8 minute read
Marianne Heron
As I See It
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is is high season for garden lovers. A time to go garden visiting, enjoy garden shows or just sit back and smell the roses. But change is underway for enthusiasts, with the move to rewilding and a more nature-friendly approach to gardening.
Converts argue that we should let nature take its course, enhance habitat for birds and bees, encourage native ora instead of buying imported blooms and just let the grass grow under our feet. But just how wild are you prepared to go? Would you hang up your lawnmower, let bindweed choke your blooms and insist that your local park be turned into a football-unfriendly hay meadow?
It all takes a bit of getting used to for traditional gardeners. BBC’s Gardeners World presenter Monty Don, viewing an exhibit at last Month’s Chelsea Flower Show featuring a grass knoll, a weathered hut and a beavers’ dam where no beaver in its right senses would build one, remarked: “I wouldn’t call that a Garden.” e garden in question, sponsored by Rewilding Britain, went on to win Best in show. ere’s no doubt that wild or naturalistic e ects can be enchanting, what wasn’t to like about the meadow-e ect in front of Trinity College, frothing with marguerites and campion? And wonderful things do happen when lawns are left to nature, dormant wild ower seeds germinate and ourish while pollinators increase. is back to the future trend has produced a wonderful wild ower meadow, home to 148 di erent species at Kilmacurragh Botanic Gardens, Co Wicklow. e display there begins with a magical carpet of crocuses in February/March before the start of the wild ower season. e amazingly even spread of the crocuses was caused by mice who propagated the bulbs as they feasted on their pollen. ere is a bit of management involved in creating a successful meadow though. One of them is to sow meadow hay rattle, a yellow owered plant which is semi-parasitic on grasses, Kilmacurragh’s Head Gardener Seamus OBrien told me. Reducing grass growth allows wild ower to ourish and the meadow there is mown only twice a year, in September when wild ower seeds have set and in spring to remove winter growth.
Wilding is growing in the wider context of public lands and the countryside. e All-Ireland Pollinator plan is responsible for the change in the way that public lands like parks are being managed and includes recommendations for pollinator friendly actions which could be adopted by local authorities, businesses, schools and farms.
ese include ideas like leaving verges unmown, cutting down on pesticides and creating wild ower meadows. I saw this in action in a triangle of previously shorn grass in my neighbourhood. Now it’s billowing with owers, including purple orchids, di erent grasses and alive with pollinators.
In Co Clare there is a delightfully named initiative, the Hare’s Corner, named for the custom of leaving awkward corners of elds to nature. is has resulted in the creation of 38 mini woodlands, 43 mini orchards and 30 ponds for wildlife around the county, thanks to a pilot scheme last year run by the Burrenbeo Trust charity. It’s the kind of project that could be copied by other counties.
Rewilding is the kind of thing that anyone with a patch of their own or a neglected corner in their neighbourhood can experiment with, maybe a small start but collectively it can make big a di erence. One green ngered friend expanded her activities with what she called commando gardening, planting banks and verges in her area with seeds and slips. e neighbours loved it. ere is nothing new about wilding. Irishman William Robinson wrote his inspirational book e Wild Garden in 1870. His in uential ideas on naturalistic planting were a reaction against regimented Victorian gardens with their frequently changed beds of hot- housed bedding plants, (Robinson is said to have been sacked from his job at Ballykilcavan, Co Laois for leaving the tender contents of the glasshouses to die with the window open and the boiler out.)
Inspirational gardens to visit in thes ‘Robinsonian style’ include Mount Usher, Co Wicklow, Anne’s Grove, Co Cork, Mount Congreve, Co Waterford and Dereen. Co Kerry.
Robinson made an eloquent plea for wildness which allows plants to naturalise in every kind of garden. Looking at a carpet of Fritillaria, nodding their gingham checked heads under the trees at Mount Usher recently, I found it hard to resist going wild.
