The Butler Community Centre in St John's Park is running a course to help people grow a garden in an urban area.

The people of St John's Park fundraised for the building of the centre over 35 years ago. It's mostly used for sport, classes and other community activities.

There's a considerably sized green space at the back of the Butler Community Centre. Manager Anne Grogan told Maria on The Saturday Cafe that she was inspired to do something with it, after visiting a community garden off Barrack Street in Waterford called "Top of the City," built by Justyna Traore.

Among the plans for the green space at the Butler Community Centre is the cultivation of a native orchard,  created in conjunction with WIT, as well as a community garden featuring raised beds.

Course starting at Butler Community Centre late January

The WWETB has given the centre a grant to start a free six course, "Creating a Community Garden in an Urban Setting," which will show people how to design a garden, including building raised beds, selecting plants, garden maintenance and development, minimising food waste, and composting.

The course begins on the 26th of January and on The Saturday Cafe Anne put out a call for people to attend the free course on Wednesday mornings. If you're interested, you're asked to contact the Butler Community Centre in advance. There are ten places available in total, and five of those places are already filled, but if you're interested in the garden at all you can contact 051 876907, and leave contact details for Anne. You can also email [email protected]

Have a listen back to Anne's chat with Maria through the link in this podcast.

For all Saturday Cafe podcasts, click here.