To mow or not to mow: What to do with no mow May lawn now it's nearly July

[PaperBlinds]

We didn't mow in May, nor this month, mainly to see what would happen, apart from a path down the middle. Lawn is now over a foot tall and we have clover ☘️. The grass is all in seed and looks lovely, but what next? With hot and drought coming should we cut it back (i need a scythe!) or let it go over, set seed and dry out?

it's somewhere between unkempt and a grass meadow. I was aiming at the first image but it looks more like the second.

I cut ours this morning, on the longest setting on the lawnmower. It was only about 1/4 of our total lawn. I have left the edges long and the beds unweeded. It was just grass, had been full of speedwell but that finished flowering some time ago and it was looking a total mess. The area is in almost permanent shade so doesn't get too hot. We hadn't noticed any increase in insects either, but we do have a lot normally as we have lots of insect friendly plants in our borders and hedge.

I did check for hedgehogs as we get lots of those but I think they mostly sleep in our logpile (old logs that never get touched, not for burning).

@PaperBlinds we have left a a strip roughly 1.5m x 5m in both front and back gardens to grow and set seed. I'll probably mow late August early September. Some people make a big deal out of no mow May and pollinators but gardening for wildlife is much more diverse and rewarding.

A patch of grass mown on the highest setting once a year will provide seed for birds and the e tussocks are home to a wide range of invertebrates, lavae etc. that provide food for birds, frogs, toads etc.

Gardening for wildlife is more like curating a range of diverse micro environments, and disturbing as little as possible.

I thoroughly recommend the book "No Nettles Required".

@Daftasabroom i have been trying to do the same for the last few years - log piles, overgrown climbers, but not seeing very much diversity and haven't yet put the effort in to really doing the lawn so more a case of benign neglect.

looks like we are being taken over by creeping buttercup too, so i think I need to have a proper think about what to plant.

we now have a drought/flood cycle and the longer grass deffo copes better with that.

we are not seeing many bees or wasps this year, so I am trying to love the numerous flies 😬.

thanks for the book rec (though I quite like nettles!)

Just returned from the Netherlands where the no-mow is most definitely a thing and I’m a fan.

however I’m fairly sure it’s not as low maintenance as all that

we have two small lawns in the back and are letting one of them go wild for now as an experiment. Other half needs to be mowed for DS’ football playing

We used to do this in a community garden a decade ago, and then plait the grass for the rest of the summer, trying not to plait the nice wildflowers that we wanted to set seed.

Thanks for the book recommendation @Daftasabroomand have just ordered a used hardback copy "in very good condition" for £3.85, absolute bargain.

I definitely feel I need to actively do something to provide habitation and food for a variety of wildlife. At the moment it's more a case of benign neglect.

I wish I hadn't done no mow May, a couple of weeks in it looked awful and now I don't know where to begin. I haven't noticed any wildlife, my cats love it though.

We had a wildflower area around our pond that has now spread and I barely have any turf, some of the grasses are 5ft tall, I only mow the main bit at Easter and October half term but keep a short path through it all through summer. I trim the dead and dried plants throughout the summer to let more light in for the late growing plants. I tend to take shears to it in stead of mowing, first weekend of Oct half term I reduce it to about 3ft or so, mid week I reduce it again and then take the mower to it on the last Oct half term weekend.

Different things dry out at different times and the long grasses tend to have longer roots and do better in drought than well mown grass.

If you want a proper wild flower meadow then sow the seeds alongside some yellow rattle to reduce the grasses in October as some seeds need the cold snap to germinate, but once you start it you'll never get a properly manicured lawn back.

The wild flowers in my garden are mostly poppies, ox eye daisies, teasels, knap weed and sorrel.

We don't have any wild flowers yet, apart from clover (if that counts) not even daisies, which is very disappointing. Your photo shows Cats Ear or something similar- the tall plant with “dandelion clocks”.

If you want to encourage flowers, optimum time for cutting is when grasses have reached maturity. Cut, and take way the cuttings so they dont rot down and put nutrient back into the soil. Grass will outcompete flowers in high nutrient conditions, so you want to reduce nutrient levels.

Daisies grow in shorter grass, but ox eye daisies will grow in long grass.

@MereDintofPandiculation the photo's aren't of my garden - the first is what i would luke and the second is a neglected garden in US , but more what mine actually looks like.

we have dandelions, clover about three different types of grass and some creeping buttercup, and some alcenet (going over) on the edges.

@Singleandproud that is just lovely

@PaperBlinds that whole section has self seeded itself. My DD is a teen now and not particularly interested in the garden. I'm not a gardener but do love wildlife so decided it seemed daft to keep mowing when I only really sit by the pond and watch the tadpoles/froglets at play. I take the lazy approach all though October is a bit more intensive with cutting it down and removing it.

