News from David Domoney. David is a Chartered Horticulturalist with over 40 years of experience growing and caring for plants. David has also worked on UK national television for over 2 decades. As a garden designer, David has won over 30 RHS medals for his garden designs at leading UK gardening shows and events.
I headed to Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire on 1 April to launch the Community Gardening scheme and Grow Your Own Project with the Royal Horticultural Society and Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation.
For the project, a community garden involving local schoolchildren has been created in the town centre. It will provide a place for workshops to boost the gardening skills of everyone in the community, from young to old. Visit their website here: www.letchworth.com/rhs
Thanks to everyone who came along on the night to the Spirella ballroom to see my talk on the Magic of Community Gardening.
I hope I showed you the power and importance of plants not only to help build communities but to bring about health and well-being too. I also looked at wildlife and biodiversity, as well as how to enhance our existing spaces visually and environmentally.
I want to inspire people to get involved with community gardening projects. They are a fantastic way to bring people together and rebuild community bonds as neighbours share plants and advice and get growing together.
St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain into a wealthy family: his father Calphurnius was a deacon, his mother Conchessa was a relation of St. Martin of Tours and his grandfather was a priest. At the age of 16, Patrick was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken back to the west coast of Ireland, possibly Mayo, as a slave.
According to his later confession, Patrick escaped from his master after God told him in a dream to flee his captivity. He returned to Britain and began studying to be a priest. In 432, he returned to Ireland as a bishop to spread the message of Christianity and convert people away from paganism.
He founded 375 churches across Ireland, each of which contained a school for teaching the practices to the next generation. After his death in 461, many people made pilgrimages to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.
[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container][fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible” type=”legacy”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none” align_self=”flex-start” border_sizes_undefined=”” first=”true” last=”true” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all”][fusion_testimonial name=”” gender=”” company=”” link=”” target=””]Did you know? There is no consensus over exactly what is a “true” shamrock. Opinion is divided mostly between two species: the lesser clover and the white clover.[/fusion_testimonial][fusion_text]
Today
St. Patrick’s Day became a national holiday in Ireland in 1903, and feasts, festivals and religious celebrations are held across Ireland and the rest of the world every year. People wear green and attach shamrocks to their clothes.
Communities also hold Céilí, public parades featuring Gaelic folk music, with plenty of singing and dancing.
The Lenten restrictions on consuming food and alcohol are also lifted for the day, which has encouraged the party atmosphere.
Symbol
According to legend, St. Patrick used the shamrock in his preaching as a metaphor for the Christian Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Today the shamrock is used to symbolise both the saint and Ireland more generally.
[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none” align_self=”flex-start” border_sizes_undefined=”” first=”true” last=”true” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all”][fusion_testimonial name=”” gender=”” company=”” link=”” target=””]Interesting Fact: Last year even the astronauts in the International Space Station celebrated the day by wearing green. [/fusion_testimonial][fusion_text]
I spent Sunday 16 March at Millbrook Garden Centre in Gravesend to raise money for Garden Re-Leaf Day and Greenfingers charity!
I gave talks on therapeutic gardening and creating a sensory, stimulating garden that encourages wildlife to flourish, plus walking talks of the garden centre’s new, award-winning wildlife area, which includes a wildflower meadow, bird hide and insect hotel.
It was a delight to give some time and visit Millbrook for Garden Re-Leaf Day to raise money for Greenfingers charity, and meeting customers to talk about sensory gardening techniques and just how much plants enhance our lives was a pleasure to do.
The money raised from the event will go to Greenfingers’ Rosy Cheeks Appeal, which aims to raise £750,000 over two years to fund the creation of at least ten more unique children’s hospice gardens.
We also gave away free goody bags filled with exclusive giveaways including free tickets to the Ideal Home Show, an Ernest Charles seed blend from Gardman and a Watering Starter Kit from Hozelock. There was also a raffle to win a Beckbury three seat wooden bench by Hartman worth £249.99!
Picking the lucky raffle ticket for the bench (in the background)
I also had great fun running an interactive children’s workshop with seed planting activities for children and grown-ups alike to get stuck in. It was so encouraging meeting the kids and their parents – and there was mud and compost everywhere by the end!
Millbrook also hopes to inspire children to get involved with the Rosy Cheeks Appeal and ran a competition asking local schoolchildren to suggest ideas that they would like to see in a garden for sick children. Here is the winning design from Longfield Academy!
