No mow May

But the dandelions get the fiskars treatment. I then hang the dead carcasses on the fence as a warnign to other dandelions.

old school...

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But is there a sign I can put up, that my judgey middle-class neighbours might not judge me?

Something like this:

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I was discussing this with a colleague in Ireland recently and he said there is a big stigma there about everything needing to be neat. Its a real problem for creating wild areas and wildlife corridors

We're lucky enough to have a fair sized back garden so I'm able to leave a good chunk to grow without impacting on the kids ability to run wild and tire themselves out. We have a few fruit trees, every year MrsMomo plants more bulbs and sows it with more wildflower seeds. I cut it back just before the fruit starts falling, otherwise I end up with a load of rotting fruit by the bottom of the trees.

Our garden is quite large, so we've left the top bit to be long with a few paths in it. My wife rotovated a couple of patches and dumped a a load of wild flower seed on it last autumn. So far it looks like we've just planted grass, but fingers crossed!

Yep. Totally pointless spin. My lawns are just starting to recover after no mowing from October to April. My house is in the estate in bottom right here. The wildlife has most of the the rest of the screen. Seems plenty.

The wildlife has most of the the rest of the screen. Seems plenty.

Its more to do with biodiversity than area. A small area can make a big difference

I am cultivating my perfect lawn at the moment so it’s a no from me. There’s no point in having grass unless you’re going to make it like a nice lawn, plant other stuff instead of you don’t like mowing.

Fine if you want to play bowls. The perfect lawn is one that requires little maintenance, and has lots of flowers that benefit other creatures. I do have areas without grass, they’re being taken over by wild seeded cowslips, primroses, oxslips, violets, celandines, muscari, bluebells, and things like fritillaries that I’ve planted. I’m going to try to encourage the likes of moon daisies, Ragged Robin and other meadow flowers as well.

What's a moon daisy?

I just cut ours yesterday and I will leave it now that I know about it.

One of our neighbours has generously been doing the No mow May.........since 2021!

It'll be interesting to see if any unusual plants show themselves through the uncut grass/lawn.

I'm in. Last year the back lawn was a mass of clover and I left that for the bees (it was absolutely teeming with them). This year I'll give the lawn a tidy on the highest setting as the clover is still short enough to duck under the blades, then cut round the edges only. The rest of the garden is (or will be) planted with annuals and pollinator friendly wildflowers. I've got a steeply sloping banking 30m by 50m which is currently full of blossoming trees and although I strim the majority of that, there's a couple of patches left as "wilding" spaces, and a big pile of brash and brambles for the stuff that likes to live in there. I generally leave the dandelions to finish seeding before I strim the banking, as it attracts flocks of finches.

After a bit of rain this week, No Mow May could require a combine harvester by the end!

We’ve just made a corner of our garden a ‘no mow’ space and I’ve spread a packet of wild flower seeds - it’s a great idea and we’re looking forward to seeing the results.

Well I got the (six month old) mower out of the shed to give the lawn its first mow last weekend and the front wheel fell off. Should be a warranty job, but the repair guy reckons it will take "at least two weeks". So I guess I'll be trying this no mow May whether I like it or not 🙂

No Mow May could require a combine harvester by the end!

This! The starlings looking for worms are managing to sneak about pretty much undetected.

I've got the usual suspects – daisies, buttercups and dandelions; but also some forget-me-nots and daffodils, and a geranium which set up camp a few years ago and I just mow round. I've got some poppy seeds which I'll sow shortly.

We put the front lawns down with flowering lawn seed a couple of years ago. Hopefully we'll see some nice flowers and wildlife action there this year. It's been trimmed in April, won't be cut now until September probably. Will trim next to the the path though as postie is the only person who uses the front door.

