Lazy gardeners up and down the land have a good excuse to sit back and do nothing this May: it’s the charity Plantlife’s “No Mow May” month. The aim is to boost wildflower diversity and help bees and other insects to carry out their pollinating work.
As well as private garden owners, council groundskeepers, park keepers and highway maintenance contractors are being urged to down tools and let green spaces revert to their natural state for a few crucial weeks in spring. This has the added benefit of less pollution and less expenditure.
Mark Schofield, road verges adviser at Plantlife, said: “We hope that local authorities can take the opportunity to realise the potential of their green infrastructure. It’s a potentially vast network of ecological corridors and, if you cut it less, then alongside the biodiversity benefits there’s a cost saving.”
He added: “A more diverse grassland space is a better carbon sink. It’s a better provider for wildlife. And it’s a cost saving. Small changes over large areas can make massive differences.”
According to Plantlife, nearly 97% of wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1970s. This hasn’t just resulted in fewer species of native plants, but also a dramatic decline in the numbers of insects that depend on them, such as butterflies and bees. Wild grasslands also help to store carbon below the ground.
Although leaving your lawn unmown might seem insignificant, it all adds up to thousands of acres of grass across the country, which can really make a big difference. You can boost the diversity of your lawn further by sowing some perennial plants in the autumn, such as cowslips, Betony, Oxeye Daisy, and Knapweed.
Tom Dommett, head of historic environment at the National Trust, said: “Hedges are important wildlife corridors, carbon stores and their bursts of blossom — blackthorn, hawthorn, dog rose, wild cherry, apple and plum— are not only beautiful but also critical for pollinators, while their fruits are an important source of winter food for birds.”
When and if you do decide to cut your lawn later in the season, remove all the grass cuttings as these may cause nutrients to build up that prevent wildflowers from growing. Avoid putting down any chemical based substances, including moss killer, herbicides, or pesticides.
If you do not have a lawn, there’s still plenty of ways in which to get involved. For example, you can raise awareness of the issue in your local community with display signs on notice boards or in windows. Get chatting to neighbours with lawns and see if you can get a street-wide initiative going on.
If you have children at the local school, find out if there is an area in the grounds that can be left to go wild. This can also provide the opportunity for some hands-on education about biodiversity and native plant and insect species. Other good places to encourage No Mow May include church grounds and local village greens.
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