Students create sustainable garden on wheels

STUDENTS created a sustainable garden on wheels for nursing homes and displayed it as one of the prestigious Postcard Gardens at this year’s hugely popular Bloom festival.

Bloom is a world-class innovative horticulture, food and drink festival with nature and sustainable living at its core which takes place in the Phoenix Park each year over the June Bank Holiday weekend.

Over 100,000 people attend the experience each year and one of the most popular attractions, the 2x3m Postcard Garden plots for amateur gardeners or garden clubs to display their talents, featured two local groups.

Students in St Kevin’s Community College created a Postcard Garden called ‘A Sustainable Garden on Wheels for Nursing Homes’ for this year’s Bloom.

The idea behind it is to bring the garden to nursing homes in the hope of spreading joy and creating a sense of nostalgia for some residents.

Students in the Clondalkin school wish to “inspire residents to reconnect with nature” through enjoying the scents and colours of different herbs, vegetables and flowers planted in the garden.

Everything within the garden is planted in recycle containers that are fitted on wheels, meaning nursing home residents can rearrange the display as they see fit.

Following the success of their inaugural Postcard Garden in 2022, students and staff of National Learning Network Ballyfermot returned to this year’s Bloom with The Experiential Learning Garden.

Learners’ growth was represented in the garden with two planters framing a desk which was planted with salads, herbs, and root crops.

Each planter included clear panels which showed the root growth of the different plants, from seeds to juvenile and mature plants.