Biodiversity

This year we have made a huge effort with our biodiversity efforts. We are very fortunate that we have a garden on our grounds and we wanted to make the most of it. Listing below some of the efforts we have made to improve our gardens biodiversity

• We have expert advice given by the National Biodiversity plan
• With this plan we created a new planting policy in the garden. Planting only pollinator friendly plants sourced from Irish nursery’s and Irish grown, non-invasive plants.
• We planted wild flower seed
• We did not mow the lawns between April until the end of June.
• We did not use any pesticides or weed killer
• We did not water the plants only with water gathered from our water onsite.
• We used our own mulch to protect our beds that was gathered from dead wooding our trees. This was also done to protect our beautiful trees from harm and rot.
• We created our own compost heap to help continue the life cycle of plants in the garden
• We created our own green house, located in a disused bedroom, the tower suite to grow flowers from seed as a learning experience for staff. We think we had the highest green house in Dublin!

Protecting our Wildlife
Protecting the local animals and birds was fore front to our biodiversity action plan. We wanted to get expert advice so we asked for birdwatch Ireland co-founder Niall Hatch to meet with our green team. He walked through the space and made recommendations.

• We had Niall Hatch visit us to discuss ways of improving the garden as a habitat for local animals and birds
• We cleared an unused area behind the hedging to create further beds and vegetable patch
• We left a lot of undergrowth and scrap land specifically for the animals such as hedgehogs, foxes, insects, and birds to continue to use this as protection in such a manicured suborn area.
• We also ordered from Birdwatch Ireland a selection of birdhouses that are specific to each bird. We especially wanted to include a bird house for the endangered Swift

Conservation of Wildlife and Biodiversity
Here are the ways in which we are protecting and conserving wild life.

• Keeping our gardens pesticide free
• Keeping areas in our gardens suitable for animals such as leaving undergrowth
• Not watering the garden relying on natural rain fall
• Continued local and beach cleans to keep local environment clean and suitable for wildlife
• Installation of swift boxes to help stem the decline of the swift population in Ireland