Johnstown People’s Park South Corner.
Johnstown People’s Park South Corner.
2021–2023 — Completed
2021–2023 — Completed
Embedded Files
The walled road entry at the park's south corner on Metges Road had been sprayed with weedkiller for decades. As a quick win for pollinators, the area was sown with native Irish wildflower seeds to create a vibrant visual display.
Surplus clay soil was donated by a nearby neighbour to fix the poor, compacted ground, and residents from the Boyne & Millbrook estate helped dig out the bedding area. Seeds were sourced as surplus from the Bothar Sion fence line project. Water funnels made from drinks bottles, filled with harvested rainwater, helped establish the sunflowers alongside the low-maintenance wildflowers.
2021
2021
Bed dug, sown, and flowering by summer; volunteers harvested poppy and cornflower seed in early autumn, some kept for reseeding and some given out for volunteers' own gardens.
April 2021
April 2021
July 2021
Water Conservation
Water Conservation
Wildflowers require very little watering but sunflowers do. Water funnels made from drinks bottles were planted alongside each and filled with harvested rainwater from a nearby house.
Funnels aid efficient watering,
Nearby rainwater butt.
2022
2022
Stems were left standing over winter to shelter insects, then cut back and the bed re-edged in spring. After reviewing guidance from pollinatorplan.ie recommending local wildflowers over seed packets, the group decided not to sow further wildflower seed mixes here or elsewhere.
July
August
August
2023
2023
Final season — invasive grasses removed and the bedding edge redefined, with the lawn boundary kept mown to prevent grass encroaching into the bed.
The display concluded at the end of the year, having demonstrated a successful low-cost pollinator conversion of a previously sprayed verge.
Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goals
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