Magheralin Church of Ireland has won a £100,000 Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pollinator Garden Award, Environment Minister Edwin Poots has announced.
The award is a single one-off grant to a rural community organisation to create a pollinator garden to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Magheralin Parish, Craigavon, will create a ‘Garden of Reflection’ in the parish grounds which will be open to all members of the public.
Speaking at the site where the garden will be created, Mr Poots said: “I am pleased to announce that Magheralin Parish has been awarded the £100,000 Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pollinator Garden Award.
“The Jubilee Garden of Reflection they will create with this fund will attract bees, butterflies, wasps and moths to help pollinate the local flowers and garden life.
“The garden also, of course, has the added benefit of being a wonderful space for the local community to enjoy nature and the visiting wildlife.
“The encouragement of pollinators benefits us all and is particularly important for the food chain, so anything that increases the habitat for pollinators is to be welcomed.
“This, along with the Rural Community Pollinator and Schools Pollinator Schemes brought forward by my department, have seen over £3 million invested in encouraging our pollinators across Northern Ireland.
“Magheralin Parish will develop an area of wasteland at the back of the church to include native and ornamental trees, wild flowers and flowerbeds, there will also be seating areas with paths woven through the garden to connect the various areas.
“There will be mirrored surfaces, sculptures and reflective thoughts included throughout the area.
“The creation of a large scale pollinator garden is a unique way of marking the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.”
Lynda Surgenor, Live Here Love Here coordinator, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, said: “It has been so exciting to be involved in facilitating the various pollinator grants which are helping transform communities and their understanding of biodiversity recovery.
“We’re particularly looking forward to seeing this marvellous Platinum Jubilee pollinator garden take shape and congratulate Magheralin Parish on their inspiring application.”
The rector of Magheralin Parish, the Rev Simon Genoe, commented: “A well-known writer, David Wilkerson, said the essence of Christianity is transformation.
“It gives us great pleasure as a Christian community to see an area of wilderness in our village transformed into a beautiful place, but also to welcome the whole community into an area where they can reflect and be renewed.”
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