2023 Past Activities
WINTER
January
2023 Draft Project Plan ✔️
An opportunity to check our goals for the year ahead. All suggestions, ideas and offers to help are appreciated. ✔️
Johnstown Biodiversity Action Plan Funding ✔️
Received €5,000 grant from The Community Foundation of Ireland to implement a project to devise an action plan.✔️
Tree Planting ✔️
5 Holly Trees (from MCC in 2021) to plant in Johnstown Wood Estate. ✔️
Dispersed Urban Orchard Planting ✔️
Inspect planted trees and check stakes and ties.✔️
3 Replacement tree posts are required in Bailis Downs Estate. ✔️
Replace one failed tree in the Bailis Downs Estate. ✔️
February
Heritage Keepers Workshops ✔️
Collaboration with Wild About Navan to participate in the Heritage Keepers 5 week workshops hosted by Burrenbeo.
Tidy Towns 2023 Grant Application ✔️
Our application was submitted February 20th. ✔️
Tree Branch Pruning ✔️
Low-level tree branches often hinder pedestrian movement along pavements and therefore between September and February each year there is an opportunity to rectify this.
A small project team of volunteers is needed to prune any branches identified as needing removal. Resident groups should contact us for support and we will coordinate with Meath County Council to take away any debris collected potentially in March.
Work carried out at Athlumney Hall, Bailis Downs, Athlumney Wood, The Priory, and The Boyne Estates.
Pride of Place Sustainable Gardening Course ✔️
In preparation for Pride of Place 2023 MCC host a free one-day sustainable gardening course Saturday 25th February in Buvinda House hosted by Horticulturalist Aoife Munn.
Finalise Project Plan 2023 ✔️
Committee to approve proposed 2023 plan and budget.
Tree Planting ✔️
One flowering cherry tree has been donated to us to plant as part of the Metges Road Avenue project. ✔️
Enter Tesco Community Fund ✔️
We’re included in the current round of the Tesco Ireland Community Fund in Navan. If you’re shopping in this store over the next few weeks, we’d really appreciate if you’d vote for us using your blue token.
Thank you
SPRING
March
Trim Tidy Towns Visit ✔️
March 1st, 3 volunteers attended Seminar at Trim Castle Hotel and a tour with the winners of Irelands Tidiest Town 2022.
Dalgan Park Biodiversity Visit Talk ✔️
March 5th, 3 members attended a Biodiversity Tour of Dalgan Park with ecologists and botanists hosted by Wild About Navan.
Council Meeting March 9th ✔️
Opportunity to meet with Wild About Navan, MCC Transport, Maintenance, and Heritage departments to discuss plans for the Johnstown/Navan area and explore opportunities to support each other.
.........................
A brief recap of Thursday's meeting with the Council Heritage and Transport, and with Wild About Navan.
(These are not formal minutes, only our notes)
We've permission to clean St Martha's bridge and host flower baskets.
There's no date yet as to when Bothar Sion water pipes will be dug up.
MCC will clear up the main road pavement weeds this month without weedkiller, we then need to organise volunteers to cut them all monthly and the MCC road sweeper will clean up - so much easier and very quick.
The Bothar Sion grass bank project with Cllr Yemi and Wild About Navan is likely to only be information stands/QR code signs since although the grass looks scruffy it is extremely valuable in biodiversity terms.
MCC will help with any long grass from our summer meadows but we'll need to employ a grass cutter.
The full calender month of the Council's adoption of 'No Mow May' is unlikely since it's subject to the speed of grass growth. Metges Rd South and Johnstown Roundabout are included.
We'll arrange to edge the verge / pavement kerb of Metges Rd South in March/April, MCC will clear away our debris piles.
There may be a future potential opportunity to remove the Johnstown roundabout grass and swap it for flowering clover.
We have 30 trees from MCC during National Tree Week.
We requested the removal of several redundant road signs - 2 huge ones on Bothar Sion and those that reference the school on the back road.
We're encouraged to participate in August's Heritage Week - the Sunflower Trail perhaps being the easiest.
We requested that stencils for dog owners to clean up be tried again on pavements but this time at estate exits. It might remind owners who forget poo bags to go back and get them.
We would need to talk with OPW about the Athlumney Riverside trail. The Council boardwalk and no entry sign could/should be removed (and probably doesn't have permission to be there anyway). We could seek a grant to employ a contractor to remove the wire fence buried within the trail path. To have anything more would mean creating 'inclusive' and 'safe' paths that has no current funding.
Promote National Tree Week, March 22nd ✔️
Biodiversity Action Plan Initiation, March 11th ✔️
I met with our ecologist Fintan Damer today and walked the different areas under consideration to be part of the Johnstown Biodiversity Community Action Plan.
His favoured areas are:
Athlumney Riverside Trail.
Metges Road hedgerow, woods, and drainage channel, incl IDA
Overview of our pollinator project sites.
Include Navan RFC and Walterstown GFC grounds.
Actions:
The first survey will be in April, the second in June and we've no direct required involvement.
We've to provide an update to the foundation in July and a final report in March next year.
Seeds and wild flowers for new school garden, March 13th ✔️
We have donated a dozen spare packets of Irish Native Wildflower Seeds and the MCC wildflower plugs to Colaiste na Mi Secondary school to assist in their garden project.
St Martha's Bridge Annual Spring Clean, March 25th ✔️
An opportunity to make the bridge sparkle again with the help of Rochfort Property Maintenance and water from Navan RFC.
April
Clean the River Boyne Event, 1st April ✔️
We've joined in with the River Boyne project groups to help do our part on April 1st to raise awareness of the river's health.
Native Tree Planting, 19th April ✔️
Several native trees donated by MCC for the community were planted by residents to extend last year's tree line on north Metges Road.
