Taking care of weeds

By Breda McGuinness

No WEEDS! Just flowers in the wrong places perhaps? 

Dandelions and their like are valuable food for bees early in the year but there are places they really detract from the environment.

Loughrea Tidy Towns volunteers, along with two part-time workers, spent many days clearing our footpaths and kerbs. The unfortunate thing is that weeds are stubborn, and resilient, but and seem to return as soon as our backs are turned. It makes us feel that it’s all a bit futile or “Saothar in aisce”, but we will not give up the battle! 

We do not use commercial weedkiller as it will make its way into the water courses and the lake, so it’s just elbow grease, a good hoe or spade and determination.  

We are exploring some eco-friendly options I’m  and hope some of these may be helpful for Loughrea in time.

A few of us spent the best part of a day clearing weeds around the lake wall and playground. It turned out to be quite a social occasion as people stopped to chat and to help. We ended up with about 20 manure bags full of weeds and the place looked great.  We were quite proud of ourselves!

All the approach roads to the town and the streets were also weeded. 

Perhaps people don’t notice weeds sneaking up on them but if we could all take care of our own frontage, it would be a great help in keeping our streets looking well.