Move for more hanging baskets

Kilcullen Tidy Towns is to ask homeowners and businesses on Main Street to consider the purchase of hanging flower baskets with irrigation systems for next year.

The matter was raised at the recent KCA meeting, when Noel Clare gave details of the systems, which are battery operated and for €75 provide a system capable of dealing with 25 baskets.

"They are very unobtrusive and only need to be connected to a water supply," he said. "The idea is that a group of houses could link together with a system. There's also an automatic unit for another €35."

Saying that 'apart from a very few people', the use of window-boxes and hanging baskets in Kilcullen 'has been very poor', Noel said he was raising the matter now because it was the time to organise for next summer.

"In a way, this should be the summer equivalent of Christmas Lights," he suggested. "It is likely that the difficulty of keeping the baskets watered is what is stopping people from using them. We could approach a nursery and find out the cost of providing the baskets, ready planted, and then approach people with the proposition of taking the baskets and the irrigation systems together."

He suggested that a particular area could be targeted for a pilot project.

In the discussion, Dunlavin was twice mentioned as having an 'amazing display' of flower baskets. "We really should hang our heads in shame," Margaret O'Shea commented.

Brian Byrne.