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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

is anyone going to leave the mowing in May?

81 replies

MrsLargeEmbodied · 30/04/2022 19:59

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61264905

OP posts:
AnneLovesGilbert · 30/04/2022 20:01

Nope. The only way to stop neighbouring cats shitting in the garden is to keep the grass short.

Mogloveseggs · 30/04/2022 20:02

Well if it carries on raining then yes.

User7493268965 · 30/04/2022 20:04

No, like PP, because of the neighbourhood cats

beautyisfoundwithin · 30/04/2022 20:06

Yes, done this for a couple of years now to leave the dandelions and forget-me-nots for the bees! 🐝

CarrieCookie · 30/04/2022 20:11

Yes I am and I’ve started already because there was a lovely big clump of daisies in the middle of the lawn. I did it last year and had loads of bees and butterflies visit.

Do cats particularly like long grass? My cats prefer gravel or freshly dug earth.

CarrieCookie · 30/04/2022 20:13

I can’t believe we were brought up thinking dandelions were bad 😡
Hopefully people are more educated these days.

bloodywhitecat · 30/04/2022 20:15

Half and half. We have areas that we don't mow and allow to run riot and then a big area that I will keep short as my little one has mild CP and could fall over a matchstick. Keeping some areas short means he can play out without falling.

Needsomethingtoread · 30/04/2022 20:19

Yes I am, I’ve mowed a path and im going to leave it. I was thinking of planting some yellow rattle too.

Original poster
MrsLargeEmbodied · 30/04/2022 20:19

i bought dandelion seeds, for my guinea pigs

it will take a long time before people appreciate dandelions i think

OP posts:
breakdown19 · 30/04/2022 20:20

Do cats prefer long grass?

YellowHpok · 30/04/2022 20:21

Yes I've left mine for a month already and really looking forward to seeing what grows!

SpaghettiNotCourgetti · 30/04/2022 20:23

Yes, but more through laziness than virtue. I'm not sure when we last mowed the grass, actually...

2DemisSVP · 30/04/2022 20:23

Yep, we get little violet flowers, dandelions and primroses. Ragwort too, which I pull before it seeds. Love the excuse not to mow. I just mow a strip next to the borders to keep the edges neat.

TwigTheWonderKid · 30/04/2022 20:23

Definitely! My lawn is a riot of yellow right now ( dandelions, not dying grass!) and looks wonderful.

I don't get the cat thing either? It's very unusual for them to poo somewhere without loose soil etc where they can easily bury it.

WindyGlowers · 30/04/2022 20:27

Yes, the lawn is only looking like an actual lawn now after changing it from gravel when we moved last year.
I did mow it last week on the longest setting but got about two handfuls of grass cuttings in the collector, I'm sure it'll survive another month. I've just scattered some daisy and buttercup seeds through it too.

carefullycourageous · 30/04/2022 20:28

Yes we plan to.

SarahAndQuack · 30/04/2022 20:30

I leave half long, and mow half - but I don't mow very often. I mowed it a couple of weeks ago and will likely only mow it once more before June. We get lots of flowers, especially marsh orchids and snakeshead fritillaries, that I don't want to discourage.

It's not practical always to leave it, though. We've had rats before and longer grass definitely encourages them to be bolder.

SkirridHill · 30/04/2022 20:31

I rent, but I've managed to convert the landlord to no-mow May and he's left our garden alone "to give the bees a chance", as he put it. Wish someone had told the council that; they sent someone out yesterday to cut the verge below our house. I saw a sad little blackbird searching desperately for its nest this afternoon. ☹️

GrouchyKiwi · 30/04/2022 20:35

No. Makes it very hard to find the dog mess, which is terrible when you've got children running about.

As a compromise I won't weed my flower beds instead. not a change

Pinkywoo · 30/04/2022 20:42

Where are you? We haven't had rain for weeks, I'm getting pissed off with having to water the garden in April!

SarahAndQuack · 30/04/2022 20:42

That's so sad, @SkirridHill. I remember one time I lived in a row of terraced houses that each had their own patch of grass/plants, with paving slab paths to separate them but no fences. I'd left mine because there were robins nesting in a little bush. Came home and the bloke next door had run his lawnmower over the whole row, including someone who had flowering tulips and the little bush with the nest in. And he expected us all to be really grateful. Angry

User7493268965 · 30/04/2022 21:53

Cats go in our grass, it's a right pain, a fox has left a trophy on the small wall and the squirrels that trek over the road to our house have dug in all the pots, it's like they are all queueing up to come into our garden to shit and dig. There are some little bees living in the lawn that don't seem to mind how long the grass is and the hedgehogs visit anyway

AnneLovesGilbert · 30/04/2022 22:00

Cats have lost all decorum, round here anyway. They do it right in the middle of the grass, we have a small garden but I had to clear 3 lots that were hiding before the first mow of the year and when I let it get a bit too long a couple of weeks ago there was more. I love cats but these are absolute grubby fuckers.

I envy all these lawns with daisies and dandelions. We have grass, many different types all mooshed together so it’s very bumpy and it grows nothing but cat poo no matter how neglected.

Hugasauras · 30/04/2022 22:02

No because we have a dog and cat and I don't want to play hunt the shite several times a day. Otherwise I would. DD really loves dandelions!

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 30/04/2022 22:02

Yes I am!!