Kilkenny to reduce grass cutting and embrace dandelions to help pollinators

We may learn to appreciate the sight of long grass and much-maligned ‘weeds’ such as dandelions in some areas, as Kilkenny embraces its responsibility to help under-threat pollinators such as bees.

Kilkenny County Council recently became the first local authority in the country to sign up to the All Ireland Pollinator Plan; putting this into effect requires action on a number of fronts.

One of seven action areas the council is looking at is reducing the frequency of mowing in some areas, including verges, parks, and housing estates. Delaying mowing allows, for example, dandelions to keep growing, and they are an important early food source for pollinators emerging from the winter.

At the December meeting of the Piltown Municipal District, Kilkenny’s heritage officer Dearbhala Ledwidge warned councillors that up to 30% of Ireland’s pollinators face extinction. She said we have to move away from the image of ‘short grass is tidy and good’ and ‘long grass is untidy’.

“We need to flip that on its head,” she said.

This area is not without its challenges. The council currently has contracts in place with contractors to cut grass. These contracts will have to be looked at afresh when they are being renewed or new ones agreed: “We need to look at the wording of them,” says Ms Ledwidge.

Then there is the issue of getting the public on board. The heritage officer said that in areas where the grass is let grow longer, signs would be put up to let people know what the council was doing. Area chairman Eamon Aylward welcomed this, and said if grass appeared to be unkempt, the councillors were going to be getting phone calls.

“You summed it up in terms of what needs to happen — a-sea change in all our actions,” he said.

Cllr Aylward said that for a long time, dandelions were the worst thing you could have in your garden, but now their role was recognised.

Cllr Ger Frisby said the main driver would be young people, and others would adjust.

“It is a mindset thing,” he said.

“It’s like the smoking ban - people have to get their heads around it.”

There may be changes also to the disposal of grass. Collecting, transporting and disposing grass cuttings is expensive, and at present, grass is often mulched and spread on the treated area.

This practice has been queried previously, with one former South Kilkenny councillor calling for grass to be brought to recycling centres. Last year, a council engineer said this was ‘not practical’ and transport involved could quadruple the cost.

However, last week, Ms Ledwidge said leaving the cuttings is a source of nutrients for the grass as opposed to perennial wildflowers. It’s also about changing perceptions of ‘weeds’, which may in fact be wildflowers. The advice at present is not necessarily to actively plant these wildflowers, but to let nature takes its course.

Ms Ledwidge said that there appears to be only one company in Ireland producing genuine native Irish seeds. Others are producing imported seeds, and people may not know what is in them or if it is appropriate to sow them in certain locations.

“We are not going to support buying wildflower seeds anymore — what we are saying is let it come up naturally,” she said.

“We just need to manage it to let it come out. We are really going to be putting an emphasis on what’s already there and helping it to grow.”