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5 Books For A Little January Garden Inspiration

garden inspiration books

I don’t really do or buy the off the shelf garden design type books. I find many of them bore me very quickly. It’s not their fault. Or mine. I’m aware I maybe think a little outside of the box. An odd fish in that department maybe, but I’ve seen and done most or all of that contained within before.

In my own library I love the old books that I own. The very old, that I bought second hand for £3 when I first finished my horticultural studies. I find them a little like reading turn of the previous century romantic Irish poetry, translated photosynthetically. Or at least that’s how I see it. Maybe it’s because one couldn’t go to college, in them days, come straight out the far side and say, for I am a garden designer. Instead, one had to earn their stripes.

To the point, this is not a review of any of these 5 books. They are but 5 that I browsed through and chose, from of a possible 80 or so. To clarify, one won’t find a full free garden design and planting plan from any of these. If on the other hand your brain can actually picture a cow jumping over the moon, then they are right up your and my alley and you will take something from them.

And how that, whatever it maybe, is made or created is always part 2 of the equation. You get where I’m coming from… A little like the bird feeder, made from an exhaust pipe. See image below.

All of the books a by the way are available from my local Fingal library in Swords.

  • Outdoor Design Paving – Clarc Matthews
  • Bunny Guinness – Garden workshop
  • Making Garden Furniture From Wood – Anthony Honitor
  • Junk Genius – Juliette Goggin and Stacy Kirk
  • Recycled Home – Mark and Sally Bailey

Further reading:

red bird feeder

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Primary School Class To Sell Their Own Veg

You may remember some months back, Fingal Libraries asked me to come up with and teach a 6 part gardening course to [including] Dan’s 5th class in the Educate Together School, Balbriggan.

Not only did class teacher Dan take it a stage further by organising the building of a garden for the class, in his and my spare time, but now he is to the point were the class produce is to be sold at the schools local Balbriggan Market, this coming Friday.

That mildly to one side, what I omitted from the audio above is that Dan also used the gardening class as the basis for their entry into the young scientists exhibition. Quite inspirational when you think about it. Also and still the best thank you card I have ever received 😉

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Peter Donegan – Upcoming Garden Talks

peter donegan, garden talks

Clontarf District and Gardening Society – Soils and Aspect

Balbriggan Educate Together School – Green Gardening Certificate

  • Tuesday 29th November 9.45am
  • Final session and Presentation of Adventures in Green Gardening Certificates [6 week course] to 5th class with The Lord Mayor of Fingal at Balbriggan Library.

Fingal Libraries – Wintery Gardens

More information:

– or – Contact Peter Donegan

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Fingal Independent – November 22nd

This article appeared in The Fingal Independent Tuesday 22nd November 2011:

Garden podcast puts Peter up for award

By JOHN MANNING

Tuesday November 22 2011

A BALLYBOUGHAL man is up for a national award for his Podcast that introduces the listener to the joys of gardening. Ace landscape gardner and community stalwart down Ballyboughal way is Peter Donegan and his popular podcast called The Sodshow is up for a national web award this year. Peter is the man behind Ballyboughal.net and a great champion of life in Ballyboughal as well as an enthusiastic promoter of all things green-fingered. He is an award winning landscape gardener and designer with Peter Donegan Landscaping and has had several eye-catching exhibits at the Bloom festival. Apart from imparting his gardening wisdom on the Podcast, Peter has had more face-to-face encounters with budding horticulturalists in Fingal classrooms over the last few weeks. Fingal Libraries in conjunction with Peter Donegan are hosting a series of classes with primary school children to teach them the real facts of nature through October and November. The sessions cover topics such as gardening, water, the great outdoors, how plants make their own food and how we grow ours, fruit and vegetables, trees and flowers, making a living edible garden and staying green at home. The classes give the children the opportunity to get their hands dirty and do some planting themselves and at the same time have fun while exploring the natural world and biodiversity. The garden classes entitled, Adventures in Green Gardening, started Tuesday 16th October and run for six weeks. Even if you missed the classes, a list of books has been compiled by Peter Donegan and Fingal Libraries for children to read themselves and also a list of more detailed books for parents. All of the books are available from Fingal Libraries.

– JOHN MANNING

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Fingal Libraries/ Peter Donegan Schools Gardening Classes

fingal libraries gardening

Fingal Libraries in conjunction with gardener Peter Donegan are hosting a series of classes with primary school children to teach them the real facts of nature. The sessions will cover topics such as gardening, water, the great outdoors, how plants make their own food and how we grow ours, fruit and vegetables, trees and flowers, making a living edible garden and staying green at home.

These classes will give the children the opportunity to get their hands dirty and do some planting themselves and at the same time have fun while exploring the natural world and biodiversity.

The garden classes entitled, Adventures in Green Gardening, start Tuesday 16th October and will run for 6 weeks.

A list of books has been compiled by Peter Donegan and Fingal Libraries for the children to read themselves and also a list of more detailed books for parents. All of the books noted are available from Fingal Libraries.