Athlumney Hall 'Fruit & Herb Verge'

Initiated 2018

This narrow 100m+ strip of verge once hosted grass that over time became patchy, untidy, and unloved.

Our Project Aims

Stop the use of Weedkillers.

In an attempt to control the weeds, the Council / local residents sprayed weed killer for a number of years which compounded the issue by creating bare earth for more weeds to take hold and making matters worse.

Read About Our Campaign

2. Create a flowering planting area

More difficult than expected to create something with minimum maintenance and low watering requirements.

Planting Plan

Our initial intention was to sow wildflowers since they are economical over a large distance and relatively quick to sow and they can also cope better in less fertile soil. It wasn't hugely successful due to the combination of a very hot dry summer, extremely poor soil, and lack of protection from the wind coupled with the rapid run-off of rainwater means seeds struggle to germinate in place.

The idea to use herbs came from wanting to introduce longer-lasting plants that benefit pollinators in the St Martha's Bridge summer flower display. This appealed to us because we could essentially create the site by replanting these and increasing the site size year after year without incurring significant costs. Fruits, in the form of strawberries, came about as an experiment to create a trailing plant in the Bridge display. These were successfully transplanted and despite requiring more watering they have survived and multiplied.

Rosemary and thyme did better higher up in the verge than in the planters largely because of better drainage whereas chives and strawberries did better lower down and closer to the pavement because of more access to water.

Soil

The existing shallow depth of soil is contaminated with weed killer, highly compacted gravel, and lying on top of foundations for the pavement and estate boundary wall. This meant that we needed to source 6 tonnes of soil/compost which is beyond our financial abilities.

The idea to compost the lawn edging being removed as part of our Stop Weed Killer Use project

Mulch

Any exposed earth is likely to attract unwanted weed growth. Mulch such as small gravel stones does not work with sloping ground, woodchips move with the wind and need annual top-ups as they break down and decay. Weed mats are effective but look unsightly unless covered and so the search was directed to ground-cover plants and in autumn 2022 clover seeds were sown as a test.

Our Progress

2018

We asked that weed killer use be stopped and we manually cleared the weeds and sowed wildflower seeds. The result was patchy growth with very few wildflowers perhaps due to the soil having been heavily contaminated with weed killer over the years.

2019

We introduced perennial plants into the St Martha's Bridge summer flower planter display in 2019. During that Autumn we replanted these into the verge creating a 10m herb display that included thyme, rosemary, chives, and strawberries.

2020

Whilst our herbs grew during Covid lockdown the Council spread grass seed, Sept 2020, attempting to improve the appearance of the remaining 100m strip. This too grew in patches and ultimately without a maintenance plan it became dishevelled.

2021

The 2021 bridge flowers increased our verge display to 30m. Chives, rosemary, strawberries, thyme, and oregano were successfully harvested and replanted creating a sensory display that flowers with minimum maintenance.

2022

Early spring saw the verge erupt in flower and colour with dandelions and chives being the most obvious. The fruit and herbs all grew well with more added in Autumn from St Martha's Bridge reaching the 60m mark.

2022 Review

New Soil

Our work in 2021 to remove the use of weed killer in Johnstown by edging verges and then composting it meant that in February 2022 our first batch of reclaimed soil was spread along the verge. More soil was donated by a local resident to further extend the bank.

Spring 2021 turf cutting resulted in reclaimed soil being available in February 2022

New Edging

Since the slope started to spread soil onto the pavement edging was trailed and then applied for 60m in April 2022.

50m of edging will keep the soil off the path.

Ground Cover

Our work was noticed by staff at The Grow Shop who occasionally receive spent gardening material from past customers. They offered a few tonnes of clay LECA beads mixed with coconut husk that we could use to improve the drainage conditions for the woody herbs and use as a weed mat and mulch to conserve water and reduce future weeding work. A small section was trialed over the summer but quickly removed after it was seen that the round beads could spread onto the pavement and create a trip hazard.

A native Irish clover mix was sown over the bare section of new earth in an attempt to create a low-maintenance ground cover crop. It is hoped that this will not only prevent weeds but also flower for the pollinators throughout the growing season.

Plan for 2023

The ground cover clover sown in 2022 was not successful in germinating and there were very few plants reused from St Martha's Bridge 2022 display. This means that native wildflowers are crowding out the planted fruits and herbs and we'll have to see where this takes the verge.