Last Friday the Blessington Allotments Campaign provided 250 strawberry plants for the students at St. Mary’s Junior National School to grow at home.
Pollinator friendly strawberry plants and peat free soil were purchased from the Blessington Lakes Garden Centre to encourage students to grow their own food at home. The idea was championed by the Blessington Allotments Campaign who were able to deliver this project thanks to their successful application to the Wicklow County Council Community Awards in 2022 to finance this initiative.
Dónal McCormack, Chairperson of the Blessington Allotments Campaign said: “We are delighted to continue this initiative with another local school. Over the coming months, every student from St. Mary’s Junior National School will grow their own strawberries and experience how exciting and beneficial it is to grow your own food.”
“Strawberries are an ideal starter plant when beginning to grow your own food, as they will sprout new strawberry plants in the coming months. We hope this will encourage more students and families in the area to grow more of their own food,” explained Mr McCormack.
Mr McCormack added that “in the last 2 years the Blessington Allotments Campaign have provided almost 750 pollinator friendly plants to primary school students in Blessington. Each plant acts as part of a dispersed community orchard that will help pollinators and other biodiversity in the Blessington area.”
Carmel Dillon, Principal of St. Mary’s Junior National School in Blessington said: “As a long time Green Schools participant we are delighted to partner with the Blessington Allotments Campaign for this project. This is an ideal initiative to encourage our students to help local biodiversity. Our older students will be potting up their strawberry plants and then taking care of them over the coming months. It will be exciting for everyone involved to see how their efforts bear fruit!”
St. Mary’s Junior National School is the fifth local school that the Blessington Allotments Campaign have partnered with for this initiative. The group aims to provide pollinator friendly plants to another Blessington school later in 2023. This will see the completion of this project for the Blessington Allotments Campaign, having provided every primary school in Blessington with pollinator friendly plants for all of their students over the last two years.
The Blessington Allotments Campaign are delighted to have recently partnered with Blessington Tidy Towns to help deliver this final phase of their pollinator friendly school project.
Jason Mulhall, Chairperson of Blessington Tidy Towns said: “We are delighted to support this initiative to plant more pollinator friendly and edible plants in the Blessington area. Students, families, schools and our local biodiversity all benefit from this project. Local sustainable projects such as this empower communities to work together and take action to help with our climate and biodiversity crises.”
