By Rhiannon Jehu

I think that this year I’m going to commit myself to doing less for nature. No Mow May is a campaign started by Plantlife and is linked to their wild verges campaign that I mentioned in a blog last year and also to their Citizen Science project called #everyflowercounts Every Flower Counts | Plantlife.

The thinking goes like this:

• People depend on plants and their products. Many of the plants we depend on, depend on insects to pollinate them.
• We need to care for our insects so we can care for our plants, so we can care for ourselves and those we love.

However, as the UK population has increased, and agriculture has industrialised to try to feed us all, the number of meadows has reduced and the use of pesticides has increased. This means that people’s gardens are becoming more and more important as refuges for wildlife.

In the past it was popular to have a flat, green, single species, manicured lawn. There was stigma against not mowing, but councils and individuals are beginning to understand the benefits of an unmown lawn. If you spend 1 hour a week cutting your lawn your CO2 footprint will be around 293kg per year. Indeed, less mowing and allowing species to arise naturally gives your lawn the opportunity to sequester carbon – to become a better carbon store. Also, a manicured lawn takes a lot of effort to maintain – mowing, raking, weeding (or using weedkillers).

Gardens are often multi-purpose and vary in size. Some people grow vegetables, others flowers, some use them as children’s play areas, and all these different functions need to be taken into account. Plantlife and the RSPB both offer advice on managing your garden to make the most of it and share it with nature at the same time.

Plantlife suggest giving gardens a ‘Mowhican’ style cut – as with the hair style, cut some grass short and leave other areas long. Allowing two lengths of grass to grow maximises the diversity and quantity of flowers that will arise and this will increase the quantity of nectar your lawn produces and the length of time it is productive. ‘Short-grass’ plants like daisies and clover start flowering again soon after being cut, while areas of longer, unmown grass welcome a different range of flowers, in Shetland this could include yellow rattle, dead nettles (don’t worry, they don’t sting!), selfheal, cuckoo flower and even heath-spotted or northern marsh orchid!

The ideal is to cut the short grass once every month or so to a height of 1 or 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) then strim all the grass in August or September and remove the clippings. Mow it a couple more times if needed and then let your lawn rest over winter.

Other ideas include rotating patches of long and short grass within your garden so there are always some areas in flower. Or leaving areas long and then cutting strips to areas like the washing line that you want to keep clear for easy and ‘dry footed’ access.

The RSPB describe more detailed ways of creating wildlife habitats in your garden Stop mowing your lawn for nature (rspb.org.uk) and have a range of gardening ideas for all the family Wildlife garden ideas (rspb.org.uk)

Dr Trevor Dines a Botanical Specialist at Plantlife said:

“Put simply, the less you mow the more bees and butterflies there will be in your garden.” And that works for me.

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