The Garden of Eden Projects is an exciting scheme that involves the planting of community orchards and gardens. They have the expertise and the funding; they just need to find places to plant! Sound too good to be true? Then read on …
Imagine picking your plums and pears while you wait to collect the children from school, or on your walk home? That can be our future, and all we need to do is lay the foundations by planting some trees.
The Garden of Eden Projects was started by environmental consultant, Féidhlim Harty, to address some of the challenges facing us in these changing times. Instead of worrying about climate change and peak oil, food prices and social discord, the Garden of Eden Projects was set up to address, in a small, local and practical way, some of the many social and environmental challenges that face us in this new millennium.
What comes to mind when you picture the Garden of Eden? Fruit trees of all sorts, nut trees, fruit bushes, lush green leafy growth, a bounty of all manner of growing food. With a Garden of Eden Project, that is exactly what our communities can create in the grounds of our churches, schools and other community areas.
A quick look around at the environmental challenges we all face are confirmation that the first tenants have filled the Earth and multiplied just a little too efficiently for safety’s sake. Taking in the scale of the global environmental situation can be overwhelming and yet many of us feel compelled to do something constructive to address the challenge.
The Garden of Eden Project is designed to help you to bring a positive action-based solution to our global environmental situation right into the heart of your community. We all now know that in combination with reducing our own carbon footprint, we need to plant trees to act as a carbon sink to reduce the excesses of global warming.
The Garden of Eden Project originated as a two-fold approach to tackle climate change. Firstly, by helping people to grow trees with edible fruit, nuts and berries we contribute to locally grown food thus cutting down our food miles, helping to reduce our carbon footprint. Secondly, the extra trees act as a carbon sink, soaking up atmospheric carbon and assisting with the stabilisation of global climatic conditions.
What better place to start than in the gardens of our churches, schools and community spaces, bringing neighbours together and providing a community focus and a haven for wildlife. Imagine trees of fruit, nuts and berries filled with food each year, soaking up carbon for growth and providing a bountiful harvest for all.
If you know of any church, school or community area that would like to avail of up to 100% financial assistance to plant a Garden of Eden Project contact Féidhlim Harty at [email protected] or 065-6797355.
Eco-Congregation Ireland featured Garden of Eden Projects a few years back, looking at the work done in the Quaker Meeting House in Cork which was planted in 2007 (see here). Now the project is being opened up to the whole country and you are invited to start discussions with your local community and reach out for advice and financial assistance.
~ Féidhlim Harty May 2014
To find out more about the Garden of Eden Projects, click here.