Floating an idea - gardening in Welsh?

Thank you so much, bawb for your enthusiasm and encouragement with my idea! Thanks also for your willingness to help! It’s greatly appreciated!!! :grinning:

These suggestions are fabulous. As I mentioned before, I don’t want this to become a plea for help. I very much want it to become an exchange thing. So if you think that there is anything else I can offer in exchange for gardening then please shout it out! What about Skype chats for ‘ymarfer Cymraeg’?

I’m guessing that a weekend would be better than during the week? Also, if we’re aiming for July, then the weather will be nicer for camping?

Please continue to throw ideas and suggestions my way. I like how this is gathering momentum!!! :heart_eyes:

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Ooh, there is a chance I might be able to make it then!

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Sounds great. So much better to be doing something useful with your Welsh rather than just learning for learning’s sake.

We’ve run a Welsh learner gardening session at the community garden in Llangollen before now. It was ok, but we quickly found we lacked many essential bits of vocab. e.g. spade, dig, watering etc. Easily solved.

I don’t know whether I’ll be able to get time away from the family this summer. But I can mention it to the other three Welsh learning community gardeners in Llangollen.

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We’re only a few miles from Llangollen and that sounds intriguing, is there any way to find out more information about that?

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Hi,

There is some information here: www.llangollengarden.co.uk , and more up to date information on Facebook; www.facebook.com/LlangollenCommunityGarden

In good weather, there is nearly always someone gardening there on a Saturday morning between 10.30 and 12.30 ish. You would be very welcome to pop over, have a look around and say helo :slight_smile:

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Many thanks, I’ll hope to be able to make it along.

Hi - sorry I’ve just seen this but I’d be really interested in coming along. Having meals and drinks provided sounds like a great deal - I’ve seen lots of courses where you’re expected to pay for that as well as work all day!

However… I have a 6 month old baby, so whilst it would be great for us both to come along and fo me to do what I can, I probably won’t actually be much use. Baby is pretty chilled (he had a great time at 5 months on bootcamp!) but practically he wants feeding/playing with a lot of the time so I don’t think I’d be putting in my fair share of gardening. But if you do organise something and would be happy for me to come along that would be great :slight_smile:

Thanks
Kay

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Helo bawb!

So I think it’s about time that I buckled down and got something sorted for our gardening weekend!

One piece of good news is that the chalet is free for anyone to stay in! My mother in law has been for a trial run and loves it. But doesn’t want to do her big permanent move till September, so we CAN offer gardeners a place to stay after all! Just to clarify, for multiple bodies it will be a kind of a Bootcamp set up, so room sharing.

I’m thinking that we could probably fit 5 bodies in. There is one large bedroom with one double (1 body) one guest bed (1 body) and floor space for another guest bed (1 body). Then there’s the living room where we can fit two air beds (2 bodies). We’ve also got a square of lawn which would fit a tent and parking space outside for a camper van.

The chalet has a decent bathroom with a shower and a kitchenette.

I’m currently looking at the weekend of the 14th / 15th / 16th of July. People could arrive on the Friday and do a 2/3 night’s stay depending on their personal schedules. People could also just come for a day if they live near enough to make the travel viable.

I’m thinking of providing a Friday night meal, breakfast fodder (2 mornings), snacks for lunches and Saturday night barbecue as well as non alcoholic drinks. Then everyone can bring their own wine/beer/Pimms/Harvey Wallbangers? I’m also going to provide vocab and phrases for the gardening.

Once we’ve got a fair idea if we can pull this off, I’ll go in to more detail about the work I’m thinking of tackling.

So what do you think? :smile:

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:smile:
I think it sounds like a great opportunity to practise speaking Welsh while doing something useful! I’ve asked around, but none of the community gardeners in Llangollen are free. I could possibly pop in on Saturday afternoon, but that isn’t going to get much gardening done!

It sounds like you’re bascially offering a free mini bootcamp, maybe re-post this or change the title of the thread, and surely you’ll get some interest. Some people may be put off because they think they don’t know anything about gardening. So it may be worth saying that full instruction will be provided.

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Hi, sorry, bit late responding as I saw this on my way to Italy and got just now reminded of this post…

Sounds like a really nice plan to me! I’d love to come, but I’m still in Cardiff then. I hope that you can pull it off though and that all who can make it have a great weekend :blush:

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Gosh, rather frustratingly that’s the only weekend during the whole of July and August when I’ve got something on! (well stuff on on the friday and saturday so toddling along saturday evening ready for sunday may well be an option)

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Here’s some starter vocab with a pretty picture…

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purely to see what was beng said, I looked at this thread. And I discovered what everyone else probably knows that ladder = ysgol = school!
I looked and thought, “but that is school, not ladder!” Now I realise that they do mean the same in a way!

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Sori Catrin, dw i’n gweithio’r penwythnos 'na

Sorry Catrin, I’m working that weekend

:pensive:

Pnawn da good people!

Late again with my reply, sorry! We’ve had a trip to London with the family and a whole host of visitors coming and going, in between work and regular family stuff, so we’ve been a little crazy busy and I’ve been a little absent minded… :joy: :joy: :joy:

I would still dearly love to try and make this happen. So thought I’d attempt to ask you guys if any of you fancied giving this ago between now and the beginning of September? Or do you think we’ve missed the boat?

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Emma and I don’t have any free weekends between now and the Middle of October. Which is crazy!! However, we are planning a trip to tick off a bucket list (climb Cader Idris) the last week of September and we’d love to meet up with you again if poss?

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Our weekends are completely tied up during the next month due to a new business venture meaning that we’re doing a lot of weekend shows and festivals.
When I used to be a full time gardener/garden designer I used to visit peoples gardens to take a look and then to draw up a strategy for areas of work that may need to be looked at and advice on how it could be done and in what order the work needed doing so we could easily pop up during the week later this month if you feel that would help?

You never quite miss the boat in gardens, you’ve just got to deal with bigger plants and way more weeds!
(autumn’s always an excellent time to work on gardens anyway)

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Thank you both!

Completely understand how the busyness of life can sweep you off your feet! It seems to have been that kind of summer so far, hasn’t it.

Some advice in the future would be fabulous Richard, thank you, but no rush at all!

Actually, in retrospect, I think we’re now up against the wire as far as offering accommodation for keen gardeners is concerned. The chalet is going to have to be on lock down again from this week onward. I’m expecting a carpenter imminently to do some essential work inside the chalet, then we have to press on with some speed with finishing off the ceilings, painting, replacing old carpets as well as moving furniture and getting rid of unwanted possessions. The place needs to be ready for Aran’s mum by the beginning of September and I’m having mild panics!

But I greatly value your heartwarming enthusiasm and input.

@AnthonyCusack it would be great to say hello again!

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I’m a bit late to this, sorry - but the lovely lady (Eirlys) who runs Bwyta Ein Geirddi, a gardening service in Cardiff, is setting up an organisation called Gerifa Garddio to help people learn Welsh through gardening/ gardening through Welsh! I’m sure she’d be very interested in a chat - http://www.geirfagarddio.cymru/ or she’s on twitter at @geirfagarddio

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Diolch Hannah!

I’ll have a look and have a think about it! :slight_smile:

I’m definitely going to come back to this gardening idea. I think it has scope and could be really good fun. But it may have to happen in the spring… we’ll see. Diolch to you all for your enthusiasm with my idea and for contributing so openly and generously to this thread. I really appreciate it and have enjoyed your interaction.

I’ll come back to you if this idea develops and will make sure I give plenty of warning next time… :wink:

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