Growing our Own
‘Learning from Each Other’ – since 1994
Students, staff, parents and governors all came together for a morning’s tree planting of native pines, hazel, birch, cherry, hawthorn and rowan, and building our wiggly fence. We won a Woodland Trust Green Tree Gold Award for continuing to plant native species around our perimeter over the years, and generations of students took part. Chair of governors Jean Forbes had us planting daffodils and creating an edible bird table. Eventually we decided to create a school garden. At the same time, Ellen McVea began offering horticulture as a GCSE equivalent. The two initiatives came together perfectly.
We won a Woodland Trust Green Tree Gold Award for continuing to plant native species around our perimeter over the years, and generations of students took part.
Our wonderful German placement student, Nina Gerlach, had inspired our recycled bottle greenhouse. The next step was to develop raised beds. Ellen found funding for sustainably sourced boards which were built into raised beds by Aidan McIlmurray. We needed advice as to how to plan the beds, and a partnership with the Slieve Donard Hotel brought us gardening expert Jilly Dougan. She organised us to line the beds with cardboard and to fill them up with rich compost. She brought us herb plants to get us started and showed us how to measure out our vegetable plug plants.
Every year, we worked towards Royal Horticulture Society school gardening awards, and each one came with a reward. We won ourselves gardening tools and an annual subscription to Rocket Gardens for the supply of plug plants for every season. Over the years we worked our way up to the top award, Level 5.
Robbie Mulholland recycled wooden pallets to build us compost bins and a potting table, and he recycled windowpanes to refurbish the greenhouse. Joan McAllister and later Níamh Lindsay, with the Prince’s Trust students painted and re-painted the greenhouse. Gervaise Mullan brought us used tyres to recycle as potato planters. Maureen Rafferty donated apple trees, which turned out to be a plum and a pear! Deborah McDowell organised the provision of overalls and steel toed boots in order to comply with the requirements of the horticulture course, and RoseMarie Cunningham maintained the store of aprons through washing and mending.
Fiona Forsythe sourced recycled fishboxes to provide additional planters. Paul Rooney mended our Slieve Donard Hotel partnership sign. OldScholar Katie Brickstock tended the garden through the first COVID lockdown. David Archer and Adam McNerlin visited the wormery on a weekly basis. Newry, Mourne and Down Council provided a water butt, and Tiernan Foster kept the butt fresh with organic purifying drops. Josie Morgan came in to demonstrate floral display.
The horticulture students provided vegetables for the school canteen and ran a summer vegetable stall and veg box delivery service for staff. Staff always shared photos of the delicious meals they made at home with produce bought on the horticulture stall. Mairi McCurdy particularly recommended the kale encrusted salmon she prepared for her family’s traditional German Heiligabend meal! Every autumn students planted up bulbs for a Springtime display in the front hall. Leftover bulbs added to the drifts around the school grounds.
Most of all, generations of students have worked throughout the school year to plant, weed, make compost, tend the worm farm, manage the bokaski bins, feed, tend and harvest vegetables and flowers. Students propagated indoor plants to purify the air in classrooms. They customised wee ceramic pots for cacti. They provided staff with herb cuttings and tomato plants for their own summer growing.
Parent Kathy Black organised donations of compost for us, a trolley, numerous seeds, additional equipment etc. She also helped us apply for funding from Live Here Love Here for a greenhouse bubble and wonderful waist high accessible planters which our students assembled for our neighbours in the Glen Fold.
This was the start of a great partnership. Our Prince’s Trust students worked with a gardener from Radius Housing to create a sitting out area for residents. Joan McAllister helped the class source wildflower seeds to create a wildflower border at the Fold. The horticulture classes then ensured that the planters were always growing healthy veg for the residents, summer salads and winter stew vegetables. The soup celery was particularly popular!
The project was included in a marketing video made by Radius Housing to highlight the active lifestyle of Fold living, and led to invitations to sing carols at Christmas and to a wonderful skill sharing iPad project between Shimna year 9 students with RoseMarie Cunningham and the Fold residents.
Our gardening extended into our community links. Prince’s Trust students worked with Newry, Mourne and Down Council to plant out the beds on the promenade with hardy native species which can withstand the rigours of life at the coast.
Generations have qualified to GCSE level in horticulture, and Prince’s Trust groups over the years have honed their teamwork skills through building projects to enhance our gardening facilities, always using recycled materials. We built Shimna on a particularly beautiful site, and environmental activism has always been central to how we appreciate that beauty.
