AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
It’s that time of year again, time to go wild and think about the birds and the bees, especially the bees. In Britain No Mow May is set to silence the seasonal whirring of lawn mowers – well some of them. Here the No Mow movement has the approval of the All Ireland Pollinator Plan, responsible for the way public land is managed and for making recommendation for pollinator friendly practices.
The idea is to leave off mowing and allow the wildflowers likely to be present in lawns, like daisies and clover to bloom, providing food and habitat for pollinators and other creatures. It can be vital to their survival.
Ironically, although we may be disturbed about the plight of starving polar bears on the melting ice cap, we may not be aware that the same kind of thing can be happening outside the windows of our own homes.
A third of Ireland’s wild bees are threatened with extinction, mainly due to the fact that they don’t have enough food. By leaving our lawns unmown for a few weeks to allow wild flowers to bloom there, rather than getting their heads chopped off, we could be throwing bees a lifeline, aside from honey bees we have over a hundred different species of bumble bees in Ireland. Mowing less frequently and removing grass cuttings so that they don’t enrich the soil helps to encourage wildflowers which flourish on poor soils.
There are options to no mowing like rewilding: allowing grasses to grow long and seed and wild flowers to emerge perhaps in a part of the garden or on verges, creating a happy habitat for butterflies and moths. Another is to try to create a wild flower meadow. This involves a bit of management though, as grasses tend to dominate and wild flowers won’t necessarily appear automatically. Sowing meadow hay rattle, which is semi parasitic on grasses, helps to keeps them in check and allows other native species like bird’s foot trefoil, cowslip, buttercups and many more varieties to prosper.
The breath-taking wild flower meadow at Kilmacurragh Botanic Gardens, Co. Wicklow boasts a rainbow of 148 different species. Wild areas and meadows only need to be mown twice a year, in September when wildflower seeds have set and in spring to remove winter growth.
A less ambitious alternative is cheat a bit and to clear an area of grass or part of a border and sow wildflower seeds there. The inexpensive boxes of wildflower seeds available in supermarkets like Lidl and garden centres seem to germinate much better than the posh, expensive little envelopes of seeds and the results look gorgeous.
Conserving Brazilian rainforests are carbon sinks protecting the environment but did you know that our own native wet peatlands can store four times more carbon? Practising conservation and sustainability at home in our own gardens all adds up and helps the environment too. At Powerscourt in Co. Wicklow, the No. 3 top private gardens in the world, head gardener Alex Slazenger and his team have been evolving and practising sustainable gardening methods which work just as well for small gardens.
Measures range from planting pollinator friendly flowers like sedums and alliums, using nitrogen fixing plants like sweet peas which enrich the soil and green manure (made from plants) to help soil structure. Companion planting, (using mutually beneficial species together) helps prevent pests and diseases naturally rather than relying on pesticides.
For instance Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ is planted with roses to give protection against fungal infections like black spot. Powerscourt gardeners use compost produced on the 1,000- acre estate (47 acres are managed) as a mulch around trees to prevent moisture loss and visitors trampling the ground beneath them.
Sustainability is about keeping things going without biodiversity suffering and protecting the carbons sinks of soil and water, explains Rosemary O’Flynn the gardener is in charge of Powerscourt’s spectacular double herbaceous borders, the longest in Ireland.
“With no mow policy or rewilding it’s amazing to see plants like early spotted orchid and lady’s slipper returning.”
Lawns make a green frame for the rest of gardens, setting off flowerbeds and shrubs but they can also be valuable larders.
Just now I am enjoying watching bumble bees feasting on nectar in dandelions which have put their heads up among my unshorn grass.