Rescue Remedy to the rescue
CLAIR WHITTY
I think that most of you will know that I love Bach Rescue Remedy. is is the little Bach Flower remedy in the yellow bottle that I have talked about and used now for over 25 years. It contains ve of the Bach Flowers combined to provide comfort and reassurance, and support your emotional balance at busy or worrying times in your life. You could use it if you or worried about traveling, going to the doctor, doing exams, or public speaking, or any other time that you might feel under pressure. For me, it has a calming and relaxing e ect that helps me to function and focus more e ectively when I need to. I regularly use it before radio interviews and my mother uses it to relax when she is worried about certain things. She nds it especially useful at night time.
Because I love Rescue Remedy so much, I was very excited when I saw two new Rescue supplements. ey both contain Rescue Remedy plus other nutrients to support you during the day, or during at night.
For daytime use there’s Balance & Positivity, I love the name they chose. It’s formulated to support emotional balance and to help you maintain a positive outlook during busy days. It contains the original Rescue blend with the addition of Crocus sativus extract (Sa ron), L- eanine, and B vitamins in a one- a- day vegan capsule. e blend is formulated to support mood, focus, concentration and well-being, so that you stay balanced through busy days. Bach Rescue Peaceful Night capsules are especially formulated to help you achieve a restful night’s sleep, so that you can wake up feeling refreshed. It contains the Rescue Night ower essences as well as: Ashwagandha and Lemon Balm to help aid relaxation and support healthy sleep, chamomile which contributes to normal healthy sleep by promoting relaxation. Plus, it contains magnesium which many of you use already to aid relaxation and to promote sleep. All in a one-a -day vegan capsule. ere are many times when I would recommend Rescue Remedy alongside other herbal products for optimum bene t, so I am delighted to have these options. It makes economic sense and you need to take less supplements too. ey are well worth taking a look at, I think you’ll like them.
Shop online at www.naturalhealthstore.ie where you’ll be able to take a look at these brands. Natural Health Store, Market Cross Shopping Centre Phone: 056 7764538 Email: info@naturalhealthstore.ie
Minister O’Brien has failed to address a ordability in Kilkenny as house prices spiral upwards
BY: DEPUTY KATHLEEN
FUNCHION
SINN FEIN TD FOR KILKENNY CARLOW
Sinn Féin TD for Carlow Kilkenny Kathleen Funchion has said that the latest Daft. ie house price report shows that despite two years in o ce, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has utterly failed to address the a ordable housing crisis of people in Kilkenny. e report shows house prices in the county rising by 8.1% in the last 12 months.
Teachta Funchion said:
‘ e latest Daft.ie house price report shows house prices continue to spiral upwards.
“Darragh O’Brien has been Minister for Housing for two full years. Monday June 27 is the second anniversary of his tenure of o ce. During that time, he and Fianna Fáil in Government have utterly failed to address the a ordable housing crisis.
“He has delivered a handful of a ordable homes to purchase, despite inheriting a €300 million fund from his predecessor that was meant to deliver 6000 a ordable homes by 2021.
“During his two years in o ce, homelessness has re-o ce, homelessness has returned to pre pandemic turned to pre pandemic levels. In the last 12 levels. In the last 12 months child home-months child homelessness is up over lessness is up over 40%. Single person 40%. Single person homelessness has homelessness has reached 5000 or reached 5000 or the rst time. the rst time.
“Meanwhile “Meanwhile the crisis in the the crisis in the private rental private rental sector gets sector gets progressively progressively worse. Rents worse. Rents spiral upwards upwards while the while the sector is sector is shrinking as accidental and semiprofessional landlords exit the market.
“Report after report on house prices, rents and homelessness demonstrate that this Government is failing an even greater number of people, and that Minister O’Brien is that Minister O’Brien is failing as his predecessor failing as his predecessor Eoghan Murphy did. Eoghan Murphy did. “Budget 2023 is “Budget 2023 is an opportunity to an opportunity to change direction. change direction. To dramatically To dramatically increase direct increase direct capital investment capital investment in the delivery of at in the delivery of at least 20,000 public least 20,000 public homes nation-homes nation ally a year ally a year to meet to meet social social and af-and af fordable fordable housing housing needs. needs. is is is is what is what is required required to tackle to tackle the ever the ever growing af-growing af fordability fordability crisis.” crisis.”
