try to encourage people to set up their own community garden,” says Miren Maialen from Dublin Community Growers that the movement could become even bigger.  

For €200 per year an allotment can be rented at Pearse College says Willie Brennan who is leading the visitors along the thin garden fences through the site. While pointing out different plants and growing tips he explains future ideas for developing the area. A wild garden area with bushes and trees is planned behind the last allotment. The students of Pearse College are involved in the creation of green fields and community areas.

Protect field in Pearse College Photo: Tanja Goldbecher

“You don’t need a gym when you have an allotment down here,” says Mary Nolan who also rented one of the allotments behind Pearse College. Mary has a tiny vegetable garden at her home but prefers the allotment for growing the “unsexy vegetables” like potatoes and carrots. “I didn’t even know how much I would enjoy it until I started,” adds Mary on her way out of the garden.

No chemical fertilizers can be used in the Pearse College Allotments. Only snails are a plague because they nibble on cauliflower and salad leaves. Some people stretched thin green nets over their fields to protect the plants from the hungry invaders. “You let the birds look after the snails, everything has its place. It’s only the people who interrupt that system,” says Eugene. He smiles at Mary who is just leaving her allotment and both enjoy the five minutes sunshine in their face. The neighbors know each other in the gardening community and a barbeque area was set up to strengthen the collective spirit in the project.

After a short rain shower the cycling group moves on their second stop of the tour at the South Circular Road Community Garden which used to be a car park before. This garden appears more widely grown and only six people from the neighborhood are taking care of the planting. The garden has a huge composting system and a tiny frog pond. There are four sheds built in the community garden which are not only used for storage of gardening tools but often also provide shelter for homeless people during the night. The six gardeners would like more people from the area to get involved in the project.

Weaver Square Community Garden, Phot: Tanja Goldbecher

The Weaver Square Community Garden is the third stop for the cyclists on the South route. This site is divided into allotments in the front and a community garden in the back. Wooden fences separate the small planting areas from each other. Dublin City Council helped to establish the garden for the neighborhood. One garden catches the visitor’s attention because it has only wild flowers and a black female statue in the back.

All of the different community gardens are connected with each other through the Dublin Community Growers. The network exchanges project ideas and gives each other advices. The next big event supported by the Community Growers is the harvesting festival on September 29^th where organic vegetables and fruits are exchanged on a big market.