I do think No Mow May gives people a lot of high expectations of what will grow especially if they live in an area where there aren't many native wildflowers (new builds etc) all that seems to grow is scruffy 'dart' or couch grass. Adding a proper native wildflower mix is important if you want that meadow look. Types of grass range massively now, I have some oat, barley and wheat in my meadow section but I love the long purple one, when it's windy it looks fantastic.

@Singleandproud how long did it take to get to this point? I do a clear and bulbs in October half term too, so just need to put a bit more effort into planning and understanding cycle of some of the wild flowers. A swathe of garden like yours is something to aspire to.

@Singleandproud that is beautiful!

We left half our garden, and did scatter a load of wild flower seeds but sadly nothing appeared, so we just have ridiculously long grass that has now flattened in the wind and confuses anyone that visits.

I still quite like the wild look though, makes me feel like I'm in the countryside. Will wait until end of August to cut back I think.

@PaperBlinds the pond and original wildflower area was planted in 2020, it was our lockdown project so we are in the third year. I bought low fertile soil specifically for the wildflowers around the pond but evidently my dry, sandy Norfolk soil is just as appropriate. Wild flowers really don't like good soil as the grasses out compete them. I originally picked up a couple of dead looking wild flower plants (sorrel, salad Burnet, primroses) in the reduced section of the garden centre for 25p in the off chance they'd grow to give the bare earth some interest and they turned into lovely healthy plants too.

This time last year the area in the photo was crappy bare soil where I had taken down a cordyline/ cabbage plant and a laurel/ ivy that was starting to get a bit close to the wall, the seeds from the pond wildflower area just blew into it.

What I have noticed is that every year the plants that grow are different, corn flowers only grew the first year as is normal, teasels just the first and this year, I had more wild carrot/ yarrow last year and lots of giant clover but this year there isn't any but the poppies and interesting grasses have taken over.

There are lots of interesting insects in my garden but noticeably less than the previous two years but I think that's a (worrying) national trend.

I'm fairly sure thia is where I bought my wildflower seeds. Growing wildflowers does mean you have to hold your nerve between March-Juneish when just the foliage is growing and it looks really shitty and overgrown, once the red campion starts to flower it starts to look better and then one day you go outside and its a sea of colour and buzzing.

Yellow rattle is meant to be v good for establishing wild grass meadows and it feeds on the ‘wrong’ grass.

I do think No Mow May gives people a lot of high expectations of what will grow especially if they live in an area where there aren't many native wildflowers (new builds etc) all that seems to grow is scruffy 'dart' or couch grass. or even worse where someone has been using Weed and Feed for years.

Yellow rattle is meant to be v good for establishing wild grass meadows and it feeds on the ‘wrong’ grass. It reduces the vigour of grasses, but doesn’t I gather reduce nutrient levels in the soil. It’s a bit iffy in rich lowland areas as it doesn’t like shade, and needs to get going before the grasses overshadow.

I find it particularly likes Yorkshire Fog but doesn’t like Cocksfoot.

Thank you for all the great advice - so useful and helpful to think about doing this in a more deliberate way. I had heard about yellow rattle, but have never got well enough organised to plan properly. We are on london clay with a combination of building rubble and good topsoil, but the lawn area
actually seems quite sandy.

So i think this year, i have missed it and will just tidy the path and border edges and determine a shape/area that works, but leave the majority of the length till august and do my research (particularly trying to id what grows well locally too) to get sorted for October clearing and spring planting - a few bulbs, and seeds. Also being a bit nerdy I am
excited to id grasses (Googling Yorkshire Fog!)

The insect situation feels bad this year - very little of anything apart from aphids, so anything that helps is good.

I had heard about yellow rattle, but have never got well enough organised to plan properly. Needs to be sown soon after harvest and trampled into soil

Also being a bit nerdy I am excited to id grasses (Googling Yorkshire Fog!) Learn your way round the flower - you need to at least be confident as to what a spikelet is. And ligules are important - the flap where the leaf joins the stem. Sweet Vernal Grass has “nasal hairs” on the corners of the ligules.

Ones you may come across in your lawn include Foxtail, Timothy, False Oat, Perennial Rye Grass, Bent, Fescue, Crested Dogstail, Meadowgrass.

There’s a very good Facebook page on grasses, very keen to help beginners.

I just get the gardener to mow the lawns once a month to keep things ticking over. I hate it looking too unsightly where I live although the birds and the local cats love the grass wild. I have a lot of neighbours with paved over gardens and we are 5 minutes by car to the M1 so not much grows around here anyway. If I was living near just fields and full countryside I would stop the lawn mowing altogether and let nature take over completely.

[[https://www.facebook.com/groups/277068005793254 for @PaperBlinds

Fields are a long way from being the best places for nature nowadays, sadly. A lot of agriculture works on high inputs/high outputs, so massively fertilised monocultures. M1 verges are probably a lot better!