Biodiversity Gardens Awards

Results Announced

The Corrin Hill Ice Cream Biodiversity Garden Awards were set up to find and recognise Ireland’s best biodiversity gardens and gardeners. The awards are run in association with BirdWatch Ireland and are Ireland’s first awards to promote gardening for wildlife and biodiversity. Many householders understand and enjoy the major contribution their gardensmake to the environment and are now making simple changes so that they garden for biodiversity.This is the first year of the awards, which were announced yesterday for the best suburban, rural, community and school gardens around the county.

Winners this year include:

Best Urban Garden    - Judy Friel, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
Judy Friel’s garden in Glenageary is certainly a model on what can be achieved to sustain biodiversity in an urban garden. She designed the colourful garden herself and it consists of layers of native trees and shrubs on the perimeter including birch, holly and fruit trees. A series of circular, rectangular, square and triangular raised or enclosed beds beautifully planted with flowers, fruit, vegetables and herb make up the richly colourful garden.  A cleverly designed unheated glasshouse and a bee world with three working beehives combined with a nectar and pollen bar made up from beautifully scented flowers add particular interest to the garden. The garden has been certified by the Organic Trust for growing vegetables, herbs and cut flowers.  Other key features include a composting area with seven composting bins, water butts, a bird feeding area and an ornamental potager.  No chemicals are used and home-made compost, nettle and comfrey tea, and seaweed enrich the soil.

Best Rural Garden      - Carla Blake, Conna, Co. Cork
Carla Blake has a gem of a secret garden that is totally unexpected from the outside.  It is a large and very pretty traditional cottage garden with beautiful planting and was designed as a haven for wildlife by Carla and her late husband Val who brought the property in 1976.  The colourful and stunningly scented beds of old roses, sweet pea, phlox, gladioli, old-fashioned fuchsia, lilies, dahlias and French lavender are mixed with pretty beds of vegetables and soft fruits including  asparagus and raspberries.  This combined with native trees, shrubs and herbs is teeming with birdsong and butterflies and the owner especially encourage hedgehogs to help control slugs.  Carla has raised several hedgehogs and keeps a careful watch over birds’ nests.  She has a very large composting area and a log pile that is cleverly camouflaged with nasturtiums.   She has water butts, log piles, nest boxes of many types and bird feeding stations, a pond, lawns and wild flower area with wild foxgloves, primroses, bluebells and daisies.  She fertilises the soil with home-made compost and horse manure sourced locally.

Special Award - Best Urban Front Garden  – Pauline Doran, Crumlin, Co. Dublin
This garden also wins the biggest garden in a small space award.  It is a beautiful oasis on a road where the front gardens have mostly been converted into parking spaces. The site is used and planted extremely well for biodiversity with beautiful colour and interesting plants.  It has a real magic value and includes layers of native trees and hedges, a knot garden, a large perennial flower border and two smaller borders.  There are window boxes and railing boxes and every inch of this tiny garden is carefully used and planted to create a beautiful effect that is a haven for wildlife and for people to enjoy.  No chemicals are used and the garden is full of birdsong, butterflies and happy wildlife.  Sustainability aspects include water butts, chemical-free gardening, a mulch mower, bird feeding areas, a bird bath, a nectar garden and lady birds to control greenfly.  This garden is a real treat for wildlife and humans alike.

Best School and Community Garden    - Scoil Bhride, Shantalla, Galway
The Biodiversity and Organic garden at Scoil Bhride is extremely pleasant and you instantly know the garden is cherished by the school children who tend it and their parents and teachers.  It is rich in colour and scent and the lush healthy growth forms a contrast to the dense concrete and urban area outside the school.  The children clearly love the garden.  It is very much part of the school curriculum and you immediately notice that it is central to the school.  Fruit and vegetables are grown from seed.  The raised beds were made by the school children and they care for the growing food plants before they harvest them and cook with them in celebration of the produce.  The garden includes a sensory flower garden that is well laid out and very pleasant with old fashioned cottage garden flowers, herbs and flowering vegetables.  Wildflower beds, a seaside garden and native hedgerow work very well.  Sustainable features include water butts, composting, bird feeding areas and a wormery.  There is also a small pond.  The garden is excellent and is teaming with colour and wildlife. The children clearly love the garden.  Teachers and parents are very involved with the garden and it has strong community aspect.  Parents learn how to grow herbs, vegetables and fruit in window boxes, balconies, patios and small urban gardens using organic methods.

Special Award - Best Biodiversity Garden Designed for Accessibility – Sean and Mary Ryan, Ennis Road, Limerick This garden is exceptional because it is a family garden designed as an accessible garden for their 12 year old son Darragh who has special needs. The garden is designed on the principles of sustainability and maximising biodiversity underpins everything.  It also has accessibility built into every aspect of it so that Darragh can move around on a frame, enjoy different areas and it is educational and therapeutic for him.  It is very pleasant and is laid out in several compartments.  It has all the key features from a biodiversity and sustainability aspect – great range of planting, with layers of native trees and shrubs, lots of berries, lots of hedges for nesting.  They have a pond, water butts, a log pile, composting areas, bird feeding areas, vegetables, fruit and berries and the garden is especially good to sit in and relax.

The following gardens received Biodiversity Garden of Special Merit Awards in the Corrin Hill Biodiversity Garden Awards 2008:

• Ian McGrigor and Eileen Carroll for their Community Garden in Ballyseedy, Tralee, Co. Kerry
• Eleanor de Eyto for her rural garden full of native wildflowers and plants, set on a remote hillside, in Newport, Co. Mayo
• Enid Robinson for her traditional garden in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
• Brendan Nelson for his colourful garden rich in flowers and traditional plants in Co. Leitrim
• Eileen Boyle for her garden designed to support wildlife in Dublin city
• Pat Bell  for his sustainable garden in Maynooth, Co. Kildare where he growing food is a key priority
• Marleen Drykoningen from Clonakilty, Co. Cork for colourful garden that is full of berries and plants that provide food and shelter for birds
• Irish Peatland Conservation Council for the community garden they have developed at the Bog of Allen in Co. Kildare
• St. Brigid’s Girls School, Cabinteely for the educational and sustainable garden they have created that produces food for people, birds and wildlife
• Mo Osman and Emma Nelson  for their biodiversity garden in Co. Wicklow
• Constance Dowling for her wonderful city garden that features scented flowers, fruit, salads and vegetables
• Mike Shanahan  for his biodiversity garden in Clonakilty, Co.Cork that is teeming with butterflies and birdsong and has been cleverly designed so that it is easy to manage and provides food, shelter and habitats for wildlife
• Kilskyre National School, Kells, Co. Meath for a new biodiversity garden where they have achieved a lot for biodiversity in a short time
• Jeanne and Michael Leahy for their traditional garden in Cobh, Co. Cork
• Dara Wyer, Newcastle, Co. Dublin for his garden that is home to a huge range of birds.  The garden features exceptional wild areas that are pleasant on the eye and highly  beneficial to the environment.
• Richard and Margaret Webb their wonderful large garden in Bray, Co. Wicklow that maximizes biodiversity potential, provides food for the family, is easy to manage and is very child-friendly