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?

I think it looks lovely.

Let the future flourish, we didn't emerge and evolve with the help of lawn mowers. Mow late if you must, and remove the cuttings for composting to make it more hospitable for other plants. What you see growing provides some insight into some of the soil properties

Lawns are awfully plain and boring things too. Trees end bushes provide shade, and flowers feed the insects, amongst other things. My only definite plan upon moving into my house was getting rid of it in favour of more variety

Its actually really difficult to pick up dog shit in very long grass. I used to dread it in the garden and we didnt let the grass get that long, in long meadow length grass its almost impossible, you just cant get good purchase on it.

We’ve got a pretty big garden, something close to an acre all in. The chap we bought it from was retired and a dedicated gardener, and when we moved in it looked like a park or something out of a stately home. Very well planned and beautifully kept. But such a weird absence of birds.

Gradually over the 5 years that we’ve been here, it’s become less and less perfect, and in particular I haven’t hacked back the Ivy, and we’ve really cut down on mowing - there are bits of lawn that we only cut back at the end of the season. And I’ve noticed for the first time this year, all sorts of wildflowers growing in the unmown parts, and the birds! Nesting everywhere, I can sit and watch them at any time of day. Whereas 5 years it was like a bird ghost town!

So only a tiny bit of anecdotal evidence, but the possible benefits of No Mow May can really be seen in our garden!

Then run your dog elsewhere

Dogs are not essential in the way insects are

I was going to say similar. Unfortunately, bugs aren't the only thing that like long grass and you have to carefully consider whether you're happy with an increase in rodents and other wildlife encroaching into human space, too.

I am saying this, having just spent over £800 on pest control for a pigeon infestation (they came due to my bird feeders), a bee infestation (they made their home in my walls the year after I planted bee-friendly flowers everywhere) and have found my first dead mouse in the garden, which, thankfully, the neighbour's cat took care of.

So I'm feeling a little less nature-friendly this year.

Where I live all of the central reservations and verges are absolutely teeming with wildflowers and insects and it is just beautiful. A riot of colour! We are destroying out planet with commercialism and pollution and the wildlife need this tiny little boost to help them. I said to my husband just last week that I've seen lots and lots of bees this year, more than I've ever seen in the last decade or so.

I don't want the ticks so ours is short. But I have an abundance of early spring flowers and shrubs and my house backs onto a brae which is totally wild.

Our lawn is also choked with trefoil if we don't rake it up at this time of year. I don't like to use weedkiller and if I don't get it up you'd never get on top of it.

I have put wildflowers seeds on the brae instead to further encourage habitat for insects.

Perhaps in towns and cities it's more useful or in gardens lacking year round planting.

According to spring watch it’s already made a 5% difference to butterflies in previous years

imagine if that was across all gardens and verges?

And the houses on the meadows? Now with verges in front?

edited to add.

and again as the previous poster said populations are fragmented which causes inbreeding and issues. By linking them up with verges and gardens your creating a complete jigsaw puzzle instead of isolated pieces

There's a grass verge outside two houses in my village. One half of it is mowed short, every daisy is decapitated. The other half is 10cm long and looks lovely. My lawn is ankle deep and gorgeous with daisies, buttercups and speedwell. I'm doing No Mow May again next year.

We moved house a few years ago and there were a lot of dead wasps on the loft floor .
The previous people said it happened every year, wasps getting in to nest.

I'd seen somewhere that if you inflate brown paper bags and hang them up the wasps will think they've been beaten to the area and leave looking elsewhere.

It actually worked so I'll be checking and adding more bags this year.

Bloody dangerous as a driver, can't see what's coming! The birds in my garden are always very appreciative of a freshly cut lawn, makes finding the worms easier.

if the bees were nesting in your walls they probably would have been mason or tree bumble bees.
mason bees are solitary and can’t sting and tree bumble bees rarely sting. Only the females can sting and they rarely rarely do

Wasps are, thankfully, relatively easy to deal with.
Bees, less so (I got a live removal, they can cause significant structural damage, just like some wasp species).

But it doesn't have to be insects.

I have a huge amount of garden spiders which love the parts of the garden that are still overgrown. Rodents love long grass. Bats love the insects they attract. Pigeons set up anywhere where nature and humans shake hands. Other birds cannot be removed until after breeding season, but can also cause damage (say, if you have solar panels, or nesting in your chimney). Ants love it, too.
Carry on if you're happy to have all those in your house.

I do my bit for nature where I can, but I wouldn't say that no mow May is practical in small gardens close to houses.

They were honey bees. Fricking aggressive ones, too, according to the pest control person who removed them.

Plus, I'm not seeing any rebate on my council tax

😂😂😂 Can you imagine?! Dear Mrs RuddyNorma, here is a 14p rebate on your council tax due to missing 2 grass mowings in May.

If there are any savings, all it's done is saved them from cutting a different service, or increasing your council tax even more.

I a world where nature is really struggling No Mow May is one really good new thing.

As for road signs you can't see, well where I live they are so old, dirty and faded as the council can't afford to keep them in fine fettle we now have a volunteer group who go round making them all visible and safe.

if they were honey bees you’ve a local keeper who didn’t look after their pets very well so they’ve left.
Thats not nature. Thats a human farming issue

Pigeons live near humans because they are domesticated and we released them.

birds need places to nest and don’t realise our poorly maintained roof is somewhere you don’t want them to nest. Yet blocking them up has caused a massive decline in species which is why things like swift boxes exist. We’ve co existed with them all living with us for millennia.

The council only cut once a month here anyway, this month they have done other work

This. I’ve picked up several unhappy swarms and it doesn’t take long to get them happy and peaceful. Happy bees don’t go wandering. Beekeepers would be delighted to take them away for you.

It needs to be done with intention to be done properly. Growing non-native grass long for 4 weeks is pointless. Some areas need to be mown, otherwise it just looks untidy…

it’s better, in my opinion, to plant areas of native wild flowers that follow an annual life cycle but that costs more money…

I think it looks terrible when people let their gardens go, same for all the verges . There are plenty of ways to attract wildlife, you don’t need to let your garden become overgrown and unkempt .

as said for me this is about can’t be arsed to maintain the garden folks leaping on it as a convenient excuse, same for councils, as a way to save money for them, very little is to do with the environment.

It looks lovely and is brilliant for pollinators. I'm all for it.