Charleville Tidy Towns

Nature & Biodiversity

Project 4A

Mannix College Wildflower & Wildlife Habitat Garden

Extensive new landscaping has taken place with the development, in September 2017, of a new Wildlife Habitat Garden at Mannix College on the Old Cork road power house crossroads.

The new 60 meter garden was planned as a demonstrator site in support of new Horticulture courses being run at the nearby Mannix College by the Cork Education Training Board,(CETB) and attended by one of our Committee members.

The site was cleared of extensive weeds on the inside by the GAA support team and the external garden site then cleared and surface scarified by the CTT team in mid September. The landscape plan included planting of 5 parallel rows of all flowering perennials or self seeders, with over 55 local organic grown Foxglove hybrids, loved by pollinators, planted along the green fence barrier.

Additional flowering shrubs such as 7 pink flowering Anemone, 11 golden Hypericum Hidcote and 55 purple NEPETA catmint were added to give all year round colour & essential ground cover for low care & maintenance.

5 Low profile red Scarlet carpet roses were added closest to the cross road junction to ensure good visibility and the external margin planted with a mixed variety Irish Daffodils from West Cork bulbs in Bandon, plus some Honesty & Sweet Williams.
The location of this new landscaped garden is on a key walkway of the new CTT walkway plans.
Future enhancement plans of location include;
a/ building of a new poly tunnel inside the railing and cleaning & painting of the external walls of the nearby College for Adult Education at the cross roads by CETB.
b/ screening of the ESB power substation across the road from Mannix Garden with Red Robin hedging in collaboration with ESB, subject to budget approval & support.
c/ feasibility study with CETB & GAA of establishing bee hives inside the garden railing
d/ installation of barrier tape or low picket fence around the new garden to prevent serious dog litter fouling on this important educational demonstrator site.
Cooperation of All dog owners and walkers is requested to ensure this garden location is maintained as a litter free zone for the benefit of ALL persons in our community.

Mannix College Wildflower Garden

Anemone

Foxgloves Planted

Tidy Towns Team

Garden Completed

Carpet Roses

Wildflower Garden on Bakers Lane

Project 4B

No Dig Bed for Spring Planting in the Park

On Wed, 16th September 2017, anybody walking through the town park wondered what was going on when they saw the heap of manure and bales of straw near the information boards. Cork Education & Training Board (CETB), with horticulture instructor, Mr. Paul O’Flynn, in association with Charleville Tidy Towns was creating a bed for Spring planting, using the “NO DIG” method promoted by Mr. Charles Dowding.

This involved cutting the grass, laying down a layer of heavy cardboard, followed by a layer of horse manure and topped with a layer of straw. Over the Autumn and Winter everything under the straw will decompose and in Spring , once the straw is removed, there will be a mulch ready for planting in, without the necessity of digging into the soil.
Thank you to Mr. Paul O’Flynn, who gave an informative talk on the advantages of the “no dig” method, the students on the CETB course and volunteers from Charleville Tidy Towns who worked together to complete this project.