The PULCHRA students of Kingswood Community College, Dublin, Ireland want to increase biodiversity and replenish the outdoor space around their school as part of City Challenge 3 – Regenerating Urban Space to Connect People in a Healthy Environment.
The newly built school is currently surrounded by urban infrastructure with little green-space and biodiversity, this provides an opportunity to design and develop a new outdoor space with green space and biodiversity in mind.
The PULCHRA students are aiming to:
Plant native Irish trees as part of an outdoor classroom
Plant bulbs and seeds at the entrance to the school to establish new habitats for life but also increase the sense of well-being for the school community
The school has purchased a polytunnel and the PULCHRA students would like to build some raised planting-beds to grow some vegetables and herbs
Establish a wildflower garden as this would attract pollinators as well as build some bug hotels and bird feeders.
The Kingswood CC PULCHRA team has engaged with stakeholders including meeting with Litter Mugs and Horticulturist Francis Fitzgerald to discuss where to plant the wildflower garden. The team will meet with LEAF Ireland in January 2022 to explore more planting opportunities. Teacher Una Buggy, stresses the importance of stakeholders to the PULCHRA project, stakeholders provide expert knowledge and support for successful implementation of the project.
According to PULCHRA teacher, Una Buggy, Kingswood CC students ‘have already benefited from the PULCHRA project work….and are much better as a group kinesthetically, they love the responsibility of looking after their projects. LCA students have commented that Agriculture/ horticulture is their favorite subject as they are constantly planting and exploring new ideas‘
