Spireview Parade
Summer Meadow Initiated 2022
Yellow - Likely 500sqm meadow
Red - Potential 1,200sqm meadow
The Issue
The large 1,200 sqm lawn has no homes overlooking it and with there being other nearby play spaces for children the lawn is underused. This also means that no one is willing to pay for its maintenance. A frustrated resident, who previously mowed the lawn without community support, engaged with us in 2022 to try an alternative solution to lawn maintenance.
The Proposal
We proposed a summer meadow with only one large cut and clearing in autumn and that would be considerably cheaper to maintain by residents. We would financially and physically assist in cutting and clearing the grass.
We would need volunteers to regularly mow around the perimeter and verge throughout the year, collecting and clearing away the clippings. Signage will also provide further information and show that the area is being managed and make the site more presentable from the roadside.
To ensure it does not become a litter trap a winding path may be cut through the centre of the site providing both a feature and giving practical access to litter collectors without having to create crushed grass paths.
Since the space is not being used by people it is ripe to become a summer meadow.
We are very conscious of the large volume of grass that the site could generate in Autumn so we have teamed up with Walterstown GFC to use our compost site. Leaves will be collected from the local area and mixed with the grass cuttings and together they could form free compost for future years.
Subject to our budget and funding we intend to bulk purchase yellow rattle seeds for sowing in August. Our aim will be to reduce the number of grass plants and create space for local wildflowers to take hold.
2022 Review
The very first signs of long grass and the erection of our street poster in June brought negative comments on social media. Not everyone is convinced that shortcut large grass lawns are not only expensive to maintain but that they are of very little benefit to the environment. Concerned residents made requests on social media asking local residents to come together to fund cutting the green space, but since this had not been of interest in the past decade it did not materialise.
Unable to fund regular cuts meant that a six-week meadow was also unviable. Our plan was to let mother nature continue to grow the grass, maintain a perimeter ourselves, litter pick, and see what local residents decided amongst themselves.
Parade Meadow
Our proposal to form a summer meadow at Spireview Parade started to take shape. Unfortunately our plans to host the entire lawn are cut short when a resident rough cut the grass but didn't clear the clippings.
Kerb Appeal
The roadside edge at Spireview Parade gets a thorough cleaning of weeds to improve the presentation of the site.
In mid-August the entire green was rough cut by one resident but the grass cuttings were not lifted.
Plan for 2023
We will include this area in our Biodiversity Plan 2023 and await feedback before proceeding with any actions.
Whether regular grass-cutting will continue next season is unknown at this time. Should a summer meadow evolve as the preferred option then the scale of the site and the effort required to cut and clear the grass clippings will require a commitment from local volunteers to help.
It is clear that communication and education are required to change the mindset of those against summer meadows. We don't plan to argue the case 'one to one' but instead aim to let our other summer meadows show how lawns could be.
This is a long-term project where we really need local people on board rather than impose our solution to their problems.
Links
Further Information on summer meadows can be found here https://biodiversityireland.ie/practical-advice-on-managing-wildflower-meadows/
Sustainable Development Goals
This project has connections with the following categories:
