Sunflower trail to create a corridor of colour in Johnstown

Johnstown will be a blaze of colour this summer with a trail of sunflowers planned for the area.

Johnstown Tidy Towns is the group behind this ecologically friendly project, with assistance from St Stephen's National School.

They have at least 15 display sites for the massive blooms, along a route through Johnstown and more are being considered.

Secretary, Dave Hewitt said "We started off aiming to create eight sunflower displays but it's quickly grown to potentially 28 sites along an 8km trail."

"The response has been fantastic with interest from individuals, residents associations, Meath County Council, local businesses, the IDA, and the local schools all keen to get involved and to bring about something positive for the community."

Treasurer Robin Marshall explains that the project is environmentally friendly and completely waste free.

“We has a display of 17 sunflowers at the Athlumeny Hall wall last year and hundreds of seeds were collected and saved from last year's plants.

“We bought a few new seed varieties, so there is no shortage of potential sunflowers for the summer display.

“We needed over 500 plants, so we set about making biodegradable pots from old newspapers – they are free and biodegradable.

“Being able to plant the seedling, within its pot, directly into the soil is going to be so much quicker when you're dealing with hundreds of plants.

Taking care of 500 seedlings presented problems to the group but St Stephen's NS came to the rescue.

Students offered to take care of the watering while the seeds germinate and grow. This will allow the tidy towns team to concentrate on securing further display sites, digging holes, and preparing for lots of planting at the end of May.

"The idea for a sunflower trail comes from wanting to create 'Bee Corridors' which is part of the National Pollinator Plan for biodiversity,” says chairperson, Alan Lawes.

“We're using sunflowers to tempt and encourage people to follow a walking trail.

“Pollinator insects like bees are attracted to these flowers for their pollen and will fly along the route following the food.

"To involve more residents in the project, and to fill in the gaps between displays, we aim to distribute sunflower plants to the houses along the route. “Hopefully, we'll encourage them to grow them in their front gardens and complete the Bee Corridors.”

The group is looking for help to create street signposts to guide people along the route.

They are adamant that they don't wish to create any plastic poster pollution and are inviting the public to help make brightly painted signs with stencilled letters. “If you have any spare timber planks, or are planning to rip out your garden decking soon, then contact us,” says Robin Marshall.

When the sunflowers start dying, the seeds will be harvested and saved for next year's displays and to be shared with the wild birds and the plant stems will become compost material ready for next year's planting projects.