St Eithne's Wildlife Garden

St Eithne's Wildlife Garden
The Story So Far
2008 - 2009













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This is what the garden looked like before work began on transforming it into a Wildlife Garden.

Ms Curry's Dad and Ms Heffernan's Dad helped out with the digging for the Native Hedgerow and the raised beds.





The girls in the after school 'Gardening Club' and the girls in both Ms Curry's class and Ms Heffernan's class kept the garden free from rubbish and weeds.



We planted sunflower seeds inside in the classrooms and, when they were big enough, we transferred them out into the garden. They grew so tall, even taller than John the Caretaker!! When we came back after the Summer holidays the sunflowers were starting to die so we left them in the garden for snails and other creepy crawlies to eat.

When we returned to school after the Christmas holidays there was a lot of work to do in the garden. In February, the garden got a complete makeover when Andrew Fleming (The Education Officer with the Wildlife Trust) and volunteers from a local company called Experian located in Northern Cross Business Park helped with heavy digging and the installation of the pond, among other jobs. Ms Curry had drawn a plan for the garden and it looks very like it now in real life. Thank you to all the volunteers!


Work done so far

The Wildlife Pond has been installed and soon we will be watching frog spawn growing and changing into frogs.

The Wild Meadow area has been dug and the seeds have been sown so watch out for the colourful wildflowers and grasses over the next few months. Rebecca Wall in 5^th Class and Abigail Smith in 3rd Class gave the idea for the shape of the meadow patch in a competition. Well done girls.

Shrubs and trees have been relocated to make room for our Wildflower Patch and our Butterfly Garden.

Before

During

After

This special Creepy Crawly Area with log piles and insect houses is a new home for lots of wonderful insects and creepy crawlies just waiting for us to examine them. This is where 4th Class have started to plant our Butterfly Patch.

A new bird table and bird feeding poles are part of our Bird Feeding Station.

There are six raised beds in the garden in which classes can plant fruit and vegetables. 5th Class did great work painting the beds in bright colours.

Fruit bushes have been planted too so keep an eye out for some yummy fruit.

2nd Class had fun planting herbs in the Herb Patch. Lavender, Lemon Balm, Rosemary and Parsley were planted. The girls loved the smells from the herbs. More herbs will be planted after Easter.

Funding so far:

St. Eithne's Parents' Association were very generous in donating 300 euro towards the garden.

Woodies DIY in Coolock were also very generous in giving 100 euro worth of tools and garden supplies.

Heritage Council of Ireland have given a grant of 1,000 euro which will be given when the garden is completed.

All donations are extremely welcome and worthwhile as can be seen from the photographs. Look out for a chance to 'Sponsor An Area' which will be available soon.

The Tadpoles Arrive!

Today was so exciting...not only was it the day of our Easter holidays but it was also the day that the tadpoles arrived and were put into our garden pond. Andrew Fleming (Mouse) brought the tadpoles to the garden and 2nd Class, 3rd Class and Ms Heffernan's girls put the tadpoles into the pond using a strainer, while the rest of the school watched during yard time.

Some of the girls named their tadpoles (I wonder if they will know them when they are frogs!!). We are not sure how many tadpoles we put into the pond but we are looking forward to lots of them making it to become big frogs. They have a long journey of about 12 weeks to get through first. There are also some other creatures in the pond like Water Snails and Beetles. We put some pond plants in so that the tadpoles can hide from other hungry creatures.

Bird's Nest in the Garden

John the Caretaker found this bird nest in one of the shrub bushes near the garden. It is a blackbird nest and has four eggs. John keeps an eye on the eggs and will let us know if any of them hatch out.