WHEN THE National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, offered a course in rose pruning and another in organic gardening earlier this year the number of applications came as a bit of a surprise.
While three people wanted to learn about roses, a staggering 200 people applied for places on the organic gardening course which is being run at the gardens’ own organic plot in Glasnevin.
According to Dr Peter Wyse Jackson, director of the National Botanic Gardens, some of the applicants were prepared to travel from as far away as Wexford to learn the skills.
He said the vegetable garden in Glasnevin had recently been opened up to the public after having been out of the public eye for 150 years, when it was walled.
Dr Wyse Jackson was among those in the gardens yesterday for the launch of Minister for Food Trevor Sargent’s “Get Ireland Growing” campaign to encourage food production at home.
He said in recent years large numbers of Irish people have become increasingly interested in good food, cooking and wanting to grow their own food. “Our councillors and candidates have been getting hundreds of inquiries about allotments and community gardens, and we have launched this campaign to help encourage those interested in domestic food production,” he said.
Mr Sargent, who has his own organic garden at home in Balbriggan, revealed he is not the only Minister with such an interest. Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan, he said, grows vegetables in an allotment patch in Mount Anville in south Dublin.
“Currently, some local authorities provide allotments, but in other places demand is high and there are long waiting lists,” he said.
The Green Party would be working with communities to help them find suitable public or private land that can be rented at low cost and turned into allotments.
He said he hoped disused or derelict land would be brought into production across the country.
“I am working with the Office of Public Works to see what can be done with existing public land, and I know that my party colleague, Environment Minister John Gormley, will be writing to local authorities urging them to consider the provision of allotments, which falls under the Local Government Act,” Mr Sargent said.
Green representatives have begun to distribute leaflets, posters and postcards to promote the campaign and will be writing to city and county managers to request that land be made available for allotments or community gardens where demand exists.