What’s the buzz about “No Mow May”

Most of us remember that feeling of delight as a child, in a sea of grass, picking daisies, buttercups and clover, or blowing dandelion clocks. When did we start striving for a lawn that was a complete monoculture, with nothing other than short grass allowed? Products such as “Weed and Feed” promised us a problem-free lawn, & persuaded us to forget that we could have something much more colourful, something that makes up an important part of a diverse ecosystem.

So What is No Mow May?

You may have heard of “No Mow May”, or noticed over the last few years that some councils have left the grass to grow a bit longer, but is this another passing trend or is there something more important at stake?

As a nation of gardeners and animal lovers, a patch of lawn is the quintessential centerpiece to our gardens, but did you know that regular mowing, especially early in spring, has unintended consequences for our wildlife?

No Mow May is a campaign to encourage us all to give the flowers a chance to bloom and thereby provide an important food source and shelter for wildlife, at a time when it is needed most. Many of our pollinators, especially native bees, butterflies and moths, are in trouble because of pesticides, light pollution, habitat destruction and climate disruption. And don’t forget that hedgehogs, frogs, toads, newts and birds all need longer grass to thrive. Could the simple act of mowing less help our local ecology and herald a shift in the way we think about our neat velvety lawns, verges and parks?

Wildflowers and Weeds

One of the best ways to encourage wildflowers in our gardens is to leave the lawn to its own devices during spring and summer. The chances are that at least some wildflowers will appear if we hold back on mowing. The average lawn is usually home to what many would describe as weeds but with a slight shift of perspective, many of these so-called weeds will grow into lovely wildflowers. We may yet learn to love the rebel plants, growing in places not determined by us, the opportunists blossoming on the streets, populating our walls and alleys and gate crashing our garden parties with a lust for life and unpredictable joy.

A modest expectation from a lawn, left unmown, would be pretty little plants such as daisies, speedwell, self-heal, buttercups and clovers. But oxeye daisies, cowslips and even orchids might appear too. Just as in wildflower meadows across Britain, your soil type will determine which flowers will grow.

The Long and the Short of it

Whether your garden is big or small, keep different lengths of grass, leaving some patches completely unmown, allowing taller flowers to bloom, and for other parts of the lawn, mow once a month to a height of 1 to 2 inches. Plants like daisy, white clover and bird’s-foot trefoil are superbly adapted to growing in shorter swards. These short-grass, ‘mower-ducking’ plants stay low down with stems well out of the way of the mower blades, but continually produce large numbers of flowers every few weeks. In contrast, tall-grass species like oxeye daisy, red clover, field scabious and knapweed grow upright and take longer to reach flowering size. They can’t cope with being cut off regularly, so only bloom in grass that’s not been mown for several months or more.

As for the size and shape of your no-mow patch, it’s entirely up to you. If you have a small lawn, try a 1 metre-square micro-meadow. At the other extreme, why not leave most of the lawn unmown, with just a few paths meandering through?

Join the Campaign!

No Mow May is a campaign started by the Plant Life charity which asks garden-owners to avoid mowing their lawn in the month of May.

Taking part in Plantlife’s ‘Every Flower Counts’ is easy: Simply leave your mower in the shed for No Mow May and let the flowers grow. From 23rd May to 31st May take part by counting the number of flowers in a random square metre of your lawn. Enter your counts on the website https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk and instantly receive your very own Personal Nectar Score.

By Paul Jupp and Loulou Brouard