Links gardens!

Finally: Ballylinlar has a community garden.
In 2011, members of the ‘Forever Young Pensioners’ and Mothers & Toddler group in Ballykinlar started a vegetable garden in buckets in front of the Cultural Centre. Small in its size, it cheered everyone up, excited the kids and sprinkled some colour at the tarmac and concrete place.
The bucket garden needed attention, watering and care and gave the community ample material to talk about: what could be harvested and when, how the own gardens are like, what could be done better next year. Better and bigger.

Background

The idea for a Ballykinler Community Garden started during a visit to a garden in Belleek in 2009. There, pensioners created a garden on a car park in the village centre. They met weekly to plant and maintain the vegetables and worked individually, whenever they had time. Gardening was seen as an activity to be outside, to meet people, to chat and – to grow food.
In recent years, gardeningl and community gardens have seen a revival and there are many good reasons for it:
-you work outside in fresh air
-you grow your own food
-it is best done with others
-it brings the community closer
-it's fun

Proposal
We proposed to use parts of the spare green sites in the Links in Ballykinler to start a community garden for one season. Initially, this can be done with a small group of dedicated villagers, young and old. They might dig some rows of lazy beds for potatoes and beans or by building some raised beds for vegetables, herbs and flowers.
Thanks to the site owners, we can start to dig and grow now!