Ballina Karen Community Green Garden

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Ballina Karen Community Green Garden Volunteers meet for two hours twice a week from 6 to 8pm on Tuesday evening and from 11am to 1pm on Friday morning. We grow a huge range of flowers.

We have about 16 regular volunteers of all ages, both men and women. People can come as often as they like or just pay the occasional visit. We grow a huge range of herbs, vegetables and fruit, all the common ones and such things as grapes, peaches, yakkon, oca, artichokes. We are as organic as possible using our own compost and we make our own liquid fertiliser. We always try and use best practice in the interest of the environment. This year we are installing two beehives and training people in beekeeping. Entry to the garden is by the college gate and turn left before the main door. There is ample parking. In 2014 we were placed 1st in the Tidy Towns Competition under Sustainable Development and won €1,000. It is also a great social occasion as the last half hour is spent having tea, pizza, cake or whatever. We have our own cooking facilities including a hob oven and many of our members are excellent cooks. We are always on the lookout for new volunteers. No experience necessary.

To bring brightness and colour into this wet Bank holiday Saturday, here is the last of Ballina Karen Community Green G...
24/10/2026

To bring brightness and colour into this wet Bank holiday Saturday, here is the last of Ballina Karen Community Green Garden's sunflowers displayed with fennel seed heads.

Take care

Wishing our very dedicated talented volunteers and social media followers a very Happy Bank Holiday.Let's hope the Storm...
23/10/2026

Wishing our very dedicated talented volunteers and social media followers a very Happy Bank Holiday.

Let's hope the Storm will not do too much damage.

Some flower vase displays to brighten your weekend.

Photo 1
Sunflowers.

Photo 2
Amaranth, dahlia and cosmos and persicaria.

Photo 3
Amaranth, dahlia and persicaria.

We Ballina Karen Community Green Garden were delighted to welcome the lovely pupils from Templemary National school alon...
23/10/2026

We Ballina Karen Community Green Garden were delighted to welcome the lovely pupils from Templemary National school along with their great teachers to a demo .. learning how to set Spring bulbs in our community garden.
They had a great morning setting many varieties of bulbs in plots, harvesting runner beans and taking down the bean willow wigwam supports, picking juicy red apples and cleaning our Hares Corner wildlife pond of duckweed, sampling many types of herbs from our herb wheel .. pineapple sage, French tarragon, oregano and many varieties of mint and of course getting some treats for their hard work.
We gifted them nice containers of various varieties of spring bulbs and some conkers to set at school and bring their horticultural learning back to the classroom.
They are very welcome to visit us again in Springtime to see the bulbs they set today in full bloom.

Ballina Karen Community Green Garden hosted two wonderful Climate Action talks/demonstrations yesterday. Thank you Kar...
10/10/2026

Ballina Karen Community Green Garden hosted two wonderful Climate Action talks/demonstrations yesterday.

Thank you Karen Kennedy Climate Action Dept, Mayo County Council for funding this event as part of Climate Action Week.

We were overjoyed to host our Climate Action Willow Weaving demonstration in our brand new polycarbonate tunnel which was just delivered and erected late Monday evening.
Special thanks to Lorna Dennehy, Climate Action Officer for all your support in making this wonderful growing space a reality. We really look forward to creating a tunnel full of produce throughout the year and experimenting with lots of different of plants and flowers.

We had a super speedy job in getting our new tunnel venue ready as rain was on the horizon for event timing.. Red and green Mayo bunting proudly hung up, the handmade benches which our very talented carpenter and fabulous,very long serving volunteer Joe Langan crafted years ago, were repainted by Jose Riveria, our wonderful young volunteer from Costa Rica and set up and hi presto we were ready to roll.

Tom Delaney, , Master Willow weaver, delivered a superb basket weaving demonstration from willow, we will now have this hand crafted uniquely designed basket in our garden for showcasing and displaying our produce as the seasons unfold and deliver various bountiful harvests.

We have Willow growing at our garden and we learned lots about growing and harvesting willow from Tom, who is an absolute fountain of knowledge in all the willow varieties and explained brilliant growing and harvesting techniques. He entertained our visitors and volunteers with stories of the historic traditions of basket making in Ireland and his own family's deep immersion and great gra for basket weaving over many generations . We have learned skills to help design and create our own structures and ornamental willow displays going forward

Michael Clohessy and Gerard Joyce, our wonderful garden volunteers gave a lovely talk on growing comfrey, harvesting comfrey and listed its many uses and took Q & A's.
Comfrey is the only organic fertiliser we use within the garden.

