What Colour is Johnstown?

We don't picture Johnstown as being full of vibrant colour, at least not our public spaces. All around us is plenty of green grass lawns and we do have trees in abundance but there's very little in the way of colourful planting in any public spaces. The recent sunflower wall by Tidy Towns on Metges Road, Athlumney Hall, is a step in the right direction. Is it something you would like to see spread to all areas of our Neighbourhood?

Our individual gardens get far more attention than public spaces which is a shame since the space outside your home, your street, and your estate reflects on your home too. Resident Groups bring neighbours together to improve and maintain spaces within estates whilst Tidy Towns groups attempt to join these estates together but they all need your help and support to make a difference.

Creating a Colour Trail.

Speaking with Johnstown Tidy Towns some ideas are taking shape to create feature areas which could be inexpensive, highly attractive, low maintenance and everyone could help participate in creating.

Autumn is the time to begin planting Spring Bulbs such as crocus, daffodils, bluebells and tulips but these are costly when considering large areas. Autumn is also one of the key seasons to sow wildflower seeds which are less expensive in cost and fairly quick to sow. Many of us are taken with the idea of seeing more wildflower strips around us to add colour, interest and vibrance to our street verges, lawns and individual gardens. We have come to appreciate the value they provide to wildlife, insects and especially to pollinators.

Below we provide some ideas and potential locations for planting. If you like the ideas we encourage you to participate in developing them and volunteering to help your local estate group or Tidy Towns.

Plants can be expensive and they require care and watering. Public spaces need hardy plants which survive the knocks and watering them is a major issue. The portable rainwater butt provided a clever solution for the flower baskets on St Martha's Bridge which required 200ltrs of water each week! More homes could help harvest rainwater but fortunately wildflowers don't require as much 'TLC'.

Anyone who has grown summer wildflowers in their garden will know that once they've expired they don't look particularly good for the rest of the year. To counter this planting a mix of other plants/shrubs helps distract the eye and avoiding large swathes of the same seeding also works well. However most plants need space and don't grow well 'planted on top of each other' so there's a limit to how many will flower in the same patch over the period of a year.

Planting Ideas

A suggestion is to create a trail through Johnstown with different pavement verges, areas on estate lawns or bare patches along walls erupting in flower during different months of the year. This comes from the Pollinator Plan where pollinator insects follow these corridors and it's just as pleasant for us to follow them too.

'Flower Waves'

Sites along long walls could host different species in short stretches which will see them come into flower moving from one end to the other over the year.

Pockets

Much criticised by the Tidy Towns Judges is the bareness of our vast areas of grass open lawns. 80% cheaper to maintain than grass the wildflowers could appear in small patches which offer seasonal flowers. Pockets of Spring flowering bulbs are very effective if they are planted in a prominent locations.

'Segments'

The most obvious would be a circular feature with segments flowering at different times.