Schools plant 8,000 daffodils

Published: Wed, 1 Feb 2012
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The pupils came from a number of local primary schools
Schools planting daffodils
Three hundred and fifty local school children recently teamed up with Radio Foyle’s resident gardener Gareth Austin, and the Housing Executive’s Social Education Project to plant 8,000 daffodils throughout their schools and communities.
The pupils were from number of local schools and represented a wide variety of age groups from Blighs Lane Nursery School and Pennyburn Playgroup to primary schools such as Holy Child, St Johns, Groarty, Holy Family, Gaelscoil Eadian Mhoir, Fountain, Good Shepherd, St Patricks and Belmont House.  The city’s teenagers were represented by pupils from St Peters High School and St Marys College.
Gareth Austin said: "Projects like this are great to be involved in.  The children are the gardeners of the future and love working within their own local areas.  It was great to have so many kids and schools involved in the project.  I can’t wait to see the daffs in full bloom this spring.”
Patrick Duddy, Housing Executive Social Education Officer added: “The project was fairly ambitious considering the time of year and the likely weather, but everyone involved got stuck in regardless and at one stage we had fourteen girls from St Marys sheltering from a hail storm in the back of Gareth’s transit van!  The teachers and the schools involved were a great help in organising each of the fifteen different planting sessions.”
Speaking at the joint planting event adjacent to the Holy Family Mens Group Allotment scheme, Billy Page from the Holy Family Mens Group said; “It’s great to see so many children here today.  This initiative has allowed local children to play their part in the development of this piece of land.  Over the past number of weeks this area has been transformed into a community facility which we can all take pride in.  The Housing Executive has played a huge role in this and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.”  
Kevin Campbell, Deputy Mayor and Triax Neighbourhood Management Team worker, who was part of the team that planted in Bishops Field Park concluded: “It was great to see so many children really taking ownership of the Park and putting so much of their own time and energy into the bulb planting.  It’ll be great in the spring when the kids can really see the impact the flowers they have planted will make.”