Promote 'Delay the 1st Lawn Cut' ✔️
Delaying the first cut of the year to estates lawns and home gardens until the end of April will help increase biodiversity at a time when it's needed the most.
Johnstown Sunflower Trail Germination, 25th April ✔️
Deliveries have been made to the 4 local schools asking staff and students in Colaiste Na Mi, St Stephens NS, Ard Ri NS, and St Mary's Special School to commence germinating 800 sunflower seeds.
Promote Alternatives to Chemical Weedkiller, 25th April ✔️
With the support of Meath County Council volunteers began clearing the weeds along the 4km of cycle paths through Johnstown without the use of chemicals. Volunteers are scraping the heads off weeds with shovels whilst the council uses their road sweeper to collect and clear the debris. The plan is to repeat on a monthly basis.
Managing the pavement weeds without the use of chemicals safeguards public health, pet's, pollinators and insects, and even the wildlife in the River Boyne.
Please stop using chemicals to control unwanted plants.
Wildflower Site Sowing ✔️
In April we can sow the remaining wildflower seeds collected from the autumn harvest.
May
Dispersed Urban Orchard Planting ✔️
5 new fruit trees have been provided by Wild About Navan to plant in the Johnstown Wood Estate.
Promote '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.
Promote National Bike Week, 13th to 21st May ✔️
We'll be engaging with Navan Cycling Initiative for their events.
Promote National Biodiversity Week, 13th – 22nd May ✔️
More information biodiversityweek.ie
Promote Walk to School Week May 16th ✔️
We'll be promoting the 5-day challenge to get children (and their parents) more active and to help reduce the dependency on cars.
Promote World Bee Day May 20th ✔️
May 20th information https://pollinators.ie/media/world-bee-day-2021/
Community Grant Application ✔️
An opportunity to apply for the MCC grant to make further improvements to the neighbourhood.
All ideas and suggestions are welcome.
SUMMER
June
Pride of Place Entry ✔️
Our application was entered for Best Large Town.
Heritage Keepers Project - June 24th ✔️
The workshop collaboration with Wild About Navan attended in February has led to a workshop to gather like-minded individuals being hosted at the Solstice Theatre.
Install St Martha's Bridge Summer Flowers ✔️
30 planters packed with pollinator-friendly herbs, fruits, and flowers were installed 23rd June.
Placed on display in late June these need 150Ltrs of water each week via portable water containers and a supply of harvested rainwater. If you're free to help get in touch.
Tesco Community Fund Results ✔️
The vote count of Blue Tokens in the Tesco Ireland Community Fund in Navan is due shortly
Promote 'Don't Mow Yet' ✔️
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.
July
Johnstown Sunflower Trail Water Bottle Collection ✔️
To greatly reduce water waste and to speed up watering the sunflowers we ask local pubs to collect their used drinks bottles. Each flower is going to need one and in 2022 we collected over 600 bottles that were washed and recycled at the end of the project.
Tidy Towns Judging ✔️
An unannounced visit is expected from the Judges to see our entries for 2022 to 2023.
Pride of Place Judging, 28th July ✔️
We have the opportunity to present Johnstown to visiting Judges to see our entries for 2022 to 2023.
August
Sunflower Trail Planting ✔️
Sunflowers will be planted in June if they have grown sufficiently tall to survive attacks by slugs.
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.
Summer Meadow Maintenance ✔️
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 lawnmowers 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.
2023 Sites may include: Johnstown Wood Elm/Chestnut and Birch, Spireview Lawn, and Spireview Parade.
Promote Heritage Week Aug 12-20 ✔️
AUTUMN
September
Wildflower Site Maintenance & Harvesting ✔️
Although we don't plan to sow any new 'designer' seed packet wildflowers in Johnstown we do need to maintain the existing sites.
Grass and aggressive weeds quickly move into flower displays and these need to be removed together with cutting back and clearing the spent wildflowers.
Native Irish wildflower seeds are very expensive to purchase but we have the opportunity to harvest them for free in early September. Some will be re-sown on bare earth with some retained to sow in Spring to ensure we retain the variety of annual flowers.
Volunteers can take some seeds home to sow in their own gardens!
Autumn Bulb Planting ✔️
From late September we aim to plant crocus bulbs in the Athlumney Hall grass bank on Merges Road.
Summer Meadow Cutting ✔️
The annual cut and clearing of the long grass will take place at our summer meadow sites. In 2023 we hope to employ contractors to cut Metges Road and help will be needed to collect and bag the grass for Council collection.
The Spireview Lawn site will need cutting with a hand scythe which is fairly easy and straightforward and an opportunity to try something new.
October
Sunflower Seed Harvesting ✔️
With over 1000 sunflower heads expected 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.
Pride Of Place Awards - Navan MD ✔️
Held at the Newgrange Hotel we won the Large Town Award for the Navan Municipal Disdtrict.
November
Pride Of Place Awards - County Meath ✔️
Shortlisted after the Navan awards we attended the County awards where Athboy we worthy winners of the Large Town award.
Promote the Irish Garden Bird Survey
Held from Nov to Feb the survey form is available via https://birdwatchireland.ie/
WINTER
December
Seasonal Lighting ✔️
Not implemented last year (2022) due to the cost of living crisis and cost of energy. We placed this year's lights display on 10 tree trunks at the Maple estate opposite the Johnstown Shopping Centre.
Johnstown Tidy Towns AGM ✔️
7.30pm 12th December
Christmas Support for the Homeless ✔️
A public collection via Core Ireland together, sponsorship from Smiths SuperValu and Malones Toyota Navan, and Students from Loretto Secondary School ensured that families and individuals in disadvantaged circumstances do not miss out.
Read the write-up in the Meath Chronicle