Portlaoise Lions growing green walls with award winning Tidy Towns

Portlaoise Lions Club have united with Portlaoise Tidy Towns to add "green walls" and more native trees to the Laois town.

The lions club have agreed to fund one of Portlaoise Tidy Town's projects from their Biodiversity Action Plan 2023-2028.

They collaborated together along with Michael Buckley, horticulturist with Laois County Council, to create a green wall and tree planting scheme at Fairgreen on the Mountmellick Road.

Green wall planting around Portlaoise has been one of the most successful projects undertaken by the group and has already benefited many parts of the town, including the Southern Circular Relief Road.

Vincent Booth, Chairperson of Portlaoise Tidy Towns welcomes their help.

"It is very encouraging and heart warming, when a group like Portlaoise Lions Club, contact us to offer us their support to the work we do and we very much appreciate it. 

"‘Portlaoise town have a great community spirit going between all the interested groups and the town looks all the better for it. All things considered this has been a most worthwhile collaboration and we say a big thank you to Portlaoise Lions Club," Vincent Booth said.

The Portlaoise Lions Club President is Sean Cruise.

"It has given us great pleasure to support Portlaoise Tidy Towns and be a part of their great story. It is right and fitting that we support these biodiversity projects in our area.

"The community of Portlaoise donates to our club to enable us to facilitate groups like the Tidy Towns, and other charities to serve our wonderful community. We are privileged to be able to serve this great town and district and I look forward to many more collaborations in the future," the lions president said.

The planting has already been completed.

The groups hope that it will be a constant reminder of their collaboration and at the same time, benefit the biodiversity of the Fairgreen area.

The Portlaoise Tidy Town's vision is to create ‘a town in a garden’ and the Fairgreen walls are just the latest of many projects to bring them closer to their goal. They are planting 30,000 trees in the town, and have plans to build rain gardens in housing estates as a flood prevention and biodiversity measure.

The plant used is pyrocantha, a native, evergreen plant which produces flowers and berries to benefit both pollinators and birds. It will grow in various soil types and withstand harsh weather conditions, helping it to look good all year round.

Rowan and Scots Pine trees have been planted close by, again native trees which are ideal to encourage the birds and the bees to return to Fairgreen.