Completed Activities 2022

Pollinator Survey

Social media request for residents to take note of what they see and to record these sightings on pollinators.ie

Tree Survey

Winter is a great time to more easily identify evergreen trees, Spring flowers make some standout, in Summer it's the leaves and bark, and in Autumn there's often fruits to tell us more.

Wildflower Survey

We'd like to discover what native Irish flowers are growing both wild and in our wildflower displays. Here's a short visual guide to help and please do send in photos of your sightings.

Litter Picking

Unfortunately this job never ends. If you can spare the time we will provide gloves, litter pickers, waste bags, and even dispose of the litter collected.

Clear The Clutter

A purge to review anything that needs fixing or removal in public spaces. This includes redundant, incorrect, or dirty street signage and items will be submitted to the Council for action.

Requests already made to MCC:

Replacement or cleaning of 2 'Bothar Sion' street signs at the Johnstown Roundabout - Cleaned.
Incorrect right turn direction signage on Metges Road for the Government Offices Athlumney - Moved.
Two large National Development Plan signs at Bothar Sion bus stop could be removed as they are 'Out of Date' - Awaiting Reply.

Food Hampers

Every Saturday lunchtime we are delivering to families in need.

Navan Outreach

Helping those homeless in the Navan neighbourhood.

Clothing Collection

If you have pre-loved clothing you can donate to us for the disadvantaged in Ireland.

Pavement Weeding

The weeds constantly reappear in our pavements, cycle lanes, and roadside. We manually remove those that would otherwise be chemically treated by the Council.

We have applied for a grant to purchase mechanical means to help more easily clear these in an environmentally friendly process but until then we need manual help.

Pavement Verge Edging

As part of our Green Km Initiative with Meath County Council we will resume edging pavement verges. This removes the need for chemical weed killer and creates a neat finish.

Hedgerow Survey

Johnstown hosts many kilometres of hedgerow but we don't have this recorded and we don't know what we have. We do know that hedgerows play a vital role in offering wildlife food, shelter and safety. Help us to uncover more about Johnstown's biodiversity.

Dispersed Urban Orchard Planting

January - Following a workshop, at Solas Glan Community Garden, 12 fruit trees provided by Wild About Navan have been planted at 2 public sites in the Johnstown area.

Teams are monitoring the trees and keeping an eye on watering needs.

Tree Planting

February - 50 tree saplings donated by Meath County Council have been planted along Metges Road

Teams are monitoring the trees and keeping an eye on watering needs.

Spring and Summer Bulbs

March - Colaiste na Mi Students planted bulbs on the School / Dunville roundabout.

Teams are monitoring watering needs.

National Tree Week

March 20th - Promoted on social media.

Johnstown Ukraine Appeal

March - The first truck containing 33 pallets of aid to Ukraine has been delivered.

Easter Egg Appeal

April - A collection will be made to ensure children in disadvantaged families do not miss out.

Johnstown Sunflower Trail Germination

April - Students in Colaiste Na Mi, St Stephens NS, Ard Ri NS, and St Mary's Special School are germinating over 1,400 sunflower seeds with the aim of having saplings ready for planting out in late May / early June.

With over 50 sites this year's trail is going to be much larger and longer than last year's and we will be providing sunflowers for residents to grow in their front gardens to extend the trail.

Wildflower Site Maintenance

April - Our 2 sites, Bothar Sion and The Boyne, now need edging from the lawn, clearing the expired flower stems, and removing any grass or invasive plants ready for new growth.

Delay the 1st Lawn Cut

April - Delaying the estates' first cut of the year will help increase biodiversity at a time when it's needed the most.

National Biodiversity Week Ireland, 13th – 22nd May

More information biodiversityweek.ie

MCC Community Grant

May - Our application submitted in March should be announced soon and reveal whether we can carry out some key projects.

World Bee Day May 20th

May 20th information https://pollinators.ie/media/world-bee-day-2021/

Painting to Remove Graffiti

May - We need to paint over the fronts of electrical boxes to remove graffiti. If you can help then get in touch.

St Martha's Bridge
Bothar Sion

National Bike Week, 14th to 22nd May

We'll be engaging with Navan Cycling Initiative for their events.

Tidy Towns Entry

Our application is submitted Friday May 20th for the 2021-2022 entry.

Pride of Place Entry

Our application is submitted Friday May 27st for the 2021-2022 entry.

No Mow May

Simply leave the lawnmower in the shed to allow lawn flowers to appear. We expect to see more dandelions, daisies, buttercups, clover, wild garlic, and more but first, they need to grow.

National Food Waste Recycling Week: 30th May to 6th June

A new national campaign from MyWaste.ie to encourage people to recycle their food waste.

A previous study by the EPA found that approximately 50% of household organic waste was being disposed of in the wrong bins. By segregating food waste correctly, it can be transformed into renewable energy and bio-fertilisers for horticulture and agricultural use. Recycling Food Waste is a positive climate action.

Food waste is a significant contributor to carbon emissions, adding to climate change. The best way to address this is to try to cut down on food waste in the first place. But it is inevitable that there will almost always be food matter left over in homes and businesses so recycling it means that it does not just go to landfills, it becomes a useful resource instead, contributing positively to the growth of Ireland’s bio-economy.

Throughout the week, events will be held nationwide, supported by local authorities, the Composting and Anaerobic Digestion Association of Ireland (Cré) and the Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA). One of the highlight events will be an exhibition at this year’s Bloom Festival, which takes place over the extended June Bank Holiday weekend.

For more information visit https://www.mywaste.ie/news/national-food-waste-recycling-week-launched-30th-may-6th-june-2022

Rainwater Butts

The opportunity exists to bulk purchase garden rainwater butts directly from the wholesaler. An invitation to join the scheme will launch shortly.

