AIBU to think No Mow May is a pointless pile of crap?

[RuddyNorma]

It increases allergies and ticks, causes paths and road signs to be overgrown and difficult to use, and at the end of the month it all gets chopped down anyway. It doesn't re-wild anything, it's just putting off doing outdoor chores. Plus, I'm not seeing any rebate on my council tax, even though our council has done naff all gardening for this last four weeks. AIBU to think that we do need to have some kind of initiative to support green spaces but that simply downing tools for a month isn't it?

Well yes I do think that the people who own the land previously meadow now industrial farmed should be responsible for correcting it.

Didn't "no mow may" lead to "slice up a hedgehog June" last year or was that scaremongering?

I have an area of my garden that now will not be mown until October time, its an area that's not included in the main lawn area so I just leave it be to feed the bugs.

Main road T junctions and roadsides however, IMO are a danger not being mown at least 3 foot back from the kerbside.
I've recently reported a few local T junctions where I live as you just can't see on coming traffic over the growth...many more have been reported by others where it impeeds sight of on coming traffic when pulling out onto main roads in local areas.
The general reply was grass verges near these roads will be given 2 cuts this year

I would much sooner the council left all verges / fields etc .. all the time, unless they are causing a hazard.

At the T-junction where the road from my estate joins the main road, the grass on the verge is so long that you can't see if anything's coming up the hill unless you pull out halfway into the road.

I briefly contemplated going down there with my strimmer to sort it out, but then I reminded myself that our council tax is about the 4th highest in the country. I emailed the council and told them it was dangerous.

Needless to say, they haven't done anything about it yet.

That and "pebbledash with nestled dog turds".

An OP for whom the word Curmudgeon could have been invented.
Give Over, and stop being so daft!

I think it’s great and really important for our ecosystem. Read up about it op, some useful links/insight has been posted, I'm sure you’ll change your stance.

Our council only leave certain bits which have been planted for diversity, there are not mown until harvest time. It looks beautiful at the moment a blaze of colour.
We do it in our own garden and I’m debating leaving it until the poppies have gone to seed.

Oh yes right of course that's going to happen isn't

There is a value to it. But it’s a gimmick to save the council money here. I’d like to see paths kept clear, junctions and road signs kept visible. Wildflowers planted. Here it is just scruffy and very tall grass everywhere, hiding dog mess and fly tipping.

It looks lovely after the long bleak winter.

What if you are a farmer who cannot make a profit based on current food systems if you do this? A lot of farmers I know have other jobs at the same time now as it’s so hard already.

Incidentally I agree with you completely, but hay meadows were part of a very different farming system than today. Farming systems have a lot more to do with very complicated things than is ever acknowledged for example: food prices, and related to that house prices with what the UK public can cope with paying for their food.

Same.

How can saving the councils money be a bad thing??

@RuddyNorma

when you got out the wrong side of bed this morning, did you stand on a piece of Lego?

It is incredibly valuable to wildlife

Absolutely love it. The verges round here are a mass of beautiful white daisies, pink campion, buttercups and hundreds of other flowering plants. Bees, butterflies and pollinating insects are happy. As others have said, this is vital for biodiversity.
We have to decide if we want a world fit for nature (on which humans depend), or a world distorted for the convenience of cars.

My council did it last year. I live in a block of flats and we have a large piece of "communal garden" out the front (actually anyone can use it and it's used a lot by children playing).
As I said - last year the council did No Mow May. The flats then had a mouse infestation. Co-incidence? I really don't know.
This year they've cut the grass. So far - fingers crossed - no mice.

Agree. Son is an ecologist so I really do think it's the right option but road verges that are so overgrown is actually dangerous!I nearly hit a runner who ran straight across the junction I was pulling out of this morning!

I hate it because when my dog does a 💩 in the long grass, it’s really hard to pick it all up, but I do. They have started cutting a few areas here, but the Council are not picking up the grass, just leaving it, so what’s left under is dead looking. I know it will come back, but wonder if that’s what the Council wants. Our Council is one of the bankrupt ones and we are only getting 3 cuts the whole summer.

It’s not a bad thing. But they are pretending it’s for the environmental benefit. Greenwashing. There are lots of thing they could do to make an environmental benefit but instead there is much flag waving about no now may. They can tick a box without actually improving anything. And now they don’t need to do anything environmental- they “did” that already.

Doesn’t help that the council weedspray for the rest of the year. I keep bees and dandelions are a vital early food. But our council was spraying them in March!

So many people pointing out why it’s so important to insects. OP ignoring every single one.

When your council has gone bankrupt due to shady dealing.

I don't want the pocket park up the road overgrown and hiding dog shit.

I live in an area where there a lots of beautiful open spaces to let this happen.

Verges out side of houses and small parks for children are not one of them.

Dog shit - is it really the council responsible for that and not some shitty dog owner ?

I cut my grass in early May as I needed it to earth up potatoes, left it the rest of the month. I have daisies and buttercups, love in the mist along the fence. Kale flowers are as tall as I am, and the bees are loving them.