We enjoyed delicious pizza cooked by Peter Hughes, our Master Chef slaving over our straw cob oven and kindly assisted by Jo Khaing and Kwa Ktoo , our dedicated Karen Community volunteers and after Tom's demo, everyone was treated to lots of delicious homemade baking .. German Apple Cake by Kathleen, Pavlova filled with garden raspberries and red currants and blackberries, , pear bread and butter pudding, apple jelly by Bridie, green tomato chutney and cheese scones by Shirley .. gluten free scones with blackcurrant jam by Mary, .. all produce from our garden. Thanks Barbara, one of our lovely attendees for gifting a fabulous tea brack.

Thanks to Hilda who volunteered with Mayo Volunteer Centre. We really appreciate your generosity in giving up your valuable time to help us ensure our garden event ran smoothly.

Our lovely visitors enjoyed this Climate Action week event and gave very positive feedback on both the Willow weaving and comfrey demonstrations.

Thanks again to Mayo County Council and we were trilled to welcome Anne Roynane, MCC she enjoyed meeting our very loyal volunteers who tend lovingly to this oasis of calm year round and also chatting to our attendees and sharing horticultural stories and hints and tips.

We are delighted to have had the opportunity to host and deliver this Climate Action Week initiative and all attendees brought home lots of learning, horticultural advice and nuggets of wisdom learned by our own volunteers over the years to use at home and share in their own wider community.

Ballina Karen Community Green Garden is hosting aCLIMATE ACTION EVENT including growing and harvesting talk.Our volun...
06/10/2026

Ballina Karen Community Green Garden is hosting a

CLIMATE ACTION EVENT

including

growing and harvesting talk.
Our volunteers will show comfrey plants growing in our community garden, how to harvest comfrey and then make comfrey organic tea fertiliser and it's uses.

and

Weaving demonstration by Tom Delaney, Ould Crafty

Date Friday, 9th October
Time: 11 to 1.00.

This is funded by Mayo County Council as part of National Climate Action Week 2026.

As this event is a Climate Action initiative we would really appreciate , if attendees could walk from town to our garden, though only if possible and convenient for them.
Refreshments will be served, please if possible bring your own keep cup.

Ballina Karen Community Green Garden had lots of dedicated volunteers turn up this morning despite the torrential rain...
02/10/2026

Ballina Karen Community Green Garden had lots of dedicated volunteers turn up this morning despite the torrential rain.

We cleared out the spent dwarf runner beans and sweet corn plants in the polytunnel and tidied up the bamboo and willow canes for reusing again next year, the strings and other horticultural items used in the polytunnel were cleaned and put away for recycling again next year.

We dug in and smoothly raked the newly added organic compost into the beds in readiness for setting pak Choi, winter leaf salads, beetroots and spinach.

The rain water harvesters were really overflowing after the long downpours and we enjoyed watching it wildly bubbling upwards as we settled down indoors to refreshments and homemade apple, raspberry and blackberry crumble and gorgeous homemade oat and nut cookies and we planned activities and presentations for forthcoming exciting events.

We harvested raspberries, windfall apples and cabbages and sweet corn, chilli and broad beans.

Photos 1,2,3,4
Different varieties of cucumbers and butter melon.

Photo 5
Chinese gooseberry
Photo 6
Pears kindly donated by our garden friend, Rosaleen
Photo 7
Wild mushrooms
Photo 8,9
Home made green tomato chutneys kindly made by Shirley, our lovely volunteer to share with garden volunteers.
Photo 10
A variety of jams and elderflower cordial made by Catherine, our garden volunteer.

Ballina Karen Community Green Garden met up this morning despite the constant rain and we undertook lots of necessary...
22/09/2026

Ballina Karen Community Green Garden met up this morning despite the constant rain and we undertook lots of necessary autumnal horticultural tasks.

We, as a Meitheal of nine volunteers tackled sorting out our polytunnel in readiness of setting our winter crops.
We picked all the red tomatoes to share amongst volunteers and saved all green tomatoes and Shirley is going to make chutney to use them up to share with us all. Welcome back Shirley.
We pulled up all the spent tomato plants and put them in compost heaps.

We fertilized the purple basil, green basil, chilli, peppers and coriander and marigolds, cucumbers and pak Choi and dwarf runner beans and sweet corn. We saved the seeds of coriander for setting later.

We recycled and saved the twine and clips used to train the tomatoes during the growing season for reusing on next year's crops. We had a very successful and great bountiful harvest of many varieties of tomatoes all through the harvesting season and they were shared amongst working volunteers.

The bamboo and willow canes were tidied up and taken away to store over winter.
We teased out spent tomato roots from compost and reused the good seed compost by returning it back to new winter poytunnel beds.

We propagated hot lips slips and fuchsia slips and strawberries and bronze fennel to grow on over the next season.

We cleared the polytunnel of any obstacles around the pathways to comply with good health and safety practices.

