Sustainability
Increasing biodiversity - Pollinator Plan
Our goal is that 80% of the plants we plant are pollinator friendly plants.
Examples of some of the pollinator friendly actions we have taken are:
- The planters in the village and the flower beds we maintain around the village all contain pollinator friendly species
- The area under the trees opposite Supervalu, the Watermill Woodland, has a bug hotel and is maintained as a habitat for woodland plants.
- We support 'no mow May' which encourages people not to cut their lawns in May and allow wildflowers to bloom.
Leaf Composting
Sweeping up the leaves from the deciduous trees is one of the big jobs we do in Raheny each autumn. We leave the leaves alone where possible but it is important to have footpaths clear to avoid injury to pedestrians.
We now have three large leaf compost bins in the Scout's Den and one on Watermill Road to compost leaves.
Water Conservation
We have installed water butts in the Scouts Den and the church and use this to water plants in the village. In the planters and hanging baskets, we choose drought-tolerant plants which need less watering.
River Santry
One of our long term goals is to make a river walk through the village.
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The River Santry and surrounding area is cleaned regularly. DCC Pollution Control cleaned the river from Lough Derg to the village and removed a huge amount of rubbish but there is still a lot to do.
The vegetation beside the river has been tidied but still has a wild, natural look. We are always striving to encourage biodiversity and the natural vegetation along the river bank is flourishing. The flower bed beside the Scouts Den has been planted with native species to encourage pollinators and a bug hotel has been installed to provide a habitat for insect life.
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Two of our volunteers received Community Grant Funding to attend a training course on monitoring water quality using macroinvertebrates. The aim is to monitor the water quality of the Santry river, raise awareness about the importance of the river in our community and train other volunteers how to carry out invertebrate surveys.
Sustainable Planting
We aim to grow more and more plants from seed, cuttings, or donations from our volunteers' gardens in order to reduce plastic waste. The herb planter in this photo was planted with chives, thyme, mint and oregano donated from the gardens of volunteers.
Sunflower Competition
The Raheny Tidy Village ‘Tallest Sunflower’ competition was devised to raise awareness about the importance of pollinator friendly plants. It has been a great success so far with entries from across the community from individuals, schools and nurseries.
Watermill Woodland
We identified the woodland area beside the shops at the corner of Watermill Road as one place that could be improved and enjoyed by the local community. A pathway was made through the woodland and a Fairy House and a bird feeder box have been placed at the centre of the woodland. The Raheny Men’s Sheds were very generous in donating pollinator signs for the area.
Further work is continuing to enhance the woodland: foxgloves (donated by St Anne’s City Farm), primroses and cowslips were planted and work to remove the dock plants from under the trees is ongoing.
Bird boxes will be a later addition and signage for ‘Watermill Woodland’ has been ordered.