Greener gardening - no mow May

A very easy way to make your garden a little bit greener with absolutely no effort is to participate in No Mow May.  This initiative, spearheaded by the charity Plantlife, is a great way to boost biodiversity in your lawn, benefitting bees, other pollinators and the ecosystem of your outdoor space.

It’s a great opportunity to be lazy in order to benefit wildlife – basically all you have to do is… nothing!  Just don’t cut your grass for the month of May, allowing all the wildflowers to spring up.  This provides a feast for bees, butterflies and other insects during spring and early summer as they feast on the pollen and nectar provided by lawns full of flowers.

You might be surprised by the variety of plants which appear in your grass when it’s left to its own devices: as well as the usual daisies and dandelions you could find clover, buttercups, self-heal, speedwell or ladies’ smock.  When you begin to think of them as wildflowers, not weeds, notice how pretty they are and how your lawn transforms into a humming, buzzing tapestry of living things, it becomes quite easy to keep the lawnmower tucked away in the shed.

Many of the bees and pollinators in the UK are in decline; we’ve also lost nearly 97% of flower rich meadows since the 1970’s.  However, there’s a patchwork of gardens across Britain, which has the potential and the plant diversity to help support our struggling insects.

If the idea of a long lawn makes you twitch, don’t count yourself out of the No Mow movement completely; simply consider leaving a smaller patch uncut instead – a strip near the bottom of your garden perhaps, or an out-of-the-way corner which won’t offend the neighbours, but will provide a welcome biodiversity boost.

You can find out more about No Mow May at the Plantlife website.