While the fight against climate change can seem overwhelming, making a relatively small change in your life can have an effect. GCN speaks to people who give examples of achievable changes we can make in order to make our planet a better place. In this article, we talk about home planting.

Samantha McCaffrey is a much-loved member of the team here at GCN Towers. She’s introduced a host of gorgeous plants to the office and has begun to transform our balconies into colourful bursts of nature up above the city streets. Here she espouses the benefits of home planting. Samantha’s the gardener on the right, accompanied by fellow planter Sabina Stan.

“We’ve started to sow seeds and bring in plants for our GCN balconies. It feels good to garden, however small scale, and it feels good to know that the plants and flowers are coming.  “Already our little world on Exchange Street has started to look a little bit greener and that makes me happy. It makes me happy to think that we’ll have wildflowers bobbing about by the summer and that any lost bees will find a bit of food if they fly by our balcony.

“I love planting, I like getting my hands dirty. I was part of the Weaver Square community garden in Dublin 8. Our head gardener, Ivanna, knows her stuff and we all ate crisp spinach, juicy cucumbers and sweet tomatoes last summer. There is nothing like freshly grown vegetables.

“Dublin City Council closed down Weaver Square community garden and allotments earlier this year despite a huge local campaign to keep them open. We are still looking for places to plant. I love Dublin city but often I feel my body ache to be out in the wide-open spaces of nature. And sometimes being in a garden, being around plants, growing things, being in little green places is the closest that we can get to that deep feeling of peace you can get in nature. It’s hard to stay pissed off once you start gardening.

“I plant because I think our city, our world, needs plants, more plants, more green places. We need plants way more than they need us. Planting is an act of hope when a lot of things in the world seem so deeply unsettling. Planting is a way of saying that right in this moment – all is well.

You can learn more about how we can all make a difference at our event ‘Mayday: The Fight To Save Our World’. The event will be an evening of information, conversation and action – a collaboration between GCN and Extinction Rebellion Ireland will take place in Project Arts Centre, Dublin on May 1.

Tickets for the event are available here.

Join us and @ExtinctRebelsIE at @projectarts Wednesday, May 1 for a discussion on the current #climateemergency and how we can all effect positive change. https://t.co/N5iAXAYsYf pic.twitter.com/kPhaJA8ckk

— Gay Community News (@GCNmag) April 25, 2019

This story originally appeared on GCN’s May 2019 issue. Read the full issue here.