ONE man went to mow, went to mow a meadow

One man and his dog

Went to mow a meadow

Eight men went to mow

Went to mow a meadow

Eight men, Seven men, six men, five men

Four men, three men, two men, one man

And his dog

Went to mow a meadow

In the nursery rhyme One Man Went To Mow, in each verse a man is added, ending with eight. But it is a counting backwards rhyme. This brings us to the subject of meadows, of which there has been much conversation and confusion recently.

People have heard the slogan ‘No Mow May’ but took it at face value, thinking that the simple act of not mowing would produce a wild flower meadow. The slogan is misleading, with the idea that if you don’t mow you will get wild flowers - wrong.

Not mowing may result in an odd wild flower but not many, unless the soil used in the first place was sourced from an area where wild flowers grew. But most modern grass verges do not come from such areas and are sown down with just grass, which smothers all other growth out to produce just grass!

So what can be done to produce wild flowers? Firstly, do not sow simply grass - all you will get is grass! You need a proper wild flower mixture of UK native wildflowers and meadow grasses blended and carefully formulated to contain the correct species (native to Britain) and proportions to produce a natural wild look.

It’s important to mow your new perennial or mixed meadow regularly in the first year after sowing, to encourage the perennial flowers and grasses to make strong root growth.

Cut to a height of 2in (5cm) about six to eight weeks after the seedlings appear, and repeat every two months throughout the first summer. These cuts can be lower, at 1.5in (4cm).

The following year cut to a height of 3in (7.5cm). Do this no later than the end of April.

The main cut should be done around the second week of July. This cut material should be left in place for a few days for the seeds to drop to the ground. Then must be raked up and removed, to help reduce the soils fertility - and NOT left on the ground thus increasing fertility, a common mistake.

Following these few simple rules we should soon be looking at Bradford’s highways and byways in their resplendent best and helping to restore natural wildflower habitats for our bees, butterflies, birds and wildlife to produce a Year of Culture to be proud of.

The wet season so far has not helped flower production, so what can we do? The answer is high potash liquid feed, given at last once per week to our hanging baskets and window boxes, and any other plant that you think is under performing.

The obvious choice is tomato feed which is a high potash source. But there are plenty of other options with liquid feeds. Phostrogen is one of them NPK 14-20-27, and is one of my favourites. Throughout July keep up with dead heading of all your flowering plants. Dead heading will keep up the flowering. When liquid feeding this should be preceded by watering the plants first then applying the liquid feed. Liquid feed acts straight away and there is no delay in taking effect. Dead heading and feeding will bring rich rewards.

Lawns can also be given a dry lawn feed - just before rain is due is a good time for this.

Feeding should be kept up in the greenhouse especially cucumbers who are ‘gross’ feeders. It will soon be time to start harvesting French/broad and runner beans. Continue succession sowing of salad crops.

Brassicas - cabbage, cauliflower etc - will get white fly. (Where do these critters come from?) A sure way to prevent damage is to cover the whole Brassicas bed with a product called Enviromesh. This is a very fine weave net which the pests can’t penetrate. A framework can be made of canes to support the product, which will also keep at bay cabbage root fly, carrot fly, leaf miners and a few other pests that want to eat your crops.

Peter reflects on his gardening career in his book Peter reflects on his gardening career in his book (Image: Peter Fawcett)

Another weapon to use against white fly are the large yellow sticky traps. Place these on sticks in between the Brassicas.These can be useful if the plants already have a bad attack, simply shake the plants and the white fly will fly off straight onto the bright yellow traps. A few shakes every day on passing gives good control of this pesky nuisance.

When day,

expiring in the west,

The curtain

draws of Nature’s rest;

He flies to

her arms he lo’es the best,

The Gardener wi’ his paidle.

Robert Burns.

* Gardener’s Delight by Peter Fawcett is available at peterfawcett0@gmail.com or (01274) 873026.