No Mow May

[TabithaTimeTurner]

Just a little friendly reminder that if you could not mow your lawn for May the insects and flowers would be very grateful. Even leaving a small wild patch can really help. Plus it gives the lazy fuckers amongst us an excuse not to mow the lawn for a while 😁

This is from Plant Life:
We’ve lost approximately 97% of flower-rich meadows since the 1930’s and with them gone are vital food needed by pollinators, like bees and butterflies.But your lawn can help! A healthy lawn with some long grass and wildflowers benefits wildlife, tackles pollution and can even lock away carbon below ground. With over 20 million gardens in the UK, even the smallest grassy patches add up to a significant proportion of our land which, if managed properly, can deliver enormous gains for nature, communities and the climate.This is why Plantlife calls for people to get involved with #NoMowMay every year, and let wild plants get a head start on the summer.Best of all, to reap these benefits all you have to do is not mow your lawn in May and beyond!Join the movement here https://www.plantlife.org.uk/campaigns/no-mow-may-registration-2024/

www.rewildingmag.com/no-mow-may-downside/amp/

I feel like we’ve had the longest winter ever, I was getting physically depressed seeing constant pissing down rain. Now there is this wonderful yellow ball in the sky and I want my garden looking top notch.

I have a large garden, with lots of wild areas and a huge border, but I will be mowing the lawn, it looks so much better when mowed.

I did “no mow (most of) April” - long enough for the spring wildflowers to properly come through so when I mowed yesterday I was able to dodge the orchid, foxgloves and cowslips while taking out the fast-growing avens, marjoram and periwinkle that take over if I don’t keep chopping them down. Mowing yesterday took me 2 hours and I emptied the back basket 9 times - from now on I’m keeping it short.

@BigBadBarri Including disabled people? Nice

Won’t be happening here unfortunately, DH likes a manicured lawn. We do have lots of flowers/herbs/wild flowers around the said perfect cricket pitch, oops I mean lawn.

I said willingly. Presumably it’s not something disabled people actually want, but have to have as they can’t manage a mower.

All you will get after a month of no mowing is dandelions and daisy's. If you want proper meadow you need to just strim once a year in late September although it will take several years and some extra seeds to get anything decent.

If you want to help the bees make more flower beds and get a good mix of hedgerow type flowers in them so they have something to use throughout the whole growing season. Bluebells, forgetmenots, foxgloves etc.

I did this last year, ruined the lawn as it got so long I couldn’t mow it properly and it’s still difficult to cut now.

Im on my own and filled the wheels bin to the top mowing it last week it still looks awful.

Wish I’d just mowed as usual.

The idea is mainly to allow dandelions to grow, to provide food for bees. My garden is an absolute haven for pollinators to the point where you can't open a window without bumblebees flying in, and they're so stupid they can't get out again. It's much better to plant a select few shrubs, trees or perennials that pollinators really love that also provide structure in the garden and soak up excess water in the wet months. Chucking a few wildflower seeds about and letting the grass grow too long just makes a mess.

Obviously if you have a wild patch or find it difficult to cut the grass it does not apply to you. I think it’s just to get your average Joe thinking that a perfectly manicured garden is not wildlife friendly and if they leave it for May then they realise they have an abundance of bees and other pollinators and so maybe leave it for longer than just May.

I personally just have a long strip at the side of my lawn which grows all sorts of wild plants and I don’t cut it again until autumn. The amount of bees, butterflies and other creatures it attracts is phenomenal. Also if you just have a paved over yard think about having a couple of tubs full of wild flowers. Every little helps.

Artificial grass should be banned it is grotesque stuff. Anyone who cannot manage a lawn should look into camomile lawns and low maintenance slow growing coverage or just stick to paving - at least that doesn’t leach plastic into the soil and plants can grow in between the slabs.

All you will get after a month of no mowing is dandelions and daisy's

Which are both vital for wildlife. Dandelions have been the bad guys for so long, it’s time we sung their praises.

But

1. why dandelions? There are plenty of other plants around, why are dandelins good? Looking at the article linked above dandelions were NOT actually that great.
2. what happens at the end of May? there aren't suddenly loads of other flowers around, so what happens to all those bees?

I don't mind the principle being eg longer verges for wildlife (where it is safe - I have noticed a few places where the visibility on corners is vastly reduced) where we generally rethink the large open grassy spaces, and instead have mown paths through wildflower meadows, I am all for this sorts of reconsiderations. I am thinking (partly from this thread) about a sections of my garden to encourage to be wild. All those things are great.

I just don't see how long grass in gardens for one month actually contributes to that.

