Bloom 2013, successful crowd sourcing through social media

4 different skills on site during Bloom garden set up. 

I've been trying to remember how I offered to help The Community Garden Network and their project for Bloom? +Dee Sewell do you recall it?
I had just finished a yarn bomb with The Women of the World group in Arklow, County Wicklow. It was one of those things I saw being tweeted and the word yarn bomb, I knew it was something I could help with. My sense was Dee and Sandra Austin the designer would have enough on their plates organising the planting and project managing a garden to show level at Bloom.
If my seems a little left of field its not...I worked for the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland in the early 2000's. The local horticultural society was an integral part of our family home when I was growing up. For the last 4 years I have been the vegetable judge at the annual Bunclody Horticultural Society Show. Plus in my own socially engaged practice I have a strand I refer to as Muck and Magic, working with earth based science, maths, communication  involvement and art with children, most recently using that approach in create Better Space.
So after getting a nod from The Community Garden Network I went to twitter and tweeted
 +Stitch Lily +Irene Lundgaard @LoretInStitches starting a conversation about supporting @CommunityGrdns. We had been having a virtual conversations about fibre, yarn, crochet, knitting, felting and yarn bombing. All of them had expressed an interest in what I was doing in Arklow and I had connected further than a couple of tweets with them. In the end Irene was busy on a commissions but with the school on board and Orla I knew we'd be all set.
Dee and Sandra were busy organising the garden so there was some time lapse before I got my head around what they really wanted. It made me love the project even more and as I added the date of the 28th May to my diary I knew it would be something to look forward to.

The title of the garden is “All Part of the Pattern”.

Theme: Community gardens knit together individuals to form communities; combating isolation, food poverty and waste. We are all – however different – part of the pattern of our community.
Primary message: A Postcard Garden reflecting the ideals and focus of community gardening in Ireland – social inclusion,improved nutrition, building community, sharing skills and knowledge. Community gardens knit together individuals to form communities; combating isolation, food poverty and waste. We are all – however different – part of the pattern of our community.
The lone tree could be isolated, but the yarn bombing (covering the tree with pieces of knitted material) is representative of social inclusion – the individual knitted pieces come together around the tree and the garden tools. The garden fork and trug are also partly yarn bombed – this ties in the work with the social aspect.
The yarn bombing also represents the wide range of other activities that community gardens host – it's not just about the gardening! Each knitted piece is contributed by community gardeners from around the country. Each piece is unique (like our member gardens) but they share a common purpose, and together make something beautiful.

Well it certainly lived up to the brief... have you seen it at Bloom - what did you think of it? 

Considering there was NO budget Dee and Sandra have delivered an astonishing job which is testament to their network, the power of social media and the community they surround themselves with. Crowd sourcing is a key part to their All part of the Pattern postcard show garden at Bloom. People often talk about the return of investment with social media. Well here it is demonstrated. I've watch +Dee Sewell build her Greenside Up business, communicate, share and support through social media, her community garden projects and network. She sent out a tweet and people showed up because she had already invested in her relationships and connections to others. So honouring those connections I'm giving a shout out to businesses that are willing to show up. Thank you it made my showing up easy.

Base frame made and delivered by  PatchworkVeg

  The frame was made and donated by@patchworkveg  http://patchworkveg.com/

Vegetable plants from Hennessy Nurseries, Limerick 

Amazing plants offered, grown from seed and transported by Hennessys Nurseries, on twitter @HennessysVeg all other contact details here. I have to say the quality of the plants delivered was exceptional. A wonderful mix of Rainbow Chard, mixed salad, cabbage, kohlrabi, red kale,sweetcorn, broad beans, potatoes, beetroot, carrots, strawberries and a camomile lawn that was wonderfully lush and deeply fragrant.

I loved the planting in the show garden. It was dense and tight (we all understand that you would never plant like this in your garden maybe for square foot gardening but this is a show garden). I loved how the texture of the vegetables mingled. Green is not just green and with the light moving around the site it highlighted different plants in different ways. Combined densely planted the effect was amazing. The red kale I particularly loved the colour of and the stripes in the long leafed corn.

Dee working away on getting the planting in during the build day.

Caragh Nurseries sent the apple tree which gave great height and dimension to the garden. It was pivotal to the overall concept and my involvement. Follow them on twitter @CaraghNurseries. The tree was the canvas for the yarn bombing and to hang the twitter bird from +Stitch Lily

Orla Breslin, +Stitch Lily twitter birdie © 2013

What a beautiful and astonishing piece of work, when I opened the packaging it came in I was struck by its beauty and craftsmanship. I had asked Orla to make a twitter bird specifically not giving her any other instructions she sent two. The other one in the Amigurumi style

Twitter birdie ii, fabulously made by +Stitch Lily 

Both of these birds show Orla Breslin to be a diverse fibre artist, I think they would be a great presentation gift for social media awards or Twitteratti celebrations! Big thanks to Orla for the shout out and thanks for making them, for the shout out on on the Wolly Way blog, we know you were there in spirit.

Twitter birdie flying over the CGN Bloom Show Garden.

Gently swaying in the wind add another dimension

+Stitch Lily is an artist maker and is also involved in community and craft work at festivals. She has developed an amazing network of makers gathered together on her amazing blog The Wolly Way on everything crafty in Ireland. I also have gotten to know her through social media. She is based in Dingle Co. Kerry so we don't get to see each other much but continue to connect via social media and chat on the phone. Orla is just back from an International Conference for young Lace makers held in Italy.

But where did all the knitting come from?