Social and Therapeutic Horticulture Course in Donegal and Plant Your Land with Trees

Plants are relaxing now as the season ends, but the courses keep coming. 

There’s no rest for the more extroverted gardeners among us who like an audience. Gardening clubs will be thinking ahead to the spring and more specialist courses are also growing in popularity.

Especially those where we can eat what we grow.  

GIY Ireland (Grow it Yourself) based in Waterfod have a range of courses from pumpkin carving, after school clubs, grow and make your own Christmas dinner to making comfort foods for those cold winter evenings. 

Some of the courses travel the country in a road show style and there’s one locally you might be interested in which is being held in Gortahork at the Ourganic Gardens on November the 18^th.

Introduction to Social and Therapeutic Horticulture

The course will introduce us to social and therapeutic horticulture and is being run by community worker Caitriona Kelly who joined GIY earlier this year to promote the health benefits of gardening. 

The Social and therapeutic horticulture idea stems from horticultural therapy and uses plants to enable people improve both physical and mental well-being, through a process of planned and facilitated programmes. It can be active, whereby individuals carry out gardening tasks, and it can be passive, as in the case of therapeutic and healing gardens. Settings for both, Caitriona says, include rehabilitation hospitals, prisons, day care centres, psychiatric institutions and homes for the elderly.

The course offers to help you gain an insight into the history of social and therapeutic horticulture, learn about the myriad ways in which horticulture can have a positive impact on health and well-being using current research and learn about ways in which it can be used effectively across a range of client groups. 

This course is aimed at anyone with an interest in learning about the use of horticulture as a therapeutic medium including healthcare professionals (occupational therapists, nurses and psychiatric nurses) community workers, teachers and horticulturists. For more information on how to book go to the GIY website.

Lunch is provided and the cost is €65

Plant your own Woodland

For those of you who have already found the joys of gardening and have a spare bit of land, you might be interested in this.

There is increasing recognition of the economic, social and environmental contribution from forestry, including its crucial role in greenhouse gas mitigation.

For growers with land of which they are unsure of what to do with, forestry can be an economical and environmental investment. You may not have ever considered forestry to be a part of your plan for your land, but maybe it should be.

In the latest Forestry Advisory Newsletter from Teagasc they explore the planting options that many land owners have and the benefits that comes hand-in-hand with forestry.

Over the past 25 years, 19,000 landowners – mainly farmers – have decided to convert some of their land to forestry as a very good economic and productive option to complement their farm or enterprise. This of course can be extended to professional growers as well.

Returns from well-managed forests are highly attractive, according to Teagasc. Forestry is a rapidly-expanding competitive sector, from planting to harvesting and timber processing.

Over one-third of landowners who planted in the last ten years went on to plant again, a great measure of its success!

Teagasc are available to provide advice and information, including one-to-one consultations and site visits.

Check out some of the benefits that can be associated with forestry in Ireland.

• Forestry is a great land use option, making marginal or fragmented land work for you.
• Forestry is a great tax- and labour-efficient enterprise.
• Establishment grants generally cover the cost of planting, with 15-year annual premium payments offering a great secure annual income.
• The interaction of forestry with the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) is great; eligible land parcels planted since 2009 are also eligible for BPS payment.
• Appropriate forest design, scale and management will help ensure great crop quality, timber value and environmental benefits.

In the next few years I think it would be great if we saw a big rise in tree planting and also the introduction of crops such as hemp for bio plastics, clothing building material, fuels to mention just a few uses. I also really believe our climate up here is perfect for tea growing. It’s the labour costs for harvesting that would be the restriction. Inishowen tea - that has a nice ring to it!