We also intend to survey the community to see how popular these devices are for conserving water.

St Martha's Bridge Summer Flowers

June 23rd saw 30 planters packed with pollinator-friendly herbs, fruits, and flowers installed.

Sunflower Trail Planting

Over 600 sunflowers were planted out during June.

Summer Meadow Sites

It's easy to let estate grass lawns grow long but they need to be presented well throughout the year.

We need volunteers with petrol lawn mowers who live close to any of the current sites to get in touch. The aim is to maintain a neat perimeter around these areas and to remove any litter or problem weeds.

2022 Sites include : Johnstown Wood Elm/Chestnut and Birch, Spireview Lawn, Spireview Parade.

Pride of Place 'Community Wellbeing' Judging

A visit from the Judge to see our 'Community Wellbeing' entry 9am Friday 12th Aug.

Graffiti Removal

24th August - The following have been identified for removal:

Bailis Downs Main Green - electrical box - Completed
Maple Estate - telecom box.- Completed
Maple Estate - pebble-dashed wall spray paint.
The Priory - Metges Road telecombox. - Completed

If you can help then get in touch.

Pride of Place Judging

A visit from the Judge to see our 'Actions for Pollinators' and 'Best Town' entry, 11:45m Friday 26th Aug.

Final Sunflower Trail Planting

Over 600 sunflowers were planted out during June but we held back a few until they are in flower and fixed their direction. These will mainly be planted on the Johnstown roundabout if you're free we could use your help.

Reduce Lawn Mowing

Our appeal to the public to reduce the frequency of lawn cutting to ensure that insects have food, shelter, and safety. This is important to the food cycle and will benefit birds and insects, and increase biodiversity in a space that would normally be barren.

Sunflower Trail Watering

Our Public sites do not have local water sources and if any volunteers can be found living locally to these we'd love for you to help us.

St Martha's Bridge Summer Flowers Watering

Placed on display in late June these need150Ltrs of water a week via portable water containers and a supply of harvested rainwater. If you're free to help get in touch.

Wildflower Seed Harvesting

September - Our sites contain Native Irish Wildflowers which are expensive to purchase and by collecting from our 'seed banks' it enables us to add new future sites without having to purchase more.

New Wildflower Sites

September Update: We don't plan to sow any further 'designer' seed packet wildflowers. These packets are better suited to private gardens or where communities will manage and maintain the displays that are very like garden displays and need weeding and minding if they are to look like the seed packet photographs.

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Several new sites have been requested and if we proceed they will require turf clearing and the sowing of Native Irish Wildflowers seeds.

There is growing evidence that we should not sow any packet seeds in Johnstown and therefore we need to harvest local flower seeds and sow those.

Sunflower Seed Harvesting

October - With over 1000 sunflower heads in Johnstown they can make perfect natural birdfeeders but only if they are allowed to finish forming seeds. Wild birds are unlikely to feed from low-level plants in busy areas so there is a simple way to cut the flower heads and then hang them from tree branches. Our local birds have probably never fed directly from these flower heads before so it will take a while for one bird to discover how and others will follow.

We need volunteers to both create these bird feeders from flower heads and volunteers to help return planting areas back their natural state.

MCC Community Capital Grant

Our application submitted in March will reveal whether we can purchase and operate the Foamstream weed treatment to tackle all of Johnstown's pavements and kerbs.

The grants decision has now been pushed back until October.

October Update

Despite the benefits the Council have not approved our grant.

Pride Of Place Awards - Navan MD

October 12th @ Buvinda House.

Johnstown Tidy Towns winner of Actions for Pollinators and Large Town awards.

Summer Meadow Cutting

The final cut was Oct 27th.

The aim is to cut and clear the cuttings to a compost site before sowing yellow rattle wildflower seeds in clusters. These plants will flower in summer and bring some colour and they also feed on, and reduce, grasses to create space for native wildflowers.

Help is needed to both cut and clear the sites before sowing seeds.

Autumn Bulb Planting

December - Plans to plant 1500 crocus bulbs for early Spring flowers were first interrupted by extreme wet weather in November, then quickly followed by the deep freeze, and then Covid reared its head again amongst volunteers. Therefore the bulbs have received a temporary home and will be transplanted next winter.

Leaf Collection

Update Nov 14th: The Navan Tidy Towns group collected 20 bagged leaves to compost for a bedding area on the Kentstown Road.

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The leaves that would normally fall on the road we aim to collect, shred, and add to our community compost or distribute over estate lawns.

Christmas Shoebox Appeal

Update Nov 2022 : Unfortunately, due to the demise of The Inner City Helping Homeless charity in Nov 2021, this magical event can't happen this year since we are not yet operating under the umbrella of a registered charity.

We collaborated with CORE Ireland to ensure that the gift box collections organised by Loretto and Beauford Secondary schools could be distributed.

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A collection will be made to ensure children in disadvantaged families do not miss out.

Seasonal Lighting

December - the tree lights purchased for this year's display and those used last year were held back and not erected in light of the difficulties some members of the community are facing with the cost of living crisis. It has been significantly noticeable how fewer homes have placed external lights out this year and it was deemed insensitive to put ours up this year.

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Conscious that we don't wish to significantly disturb nocturnal creatures, we'd like to increase the number of winter lighting features in dark spots to lift community spirit.

This November we plan to repeat the Bailis Downs trees and are looking at more dark spots along Metges Rd, perhaps opposite the People's Park.

Christmas Hampers

December - Volunteers delivered fifty hampers to families in food poverty.

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