Isn’t it every bit helps? I only just managed to mow the lawn just before May but try to resist mowing it every year because I’m the only one in our area and it looks awful until the flowers come up. My poor lawn mower had a hard time it was that deep and after May it will be difficult again. But I do love the flowers and probably won’t get to mow the lawn until late June like last year - I do feel judged.

if there were plaques or competitions I think there would be a lot of competition instead of scorn - it needed marketing better from the start!

but it isn't scorn.

It is genuinely asking - does this help or make a difference?
Or does it just ruin the chance of having any grass in the garden for the rest of the summer?

I oculdn't care less what the neighbours think. My lawn has been mown a couple of times already this year, last time was 2 weeks ago and it is SO long now, that I would already struggle to mow it if I did it today.

There is no way that I will be able to cut it in another 3 weeks. I would need to buy a strimmer, and rake it up which is a huge job compared to 40 minutes with the mower if I do it today.

So it is a serious question, does it actually make a difference or is it a gimmick? Is it about encouraging all of us to be less anal about lawns, and letting there be wild spaces, (fair enough) or is it actually helpful for someone with a grass lawn to not mow it for 4 weeks. Especially given that any flowers that do grow will not be able to make seeds.

This is what I do as well.

I would love to join in, but I'm afraid our unmown lawn doesn't look like any I see online. It looks an absolute mess.
We've got big patches of clover in it and when that's in flower, we do mow around it at least.

steppemum I know it’s dismay from our next door neighbour and I really do not know. all I do know is it’s worth the glorious flowers that surprise you. Earlier this year I was amazed at how pretty a patch of moss on my poor drive looked with its pretty headed seeds or flowers or whatever they are called. However I was also amazed at the caterpillars that devoured the box hedge leaving me with dead bushes after the second year.

My husband will be mowing our lawn. I suffer from hayfever.

This is the reasoning why no now may is chosen rather than other months: this is based on a little bit of bumblebee/ pollinator knowledge so may be way off but someone cleverer than me explained it to me.

I’m going to focus on the bumbles as I know more about them. In order to create healthy nests, bumblebees need to get off to a good start in early summer - this is a time there are relatively few flowers around in gardens vs later summer, but lots of wild flowers which want to bloom as early as poss and set seed to maximise their time. By giving them a boost in May we create strong colonies, which then have enough workers to feed more babies. If the workers have to spend more time foraging further afield in the early days when there are less of them, it’s harder. A bumblebee uses an insane amount of energy to fly, so if plants are too far apart, it just won’t make it.

likewise thinking about plant diversity, giving a few plants the time to flower and set seed early maximises the impact. Many wild flowers want to flower early, so May is prime time for many of them. Later in the season they won’t be so keen to flower/some simply won’t.

No mow may won’t give you a gorgeous wildflower meadow of the type we are hugely loosing in the uk: that needs very different management and a LOT more work! But no mow may as I understand it has some real science behind it.

plus, it allows people to get used to the beauty of a less ‘bowling green’ lawn in a manageable chunk of time. If they decide they like it, they might raise the mower blades a bit so a few daisies can flower all year round. Or decide to leave a patch of lawn to become a true wildflower meadow.

I live in an area with high rates of Lyme Disease. I don’t let the grass get long round my house as I don’t want give questing ticks a ladder to hitch a ride on passing person or animal.

Already had Lyme Disease once, developed the bullseye rash and was able to get antibiotics, thank god. Was still floored whilst taking them and it took me a while to catch up to get back to myself after that. Hopefully never again.

If we did no mow May we would be knee deep in grass. DH would have conniptions. Thankfully our garden has an abundance of bee friendly plants.

It's not just about bees, but other insects too, which support the birds with food for their babies, and bats which are in decline.

No mow may does increase the amount of insects for the birds and bats etc at a crucial time of year as they raise babies (bats are pregnant now and building strength after hibernation before giving birth).

The best thing g we can all do is leave a wild patch somewhere in our gardens and put in small ponds, and then connect the landscape by making sure there's hedgehog holes in fences etc.

It is a little bit gimmicky but it's supposed to get people thinking about making really beneficial space (and time) for nature in their garden

My brother is a gardener and he said given my lawn has so many dandelions anyway, best to give NoMow May a miss, even though he's very ecologically conscious. He said it gives the strong dandelions (and the other one which is more hairy but similar) an opportunity to block out the other weaker plants.

We have quite a large garden with an orchard at the bottom- so we mow the top part near the house and leave the bottom with the fruit trees. Large mixed perenial borders constantly full of flowers. We have hives at the bottom and the garden is full of happy bees.

I don't do no mow May as I suspect it's bullshit to cover council cuts. I do however allow a bee colony to inhabit a chimney pot (they've been there for seven years at least). They seem not to mind my aversion to no mow May, and feed on the blossoms from the neighbouring cherries. They were swarming earlier today (probably to form a new breakaway hive). So it's swings and roundabouts really.