No mow May - is it just me?

[Maggiethecat]

there’s one foot high grass growing and daisies aplenty and bees flitting around

however can barely see a bee in the border despite it having flowering broad beans, scabiosa, strawberries.

could it be that the bees have been distracted?

I've not noticed this at all.

Spent my afternoon in the garden today and my borders are absolutely buzzing! Especially my hardy geraniums, welsh poppies and weigela.

I also have a wildlife patch full of natives (and flowering weeds) and this is also getting a lot of attention from bees and other flying insects, so seems pretty even up in Scotland.

I think it's easy to get the wrong impression unless you do a formal survey of insects. I work from home and sometimes I come out and there is no visible insect life and sometimes it's teeming. It's very dependent on the conditions and what is flowering. A few years ago my mint flowered and the bees went mad for it. The following year they seemed very uninterested. Either I missed the bees the second year or something else better was available.

I find it's similar with birds. Early morning is bluetits only. Late morning blackbirds, blue tits are gone. Evenings are pigeon central but if I couldn't look at all these time points (eg out early to work in the office) I would think my garden was nothing but pigeons. It's weird how they seem to take shifts.

I didn't see many bees on my broad beans but I have pods so they must have got to them at some point

What are the other gardens like around you OP? I ask because bees and birds need a ‘corridor’ of nature. I’ve noticed a drop near me and I feel it’s because neighbours have either paved over their gardens or put artificial grass in. Plus, apart from my garden no one has any water sources.

its dreadful what humans are collectively doing to nature

Just seen this thread - https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4815354-lack-of-insects-birds-starving

I was just thinking that today. The bees normally love my garden but I haven't seen a single one this year yet.

They'll only have to go elsewhere when you do cut your grass anyway so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Probably better if they don't get too used to something so temporary.

I wild areas of the garden all year round and always have bird feeders and water available.

Yeah that's sensible. I'm sceptical about no mow may - seems to just means ticks, hay fever and confused/disrupted pollinators.

@Larner no it doesn't, pollinators move around with a center radius depending on what's flowering, that's perfectly natural. In May, especially after a cold year like we've had, that's often not much so No mow May helps provide early forage. Especially important as changes to agriculture mean we don't have many meadows, cornflowers or healthy hedgerows doing that job anymore. No Mow May also helps encourage people to get used to the idea of Gardens not being sterile plant showrooms, and hopefully consider making space for nature year round.
@deplorabelle is 100% right. Plus you can't assess a longterm global population decline from a casual glance out the window...

Pollinators isn't just bees. As @deplorabelle said, perhaps you could do an insect survey. Look out for flies, beetles and moths.
I do No Mow May year round and get crickets later in the summer, it's lovely to hear them chirping. Stick with it - this year I've seen more insects than last year.

No mow May isn’t just about insects. It’s a chance to look at what’s there, for example all the different grasses. Even if you don’t know grasses, you can see the difference between the stiff spikelets of perennial rye grass, the little Christmas trees of the Meadow Grasses, the even more delicate Christmas trees of the Bents, the furry foxtails of Foxtail, and the stiffer foxtail of Timothy, the clumpy heads of Cocksfoot, the scurfy spike of Sweet Vernal Grass, and soft purplish haze of Yorkshire Fog.

Haven’t a clue about the different grasses but I am liking the look of the meadow of my back garden!

the cat is also enjoying hiding away in it in the mid day sun 😂

My cat is really happy that Ive mowed another path through it, just on the N of some bushes. She can sit in the grass hidden from view without having the bother of flattening a hole for herself.

Ours is teeming with insects, and I’ve counted 19 different bird species over the last week.

We mow every week as necessary. We have large , varied flower borders, at the moment thé lupins , thé euphorbia, the alpine asters, the sweet rocket and the catmint are in flower. The bees are working overtime ( as are the solitary wasps, the hover flies, the moths, the damsel flies). The more variation of flowering plants, the more happy insects.

I'm so glad I spotted this thread as I'd never heard of 'No mow May', but had been puzzled as to why our local council was no longer cutting grass verges. Mystery solved!

We have done it this year, and have been loaded with bees and butterflies and all sorts of wonderful insects. Like a pp, my cat loves it too. We have about a quarter of our large end plot garden 'wild' all year round, and are only going to mow the lawn about every 3 weeks now. Like a pp, we have dozens of bushes and flowers and other flowering plants too, so the wildlife is not going without.

Just seen this -after no mow May, it’s let it boom June

Plant Life

We let our lawn (ahem, moss and weeds) grow last year all summer and have done the same this year. I read somewhere when you mow it to take all the clippings away as the poorer the soil (no feed) the more likely you are to get local wildflower varieties. We’ve had a lot of dandelions that are now finished, at the moment there’s a big clump of ox eye daisies and lots of tall grasses (don’t know the names) and some purple vetch coming through. It’s only a small patch (about 2x3m) in the front garden.
We see plenty of bees.

My borders are humming with insects, the cotoneaster is full of bees and the sparrows and bluetits are feeding on the greenflies etc
i also have bird feeders up so plenty of food for fledglings.
I do mow my lawn because we have a dog and poo picking isn’t going well in long grass 😵‍💫
We back onto inaccessible woods, on a very steep sloop with no public access, so no wildlife food shortage thankfully.
Don’t forget to put water out, with a pebble or two so insects can access it too.

The more variation of flowering plants, the more happy insects. So a flower rich lawn would give even more variation

To save money.

My local council previously had a contractor that was going to mow the grass every other month. After lots of complaints, particularly as certain pernicious weeds took over, they changed back to mowing every month.

A decade or so prior to that other local councils didn't cut their commons and parks, after a few women and girls were attacked in them they went back to cutting them regularly.

Just wait till people start crashing on roundabouts because they can't see the relevant signage due to all the fucking foliage from No Prune June or whatever shit reason they'll think up next for doing fuck all.

I agree. And I’ve seen very few insects this year in my garden.