Unleashing the Wild in Your Lawn: No Mow May
Cut Grass Movement Delayed Lawn Maintenance in May
Ever thought about letting your lawn go a little wild? That's exactly what the No Mow May campaign is all about! This movement, initiated by Plantlife, encourages garden owners to ditch their lawnmowers for a month and let wildflowers bloom. The UK has witnessed a devastating 97% decline in British wildflower meadows from the 1930s, stripping pollinators like bees and butterflies of their crucial food source.
Why Give Your Lawn a Break from Mowing?
By allowing your grass to grow a bit longer, you're giving nature a boost! Even if your lawn is mown every four weeks, it still offers plants for the pollinators. Scale back your mowing, and watch wildflowers blossom in your very own lawn. This benefits pollinating insects such as hoverflies, bees, and butterflies, and also supplies food for birds and small mammals. Participants in No Mow May have reported spotting a whopping 99 species of pollinators on their lawns, including 25 types of butterflies and moths, and 24 types of bees!
Flowers to Look For
Once you decide to take a break from mowing, you'll be amazed by the variety of flower species that start to appear in your lawn. The flowers you'll see depend on how long you let the grass grow. Limiting your mowing to every four weeks will bring blooms like bird's foot trefoil and clover, while plants like knapweed and musk mallow will flourish if you restrict mowing to only two to three times a year.
Top 10 Wild Lawn Flowers
After you let your lawn go for a few weeks, you're likely to encounter a host of familiar and not-so-familiar plant species. Here are the top 10 wild plants most commonly spotted:
- Daisies: Daisies are a native perennial plant attracting bees, and providing food for various birds, such as sparrows and finches.
- Common Bird's-foot Trefoil: This common meadow wildflower is a larval food plant for the common blue and green hairstreak butterflies, and a source of nectar for pollinators.
- Oxeye Daisy: The ox-eye daisy, standing tall at 30-60 cm, offers a bounty of nectar to pollinating insects, including hoverflies, butterflies, and bees.
- Creeping Buttercup: Though often considered a weed in some situations, this spreading perennial is valuable to insects, blooming from May to August, providing nectar and pollen for flies, beetles, and honeybees.
- Yellow Rattle: Attracting many types of bumblebees, solitary bees, and hoverflies, yellow rattle is essential for your meadow, but "seeding" fresh yellow rattle seed in autumn is necessary to establish it in your lawn.
- Field Forget-me-nots: These annual wildflowers offer a long-flowering period from April to September and are on the RHS list of Plants for Pollinators.
- Meadow Buttercup: Popular with a variety of insects, buttercups are a favorite of the large scissor bee, and their tall, slender stems can reach 1m.
- White Clover: White clover produces a lot of nectar, attracting honey bees and short-tongued bumblebees, while red clover favors bees with longer tongues. The leaves are also collected by wood mice and serve as a food plant for the common blue butterfly.
- Common Mouse-ear: Often overlooked as a "weed," this variety of chickweed is a good food source for insects, with clusters of small white flowers appearing from April to September.
- Dandelions: Dandelions are usually seen as weeds, but their cheerful yellow flowers offer important nectar for bees and butterflies, and their seeds provide food for birds such as bullfinches and greenfinches.
Join the No Mow May Movement Today!
Ready to let your lawn get a bit wild? Head to Plantlife's No Mow May page to sign up and commit to a longer lawn. Share your lawn size, and discover tips for maintaining your green space during May and throughout the year!
- Embrace the science of environmental-science and foster a wilder lifestyle by participating in the No Mow May campaign, promoting climate-change mitigation through gardening, particularly home-and-garden practices.
- By abstaining from mowing your lawn for a month, you'll be contributing to the nurturing and growth of various wildflowers that are crucial food sources for pollinators like bees, hoverflies, and butterflies, as well as providing sustenance for birds and small mammals.
- By overlooking common garden weeds like dandelions, yellow rattle, common mouse-ear, and white clover, one can uncover the top 10 wild lawn flowers, including daisies, common bird's-foot trefoil, oxeye daisy, creeping buttercup, and meadow forget-me-nots, all of which play significant roles in maintaining the local ecosystem as part of the environmental-science and lifestyle choices.
