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?

Yes I read it was really bad for hedgehogs. It's a nice idea but I think they would be better to designate areas of longer grass that is left long all year round, rather than leaving it all long for a month, and then as the wildlife starts to return mow it all down .

Exactly. But that would take more effort..

I was a professional gardener and had several customers do this. They grew dandelions, buttercups and daisies...which then entered the borders and made my work harder.
Not one of them listened to my suggestion that they also grow wild flowers in plugs and pop those into the lawn and also scatter wild flower seed...which is what the councils should be doing in the verges.

Bristol city council planted up a very ugly underpass roundabout area....the bear pit several years ago like that and it was fantastic.

Without this work your whistling in the wind

Also our council will weed spray the very same areas they left long for no mow may, usually twice a year. So essentially they are encouraging pollinators to an area they regularly spray with glyphosate. The insanity of it makes my blood boil!

We need more long grass and wild spaces, but this feels like tokenism :(

So nothing to do with no mow May. More to do with lack of pruning?

I approve of it. Although I think it is better to leave some areas for the whole season rather than the whole area for one month.

We mow some flat areas for the kids to play but leave the edges of the lawn and the banks between levels (we are on a hill and the garden is on three levels) to go wild. So far this year those areas have been full of dandelions, wild primroses and cowslips. I'm waiting for the wild orchids to come in and hoping the cornflower seeds I sprinkled might do something. Last year in summer one of the banks was full of dozens of small blue butterflies and bees.

Sorry, should have been clearer - the roundabout was obscured by the overgrown grass verge. The speed limit sign, yes that is pruning - because during May our council doesn't cut anything.

Well its well and truly grown up around my ends.
I live in a place with lots of trees and grass bushes etc.
And i love the look of it sorry i really like the wild look i was watching a squirrel today running in and out of the over growth flowers.
And dear that was just passing by.
I know people dont like the over grown look but if we stood back for just a moment we would see alot of wild life and beauty in it.
I get a little sad when the council come and chop and mow it down.

@wendycupcakes over grown is a problematic word for me. Landscapes are neither static nor neat by design. Plants and trees migrate like animals, albeit at a slower pace, through reproduction and the wind and insects that carry their seeds. Trees, literally, migrate across continents as it heats and cools over time. "Overgrown" areas can provide homes or refuge to animals (including birds) and protection for some young plants and trees.

I wish we could encourage many more people to slow down, and observe spaces changing over the seasons and years, and find some way to grow a deeper understanding amongst the population as a whole about the natural world within which we live and depend upon, absolutely, for .. everything!

YABU. I love it! Grass takes about 3 hours to cut at the end of May though! (Got 3 large lawns!)

All very well and good. I’ve seen councils that do it well. Town near me has wonderful roundabouts with wildflowers. But some councils just choose to save money not doing anything for a month. Nothing grows but tall grass because nothing is seeded and nothing grows naturally because they spend the rest of the year spraying weed killer everywhere. It’s simply not enough to just not mow in May. There are another 11 months.

I am anti lawn, we have got rid of ours front and back. I am pro insect and bee. We have wild areas in the garden, I keep bees, we have a small pond with frogs and newts. Wild is good. But no mow May is half-arsed lazy tokenism that (in my council area) looks scruffy, makes it difficult for pedestrians to cross roads and walk along off road footpaths, makes it dangerous for cars at junctions and roundabouts and encourages anti-social behaviour such as fly tipping.

Well said.

there are so so many ways to attract wildlife to your garden, we have a lawn, we keep it mowed, it is a large garden, and we have areas wild, we plant for wildlife, and we also sow wildflower seeds. We have squirrels, rabbits, every type of insect from dragon fly on.

many people. Not all. But many, use this as a convenient excuse not to cut their grass or manage their garden, and it’s the same folks who can’t be arsed the rest of the year, and the council just try to save a bit of money, rather than do it properly

the advice is lazy , I assume as it appeals to lazy gardeners. Letting your grass grow for a few weeks then chopping it is pointless, people should be educated on how to encourage wildlife in, what sections to have, what planting to do, year round. Councils should be instructed to do the same. Not just let it get overgrown then pompously say it’s for the wildlife don’t you know and I love it. Yeah, you love not mowing you mean.

really infuriates me.

My garden is north facing, so I have a "low mow" lawn in general. I think it only gets cut 4-5 times the whole season.
However, since starting this a few years ago the biodiversity has skyrocketed. Now rather than being just some moss and a bit of grass we regularly get dandelions, buttercups, purple/white clover, bluebells, self-heal, forget-me-nots and yellow rattle and more coming up I can't identify!

I've found grasshoppers, shield bugs, butterflies and various bee species/hoverflies throughout the spring/summer before. The small birds love it. Just wish both neighbours didn't have cats. I'm in a small suburban garden too, so I do wonder how some of the insects got here sometimes!

as said for me this is about can’t be arsed to maintain the garden folks leaping on it as a convenient excuse

I'm RHS and National Trust trained and, before I retired, worked as a gardener.
All the keen, hardworking gardeners I know of from Monty Don to The King to Chelsea designers to little old support wildlife by doing some form of no mow/'let the garden go' project.

It's not about laziness for many people, it's about caring for the environment as best we can.

We did no mow May last year and ended up with a massive colony of young frogs living in the grass! So of course we couldn't mow them down. Lots of different species of grass grew with different shapes and colours of seeds and my 3 year old loved just running around in it through the summer and exploring the different seeds. Wild orchids sprang up too. It was lovely!