Saltmills group wins first GROWbox
THE community group of Saltmills and St Kearns have been announced as the first community winners in the GIY and Energia Get Ireland Growing initiative.
The Saltmills and St Kearns group submitted an application for a community grow box, saying they have a community social space at The Buildings in Saltmills where they had planned to plant a Moon Garden pre-Covid, however, they were conscious of placing a burden of fundraising on the community at this time.
They came up with the idea of having a ‘Seed Off’ competition and it took roots. In their application, they suggested a Community Planting Week’, adding that there are many excellent horticulturalists and plant lovers who are willing to ‘dig in’ and get their hands dirty for the community.
On hearing that they had, in fact, won a community GrowBox Kate Murphy of the Saltmills and St Kearns group said: ‘We are thrilled to be selected as the first winners of a Community GrowBox from ‘Get Ireland Growing’. Saltmills and St Kearns will be absolutely blooming. We would like to thank all of our volunteers and community supporters, along with our CE Scheme workers Deirdre Earl and Thomas Donnelly, who carry out great work for our group.’
A Community GROWBox is a bespoke ‘seed library’, and once filled with the contents of the Community GROWBox it offers a community library of 100 packs of vegetable, herb and wildflower seeds – all freely available to interested growers.