THIS No-Mow May malarkey has really got out of hand.
Dúlra had no idea that a garden could grow that much in such a short period.
As you can see, it’s turned into a jungle. His pal Squinter did his own No-Mow May and this week made a public appeal for volunteers to turn up at his garden with machetes and flamethrowers! Dúlra knows how he feels – No-Mow May is threatening to turn into Up To My Thigh July.Modern-day lawnmowers aren’t built for this sort of action. They’re designed to breeze over a light covering of short grass blades, anything longer and you’ll soon see smoke billowing from their inner workings and another expensive mower will be for the scrapyard.
As Dúlra stared at the garden in resignation, a memory shimmered into view. His old granda, Tommy McKeown, expertly wielding his scythe, the long grass silently giving way all around him. His had two handles and the wooden pole rested snugly under his armpit. He’d have cut his wee Longlands garden in north Belfast – front and back – in minutes, but Dúlra doesn’t remember him using it there. Instead it was at his workplace, the massive Milltown Cemetery where he now rests, that Dúlra can picture him cutting the grass between the graves, before the advent of electric mowers and petrol strimmers. The sickle too was part of his armoury and he kept both razor sharp. But how would you go about getting traditional tools like that nowadays, Dúlra thought?
It’s amazing what plants spring up when the garden is allowed to grow. Gardeners call them weeds, but what is a weed but a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered? Unfortunately some of the leaves are reaching as high the bird feeders, which will be like a ladder for hungry garden mice.
They are not the only creatures who will thank you for doing nothing in your garden. Bugs will love their new surroundings – and they certainly need our help. Only people of a certain age will remember that during any trip to the country by car, once upon a time the windscreen and whole front would be spattered thick with insects. Not any more. With that in mind, the public are being asked to take part in an ingenious survey around the windscreen phenomenon by downloading a Buglife app to count the number of bug splats on your number plate after each journey. The ‘virtual splatometer’ allows you to take a photo within the app on your phone. Dúlra would guess that our insect life has been halved at least, and we’ve no idea what that means in terms of biodiversity.
The uncut lawn has proved a success for Dúlra, if not for his gardening better half. This week a pair of beautiful bullfinches – corcrán coille/pot belly of the woods in Irish – appeared. They couldn’t get enough of the groundsel – a wee yellow ‘weed’ – stuffing those thick beaks with the hairy seeds. Bullfinches are our most delightful finch, but their numbers are falling as our hedgerows continue to disappear. They don’t do flocks like other finches and there are always two of them because they pair for life.
It was worth letting the lawn grow for the bullfinches alone. So maybe he’ll forget about his granda’s scythe. Anyone care for Let It Bloom June?
• If you’ve seen or photographed anything interesting, or have any nature questions, you can text Dúlra on 07801 414804.
