The worldwide trend of wilding and re-wilding land, parks, fields and gardens is beginning to gain a foothold in Ireland. Throughout the country more and more places are reverting to a natural wildflower environment. Including the front lawn at Trinity College, Dublin.
Recently I in was in the Cooley Peninsula, Co. Louth, it is a long finger of land between Dundalk Bay and Carlingford Lough on the border with Northern Ireland. It is where President Biden’s ancestors came from. I saw examples of wilding and re-wilding and both were so pretty I thought I should share the images.
In one a meadow has appeared at the centre of the Ballymacscanlon Roundabout at Junction 18 on the M1 motorway. It links Dublin and Northern Ireland. This nondescript roundabout has been turned into a haven of beautiful and colourful wildflowers.
Blue, pink and white cornflowers wave in the breeze and poppies are jewels of colour. I have never seen black poppies but they are here along with, pink, yellow, purple and orange ones. Looking down there are purple alliums like balls of fluffs among the stems and grasses. There are lots of other flowers, but my knowledge does not stretch to all their names. So, I just enjoyed looking at them.
Wild Red Poppies
I continued on my trip towards coastal Bellagan Point on Dundalk Bay, with views of the majestic Cooley Mountains in the distance. As I neared the coast I was charmed by a bank of red poppies growing wild on a hillock at the side of a road as they waved in the breeze and looked so cheerful. No one planted these red beauties, year after year they return like emigrants to their homelands.
Wildflowers in a city garden
This year we designated a flower bed in our garden in Dublin as a wildflower patch. We planted wildflower seeds in March. It seemed a long time before they appeared but now they are tall and thriving and every day brings new surprises.
The flower bed has mainly poppies, rapeseed, pink, blue and white cornflowers, cow parsley, evening stock, tiny petunias, and more. It has been a great success as we have seen a lot more bees in the garden this year. One day last week we had a big blue dragonfly visiting.
To all the visitors that cannot make it to Ireland this year and are missing these lovely sights remember wildflowers grow again and we hope you will be here next year to enjoy them with us. In the meantime here is a video of the Irish wildflowers.