Saintfield’s Men’s Shed Host ‘Know Your Numbers’ Gardening Event

Men’s Sheds from Rowallane, Mournes, Slieve Croob, Downpatrick and Crotlieve joined Saintfield Men’s Shed to take part in four workshops designed to refresh their knowledge of using mathematics to calculate ratios, volumes, measurements and more.  

The Know Your Numbers workshops hosted by Saintfield Men’s Shed helped ‘shedders’ refresh their mathematical skills when making their own bird feeders, creating origami features and planting bulbs and tessellations, by using geometry concepts such as symmetry, transformation and spatial reasoning to help make their gardening projects more visually appealing.

Men’s Sheds are community spaces where men can come together to enjoy practical hobbies and share skills to support projects in their local communities. They encourage friendship-building, improve wellbeing, reduce loneliness and combat social isolation through connection, conversation and creation.

The ‘Know Your Numbers’ workshops gave participants an opportunity to meet new people and establish new connections.

Keen to support this initiative Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Peter Byrne, attended the event and said, “Throughout Newry, Mourne and Down, Men’s Sheds are catalysts for creativity, where local people can make a genuine difference to their communities by sharing their knowledge and skills to produce tangible positive results. ‘Shedders’ get great enjoyment working together, while this hugely popular initiative tackles the very prevalent issues of isolation and exclusion.”

The ‘Know Your Numbers’ gardening workshops were funded through the Shared Prosperity Fund and is part of the Department for the Economy’s Multiply fund. Multiply is a free adult numeracy programme aimed at improving adult numeracy skills and confidence with numbers.