Flower Bulbs
Initiated 2019
Residential gardens start displaying colourful flowers from late winter. Johnstown's public spaces however tend to remain rather dull in comparison with large expanses of green verges, lawns, hedges, and trees. Therefore in 2019 we embarked upon a Spring project to inject some early colour and vibrance into Johnstown's public spaces.
In Autumn 2019 we planted tulips and daffodils but now our focus is only on pollinator-friendly bulbs.
Summer 2022
North Metges Road Estate Signs
The 4 estate entries with marker stones do not have any planting features and therefore we proposed some low-maintenance plants.
To coordinate with the 2022 Johnstown Sunflower Trail volunteers started growing Rudbeckia Goldsturm's in pots in late Spring. The intention was to plant put in early summer but the heatwave and dry weather conditions made this impractical. Instead, the plants were kept by local residents with the aim of planting out when the weather cooled.
We made an initial planting suggestion to each resident group and hope that each comes up with their own action plan. We have acquired a native Irish clover seed mix to sow in Autumn that will provide pollinator-friendly ground cover to any bulb planting.
Spring 2022
May 2022, awaiting the alliums.
Daffodils and Tulips
Of the 19 sites planted in 2019 some are flourishing like these at our Welcome Sign on Metges Road South.
Alliums
To counter birds removing bulbs from the ground we planted 18 alliums in containers. Students replanted these into the school roundabout in February.
Planting Plan
School roundabout planting plan to host flowers from Spring through to Autumn. Daffodils and Tulips are not part of the pollinator plan but over time we aim to introduce more suitable planting.
Autumn 2021
TY Students of Colaiste Na Mi helped to celebrate 35 years by participating in the nationwide campaign BulbsForBees to plant pollinator-friendly bulbs to help safeguard the future of our vital bee population.
In October students planted Grape Hyacinth, Yellow Garlic, and Crocus Barr’s Purple in the School Roundabout.
Autumn 2020
Tulips and Daffodils
We engaged with residents to ask for suggestions where we could plant Spring Bulbs and gathered quite a few responses.
15 planting locations were selected along Johnstown's major routes so that their presence would be highly noticeable.
Tulips and daffodil bulbs were chosen for the trial simply because they create high impact, provide vivid pockets of colour, are reasonably low cost for high quantity, and could be planted by persons of any age and ability.
1,500 bulbs were collected from Beechmount Garden Centre and although these bulbs are of no benefit to pollinators they did bring about awareness of the lack of flowers locally.
Our intention was also to host mass planting to engage the community in enhancing these areas but due to the Covid restrictions, in place at the time, individual family pods completed the planting.
Our aim going forwards is to revisit and build up these planting areas with pollinator-friendly plants.
Media Publicity
The project was reported in The Meath Chronicle and in our local Johnstown Community Online Magazine.
Johnstown Set To Bloom with Colour
A plan to inject colour through planting by Johnstown Tidy Towns.
What Colour is Johnstown?
Spring is not the only season to be busy planting and we have suggestions to colour Johnstown.
Sustainable Development Goals
This project has connections with the following categories:
