Welcome to our Nature Website

Engage with Nature is a dynamic school and garden website designed and managed by Dúlra Éireann that will assist teachers, students and gardeners in creating a sustainable environment and combating climate change.

ALL OUR RESOURCES

About engaging with nature

Engage with Nature website will make available month by month instructions and resources for working with the seasons by cultivating school gardens; creating habitats; exploring the environment and understanding our place in it.  It is by learning to love the natural environment that pupils can be persuaded to change practice and to motivate the adults in their lives to do the same.  It is also the key to personal wellbeing and to promoting positive climate change action.

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Sustainable Development in Schools

Twenty videos highlighting Sustainable Development projects in schools will be created with support funding provided by the Department of Education.
These videos have been created by Dúlra Éireann.

Dept of Education

★★★★★

Between 2023 and 2025, twenty school videos will be created on Sustainable Development.

  • 20 school gardens throughtout Ireland
  • Involvement of primary school children
  • Practical ways of working with nature
View videos

Biodiversity in Schools

Ten videos highlighting Biodiversity projects in schools will be created with support funding provided by the Department of Education.
These videos have been created by Dúlra Éireann.

Dept of Education

★★★★★

Between 2024 and 2025, ten school videos will be created on Biodiversity.

  • 10 school gardens throughtout Ireland
  • Involvement of primary school children
  • Practical ways of working with nature
View videos

Meet the Team

Paddy Madden

Environmentalist, author and video presenter.

Eamon O Murchu

Photographer and creator nature images.

Des Murtagh

Creator of videos and resources, website designer and professional genealogist.

Videos & Resources for each month

Here are over 60 videos and PDFs to help everyone create different aspects within school and home gardens at every stages throughout the year.  Additional videos is being added to every month. 

Check out resource material

Resources available in a number of nature based websites

Biodiversity in Schools

More information ….

Nature Detectives

More information ….

Open Air Laboratories

More information ….

Woodland Trust

More information ….

Burren Beo

More information ….

Country Classroom

More information ….

National Biodiversity Data Centre

More information ….

Useful website links for Engaging with Nature

Check the following websites …
Id charts on a wide spectrum of species
Nature activities month by month
Seasonal nature activities
Information on school nature projects
General information on all aspects of wildlife
General information on Irish wildlife

Check the following websites …
A month by month guide to Ireland’s wildflowers
Another month by month guide to Ireland’s wildflowers

Check the following websites …
Details on common birds/short videos of each species / recordings of their songs
Information on Irish birds
Participate in the garden bird survey
Information on Ireland’s natural heritage. Recording species

Check the following websites …
Garden4me
Heritage seeds, plants and fruit trees – Workshops
General information on Ireland’s natural heritage with emphasis on protecting it for future generations
Conservation of Ireland’s butterflies

Check the following websites …
Nature activities month by month/ School gardening
Information on school gardening
Information cards on all aspects of school gardening
New Irish website with information relevant to school gardening in Ireland plus gardening courses
Information on food, farming and the natural environment

Check the following websites …
General gardening advice – Videos
Gardening advice – Plants
No dig gardening

Check the following websites …
Id guide for Irish butterflies
Id guide for Ireland’s butterflies

Check the following websites ...
Information on Irish boglands. Frogs and frog survey

Check the following websites …
Rocks of Ireland

Check the following websites …
Information on Irish mammals
Information on Irish bats

Check the following websites …
Videos on sowing and harvesting of vegetables. Garden supplies
Seeds, books, courses, monthly newsletters with organic gardener, Klaus Laitenberger
Organic seeds
Organic vegetable seeds, courses on organic gardening
Articles on all aspects of gardening by Fionnuala Fallon
Advice on growing vegetables, courses, supplies, recipes

Hands-on activities in the garden for parents and children to do together

A light box ensures that seedlings do not become stretched, thin and weak as they seek light.  Weak seedlings do not grow into strong plants.  When the light box is constructed place a tray in the bottom for the pots of seeds.  Position it on a table facing the window – video/….

Make bio-degradable pots using the cardboard tubes from paper kitchen towels.  These can be filled with peat-free compost for sowing mangetout peas or ordinary peas in them and using a light box to make sure that their seedlings don’t get stringy and weak. The cardboard containers save on plastic use and biodegrade in the ground naturally –  video/….

Ordinary peas are easy to grow.  They can be sown indoors now in an old gutter pipe or window box.  Kelvedon Wonder is a good choice.  The contents of the gutter pipe can be later transferred to a raised bed.  If you don’t have a raised bed sow the peas indoors in a window box filled with peat-free potting compost.  Move it outdoors in April – video/….

Mangetout or sugar snap peas are very easy to grow and of course are delicious to eat and very nutritious.  Start them off indoors in pots using a light box to ensure that they don’t get stringy.  Plant them outside in a bag of compost or raised bed in April after constructing a wigwam for the peas to scramble upwards on – video/….

The days are lengthening, the soil is warming up, the restrictions are narrowing everyone’s world. In these worst of times it can be the best of times to engage children with gardening and the outdoors, even if that outdoors has a limited horizon. Following are simple and fulfilling gardening tasks to engage even the most reluctant of gardeners. 
1. Task: Sow peas in a window box
2. Task: Sow spring onions or scallions in a milk carton
3. Task: Grow marrowfat peas

Sprout early potatoes indoors for a few weeks at this time of the year to get them off to a head-start.  The ground outside is often too cold for planting them into it.  When the sprouts are about 2.5cm high plant them into a bed or a bag –  video/….

Grow new potatoes in a hessian sack or a container.  Many people don’t have access to a garden with raised beds.  This shouldn’t prevent anyone from not growing these delicious vegetables, however. Hessian bags or plastic bags such as the ones used in stores such as Ikea are ideal for growing early potatoes – video/….

If you have a raised bed you can sow the potatoes directly into the bed now, but it is better to get them off to a head-start first by sprouting or chitting them indoors. Watch out for frost which can kill emerging stalks. Cover with horticultural fleece or old newspapers if frost threatens at night – video/….

It is a very interesting activity to sow carrots in a dustbin or in a tall pot. Carrots are easy to grow but it’s important to remember that the tiny seeds won’t germinate in soil temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius. Also, the carrot root-fly likes to lay her eggs in the young carrots and the grubs that emerge later can destroy your crop – video/….

Contact Us

Thank you for visiting our website. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions as to how we can be of service to you and the environment.