Creative Horticulture & Youth in Bloom at Chapel Hill School of Art
Kindly supported by Cork Local Creative Youth Partnership
Youth in Bloom,Youth Film Making and Creative Horticulture at Chapel Hill School of Art
Young people from St. Marys Secondary School have been busy this year in their new Creative Horticulture programme at Chapel Hill School of Art, Macroom, Co. Cork.
Beginning in October 2022, in collaboration with St. Marys Secondary School Macroom, Chapel Hill School of Art with Cork Local Creative Youth Project have developed a Youth in Bloom Creative Horticulture program with the St. Marys 1st & 4th Year students - age ranging from 12 to 16yrs.
To encourage informal learning CHSA have granted permission to the students to use the raised beds in the walled garden, once used by the former resident Mercy Sisters to grow fruit and vegetables for their own consumption.
Fast forward to 2022 and this collaborative project has facilitated students to recultivate this area to observe biodiversity and self-sustainability in action. In an era of increased scrutiny and concern into our food sources, reducing carbon miles and the amount of chemicals that go into growing food; gardening skills are being dug up to share the knowledge of how to cultivate fresh garden produce from seed to fork. Additionally, with increased food prices and rising transport costs, it is now making financial sense to learn sustainable gardening as a life skill.
However, this takes a lot of work and knowledge. The project began with the students preparing the soil for sowing, learning to maintaining it to keep it weed free, to have it ready to sow, grow and prepare for harvesting the fruits of their new found growing skills as the growing season progresses.
The first two weeks of the programme were spent learning about biodiversity with Mr Galvin and going through the process of planting vegetables and selecting which vegetables to plant in the raised beds of the Art schools historic walled garden.
Then it was out to the garden to get to work for the next two weeks. Thus far, the students have worked diligently to weed out the old beds and add organic fertiliser to the area.
A border area of lawn in the walled garden, once mowed every week alongside the path in the formal garden will now be left to rewild naturally. This Youth in Bloom aspect of the Creative Horticulture Project will encourage informal learning around the seasonal nature of a garden and feed the Spring & Summer 2023 wildflower project. This will also allow bee and a variety of insect life to flourish, broadening the girls exposure to the range of biodiversity a small patch of wilderness can support.
For National Tree Week 2022 Chapel Hill hosted a one day event of demonstrations, exhibitions, talks and native tree planting with local native tree specialist Ted Cook. Three native Irish shrubs were planted, a silver birch, a downy birch and spindle tree that are appropriate for the walled garden and the surrounding historic architecture. With Chapel Hill oversight the students will source three native shrubs for National Tree Week Celebrations in March 2023 and take a role in active stewardship of the garden. Our gratitude to the Heritage Council team for the donation of native shrubs to the attendees of our National Tree Week celebration.
Increased creative opportunities
The Creative Horticulture Project has expanded its reach into other aspects of garden management. Ms. De La Cour, the second St. Marys teacher involved in the project, is coordinating the school composting programme. A tumbling compost bin was purchased for this project. 1st Years collect food waste in buckets each day from each classroom. All this free fertiliser will be used in the raised beds along with lawn cuttings and leaves. The Art school kitchen also contributes. Cork Creative Youth Partnership has supported the purchase of garden tools, hoes, spades, forks etc and two miniature polytunnels for the raised beds to furnish early winter and spring cultivation of summer plants and flowers.
In November the students planted carrots, beetroot and broccoli in trays to be put into the newly acquired mini polytunnels to allow the seeds to germinate over the next few weeks. Once their plants have grown sufficiently in the trays, they will be transplanted to the raised beds in the walled garden underneath the miniature polytunnels in January. The students will water the plants each day from water harvested from the roof of the school. Once the weather warms in late spring, the mini polytunnels will be removed to allow nature to water the plants and the long days to provide enough light to the growing area.
Creativity will also be harnessed in a contemporary sense through the students use of Digital Media into 2023. The St. Marys 1st Years and the TY PR team will use Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Youtube to showcase their work and provide tutorials on how to grow your own at home #EveryLittleCounts. The students will also prepare a podcast on their ‘Growing your own veg journey’, as the growing season dictates.
The creative Horticulture Youth in Bloom project expanded its informal learning reach with two one day workshops catering to 50 - 60 students each day. A Wild Tree Weaving workshop was facilitated by Sonia Caldwell of Kilcoe Studios. Sonia led three groups of 13 to 15 year olds. Students learned about the malleable capabilities of willow, birch, ivy and hazel by weaving each material into a large panel. The wild tree panels were planned to weave into a garden arch in the walled garden , unfortunately early December brought freezing temperatures and rock like ground so it became impossible to securely construct the garden arch. The panels were fastened to fencing outside the students class room within the grounds of Chapel Hill so the girls can appreciate the outcome of their creative day with Youth in Bloom.
As well as funding a Wild Tree Weaving workshop with Kilcoe Studios Chapel Hill school coordinator and ceramic artist Bernadette Tuite expanded the creative horticulture program by facilitating a botanical ceramic tile making workshop with the students in early December. Using found materials from the garden the students were given a brief demonstration and encouraged to use the shown techniques in a free flow manner. Conversation and creative exchange was encouraged with an emphasis on enjoying the creative process, recognising the leaves and branches used, as opposed to a targeted outcome for the workshop. Each student created her response to the found materials and her experience with working in the garden. The girls produced tiles demonstrating a range of interpretations from leave imprints, bark texture, landscape drawings on the tile to buzzing bees enjoying the sun.
December 2022 Chapel Hill School of Art has facilitated
Creative Horticulture To encourage informal learning we have granted permission to the students to use the raised beds in the walled garden once used by the former resident Mercy Sisters to grow fruit and vegetables. The project began with the students preparing the soil for sowing, learning to maintaining it to keep it weed free, to have it ready to sow, grow and prepare for harvesting the fruits of their new found growing skills as the growing season progresses.
Botanical Tile Making Workshop on December 6th with Chapel Hill School of Art programme coordinator and ceramic artist Bernadette Tuite.
A celebratory event for disabled children and Special Needs Teacher Training creative trainees on 10th December filmed by the Film Catherine Hol
Wild Tree Weaving with Sonia Caldwell of Kilcoe studios. Sonia will introduced the students to an informal learning opportunity to work together in groups to weave a garden arch with willow, hazel, ivy and birch and found materials from our nearby woodland.
Youth Film Making Workshops. The six film making workshops in collaboration with Youth Reach Macroom and Catherine Hol of Cork Film Centre have resulted in a 6 minute film entitled ’Gone Wrong’. The film was set on location at Chapel Hill. The historic surroundings inspired parts of the creative process of the film. The students succeeded in writing, filming, editing, directing and producing their very successful film. ‘Gone Wrong’ has been submitted to First Cut Youth Film Competition hosted in Youghal Co. Cork, March 8th to 11th, 2023.
