Wishes do come true – as coins pooled to make Bantry garden

COINS thrown into a sculptural pool in Glengarriff have been harvested and the €1,000 collected has been invested in creating a new garden experience for CoAction in Bantry.

Every summer, visitors to The Ewe Experience in Glengarriff make a wish while throwing a few coppers into the garden pool.

At the end of the season, the coins are collected, counted and donated to a local charity.

This year, these wishes amounted to an incredible €1,000. Sheena Wood and Kurt Lyndorff of The Ewe asked the design duo behind Two Green Shoots, Kloe Wood and Adam Carveth, to work with CoAction to craft a new outdoor space for the people it supports.

Throughout December, a polytunnel was transformed into a covered outdoor events and teaching space.

Old broken block beds were removed and instead a series of upcycled shopping trolley planters were installed which can be moved indoors or out depending on the weather.

‘We wanted to be able to move the plants to the people,’ said Kloe.

‘It was vital in the design to give the people an opportunity to get their hands stuck into the soil and work with plants.’

The trolley planters enable people who can’t access ground-level beds, or manoeuvre around conventional raised beds, the chance to enjoy the health and wellbeing benefits of gardening.’

The new garden experience at CoAction in Bantry has brought joy to everyone using it.

Perennial fruit crops and herbs were planted through the space to reduce maintenance while still providing harvests of delicious produce as well as colour and scent year-round.

A grapevine and cape gooseberry will also be trained up giant sculptural leaf trellis to create a jungle-like edible garden.

A long banqueting table now runs down the middle of the polytunnel made of old scaffolding boards and trestle legs allowing for the table to be raised or lowered to suit the needs of all users.

‘We are delighted,’ said Mairead Noonan an instructor at CoAction Bantry. ‘Now have a light, bright, sheltered space out of the wind and rain that’s still outdoors in the fresh air.

‘We look forward to using it for therapy sessions and events, as well as relaxing over lunch and picking the produce for our cooking workshops.’

Outside, the orchard was given some TLC by Adam Carveth of Two Green Shoots.

‘The trees needed a good rejuvenating prune, feed and mulch as well as the planting of some pollination partners,’ he said.

‘The people supported and staff should start to see the trees fruiting now and all going well get some harvests of apples to enjoy next Autumn.’

The local businesses who generously donated their time and or materials include Mike at COPMAC Scaffolding, SuperValu Bantry and Nobby and all the team at Outline Bantry, Future Forests, Noel and Paddy who cemented the floor, Mairead and Finbarr who did the preparation works, and Will Donaldson of Pengwin Industries.