We had refreshments and lots of homemade treats with organic produce from the garden and we wished Maria, our lovely volunteer from Costa Rica the very best as she returns home to continue studying medicine. Thanks, Maria for all your valuable help and friendship within our garden community since you joined us. Marie's Mum and brother will continue volunteering in our Karen garden whilst they continue to live in Ballina.

Photo 1,2

Kathleen, our dedicated volunteer checking out the sweet corn husks ripeness of course our Helen, in background .. one of this year's kind new volunteers clearing spent tomato plants for shredding into compost bays.

Photo 3.
Andreas, our lovely volunteer from Bavaria tidying up and collecting the Hazel and Bamboo canes to store away over winter surrounded by cleared beds and Mayo bunting.

Lovely day at Ballina Karen Community Green Garden on Friday.Planning and prepping ground for our new polycarbonate poly...
13/09/2026

Lovely day at Ballina Karen Community Green Garden on Friday.

Planning and prepping ground for our new polycarbonate polytunnel and hydroponic tables which are funded by Climate Action Dept. Mayo County Council. Thanks Lorna Dennehy, Climate Action Officer for all your tremendous help and patience during the application process. We are delighted to be awarded this grant which will be so beneficial within our garden and we look forward to growing lots more varieties and types of lovely garden produce.

We harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, raspberries, apples and herbs and courgettes and onions and cabbages and kale and brocholli and green beans for sharing with our year round dedicated volunteers.

We saved seeds of Granny's bonnet, delphinium and marigold and sunflowers and Maltese cross and mallow.

We at Ballina Karen Community Green Garden had a lovely productive day at our community garden on Tuesday.We were deligh...
10/09/2026

We at Ballina Karen Community Green Garden had a lovely productive day at our community garden on Tuesday.

We were delighted to welcome back Maria and her Mum from Costa Rica and Andreas from Bavaria who did lots of horticultural jobs around the plots and then enjoyed refreshments and a lovely carrot cake Maria gifted us for teatime after our volunteering session. They really enjoyed hearing tall tales and sceals of long gone bygone days from our wonderful historians , Joe and John and Peter of the many traditional Ballina independent shops and pubs and their own unique individual
wondrous adventures working around town and the great characters who owned these family businesses, many , decades before Environmental Health Officers inspected food premises and the owners had to adhere to strict health and safety regulations.

In the polytunnel we pruned and strung up tomatoes to avoid touching ground and rotting. We harvested many varieties of tomatoes and composted diseased/insect ridden tomatoes .
We harvested cucumbers and dwarf runner beans and basil and chillies. We were gifted red basil and pepper plants so they were set in polytunnel. All were watered and fed with comfrey fertiliser produced on site.

The volunteers had a meeting .. discussing and planning where we will locate our new polycarbonate polytunnel which will be funded by Climate Action funding from Mayo County Council . Thank you so much Lorna and team at Mayo County Council, Climate Action office.
We are delighted to have been awarded this funding and this will further greatly enhance our plans to be more even sustainable and grow a much wider variety of garden produce. The chosen site was readied by pulling weeds and levelling the ground and cutting back overgrown trees.

We harvested brocholli, carrots, kale and cabbages and apples to share among our terrific volunteers.

We welcomed Barbara and her doggie to a horticultural tour of the garden where we shared advice and tips.

Photo 2
Andreas

Photo 3
Jo Khaing

Photo 4
Jo Khaing
Andreas

Ballina Karen Community Green Garden had another great harvesting day this morning We harvested raspberries, apples, cou...
04/09/2026

Ballina Karen Community Green Garden had another great harvesting day this morning

We harvested raspberries, apples, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, runner beans and onions and the last of the potatoes which were shared with our many wonderful dedicated and visitors availing of our horticultural tour.

We dug over another patch of ground where the potatoes were dug up from and it's now ready to set winter green manure.

Andreas used an unused repurposed wire basket from a bicycle to clear the wildlife pond of duckweed, put the duckweed into containers which were placed on their sides so insects can return to the pond safely and after a while the duckweed and pond/garden debris can be put in our compost heap as it's very rich in nutrients.

Maria, our gorgeous volunteer from Costa Rica set onions and organized proprogation of hydrangeas, roses and fushia in large pots.

We enjoyed refreshments and homemade treacle bread with our terrific volunteers amid plenty of banter . Edel visited and brought recycled baskets for use within the garden along with her daughter Aoife who is heading off travelling to Australia shortly . Bon voyage Aoife.

We enjoyed time with Aidan and Stephen .. they picked apples and tomatoes and onions and Aidan cleared the footpaths of weeds.

Photo 1
Stephen

Photo 2
Aidan

Photo 3
Bridie McAndrew, Michael Clohessy and
Mary Feeney-Chirgwin

Photo 4
Jo Chai

Photo 5
Maria, from Costa Rica
Michael and Mary.

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