Photographs
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Photo 5
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In our youth club , Aontas Ogra , some of the members gathered
every Tuesday night for leadership training . This involved finding
out for ourselves through discussion what were the jobs, responsibilities
and duties of a leader . Through these discussions every Tuesday
night we found out that club members had a problem with commitment
. We were talking with one of our club leaders , Billy Browne
, trying to come up with ideas to make members become more dedicated
to their club .We came up with the idea of converting the disused
courtyard into a garden . The courtyard was very dirty and of
no use to anyone in that state .We drew up a plan and gathered
together a group of members to work on the garden .
Stage 1
The courtyard walls were painted with murals that had seen their
best days many years ago .We decided that it would be better to
powerwash the walls and ground before we started any painting
. We removed all the rubbish accumulated there from the time that
it had been in use .
Stage 2
After the walls had been prepared the group started painting them.
We decided to paint them white so that they would contrast with
the colour of the flowers when they were planted . The shed was
painted green , also as contrast .The simple task of painting
the courtyard in itself made a great difference to the look of
it , making the place a lot cleaner and more cheerful.
Stage 3
We had been given soil which had been placed outside the youthclub
and was becoming an eyesore and messy due to rain. The earth was
moved into the courtyard out of the way and where it could be
of use to us .
The original plan was that we would break through the concrete
and build flowerbeds from blocks . This however was abandoned
when one of our members came up with the idea of recycling old
tyres from a nearby garage and using them to plant flowers . We
collected a large number of tyres from the garage and proceeded
to place gravel in the bottom of them for drainage purposes and
placed soil on top of this .The tyres were placed around so that
they wouldn't be a nuisance to people coming in and out loosening
the soil .
Stage 4
One of the club members gave us some spare pieces of wood that
we were able to saw up to make flowerboxes which we could move
at our own convienience . These were also filled with soil .
Stage 5
When the plants were purchased a group of members planted them
into the flowerboxes and tyres . We were given two recycled barrels
which we were able to use as large flowerpots. We also used another
barrel to cover up the gas cylinder and were able to place a flowerbox
on top to make it look neater .
Stage 6
The final stage was to provide some benches so that our members
could sit and enjoy the atmosphere of the garden . Our first attempt
to do this was unsuccessful but we got it right on our second
attempt .The benches finished our project and our next club project
was to incorporate it's use into our club activities .
Conclusion;
The garden is now in full bloom and completely changed from the
dirty courtyard we had started with .We achieved our two aims
-
1. To decorate an unused area by ourselves and improve our environment.
2. To encourage our members to become more dedicated to the club
and it's activities .
The garden has now been used for many club nights including barbeques
and sing - a - longs . All those who worked on the project thought
it was worthwhile as it had converted an area which had been an
eyesore to a garden which is now in bloom .We plan on developing
the garden even further with our concentration on more flowers
and plants and allowing greater use of the facility to our members
.