Round back last year was mostly moss. After treating its mostly back to grass this year but after a good rake there's loads of patches, so has been cut short and over seeded. I leave a strip along the back (wildlife corridor) that's got wildflowers and rotten wood/logs for insects. Found a few frogs there yesterday and evidence of mice. It was a Leylandi hedge a few years back, but after I took that down I just left it to see what would grow. Already a couple of elders and rowan... Going for a natural hedge.

We need to see photos later in the summer, of the fruits of our non-labour. :o)

...so what happens now...?

We "did" NMM, mostly out of laziness, but partly to see what happens.

We don't have a wildflower meadow. We do have a mess of knee high straggly grass (where's it's not overrun by moss) and a HELL of a lot of dandelions. And a path trampled through the middle to get to the bikewash area.

I suspect mowing it will kill my cheapo lawnmower stone dead - it struggles with more than a couple of inches of growth - even on the highest setting (only about 15mm higher than the lowest).

I'm all for biodiversity and nature etc, but it needs to look like a planned thing, not just a forgotten wasteland.

(annoyingly the verges out on the street opposite us were full of wildflowers earlier in the month. Then the council came along and gave it all the full Brazilian treatment, which it hasn't recovered from yet)

so what happens now…?

Leave it.

After 'No Mow May' comes 'Soon Bloom June'.

One way of making the longer lawn look intentional is to cut defined paths in it which also aids moving around - as an interesting fact for the pub quiz - it takes the equivalent of 8 dandelions to feed a bee for a day!
My front verge has mostly been protected from the council mowers by some lightweight fenceposts but the other areas of verge adjacent to the roundabout have been mercilessly killed with what must be Napalm. Before I went away there were cowslips, evening primrose, fox and cubs, buttercups, violets and lots more. Now it’s a brown desert. There’s no reason other than “neatness” - no obstructions of sightlines or pedestrian access. N.E.D.D.C. - Environmental criminals.

an interesting fact for the pub quiz – it takes the equivalent of 8 dandelions to feed a bee for a day!

And over the course of its lifetime a bee will on average produce a quarter of a teaspoon of honey.

Think about that the next time you clean the honey off a spoon - you could be washing off a bee's entire lifetime's work.

They don't live very long.

Yep. Totally pointless spin. My lawns are just starting to recover after no mowing from October to April. My house is in the estate in bottom right here. The wildlife has most of the the rest of the screen. Seems plenty.

The interesting thing about the image you share is it's a mix of monoculture conifer plantations (sometimes referred to as ecological deserts as very little lives among the trees), and open areas overgrazed most likely by sheep and deer. So if your garden is fenced off it to protect from sheep and deer it could well be more biodiverse than the rest of the picture. And if a larger area was fenced off to protect from grazing, it would return to what it was like in pre agricultural times with mixtures of native trees and other growth. Mountainsides were not always as barren-looking as they are today.

I mowed ours the other day, it had utterly exploded in the intervening weeks. Diversity is pretty poor, we have a small smattering of clover, a bit of hawkweed (fox and cubs), a couple of Welsh poppies and a ton of dandelions. We do get a load of bees but not seen any gold finches this year.

We have an 8 acre field to take care of as well, that's getting a path round the perimeter cut and has some new arrivals in the form of wheatears (I think, brown with a black triangle at the tail with a white V at the top?) plus the usual stoats or whatever is making the wee holes all about the place.

Ours pissed off the neighbours which was my main aim all along.

Next dry spell I think I'll take the strimmer to it. Supposedly you're only supposed to cut off the top third and leave it for a week before repeating but I'm not sure if I can be bothered with that.

Mowed yesterday but had to leave a little patch of buttercups for OH.

I’m partaking in now mow June too. Broke my ankle yesterday. Signed up to TT live now so swings and roundabouts hey?
@slowoldman is your OH a bee?

Had a  conversation last night with the man who cuts our grass when we're not in France. He said it had grown a fair bit since we last cut it before we left in mid /late April. He sent this part cut photo.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/157675272@N05/52116707146/in/dateposted-public/

Living 7 floors up on the soithern edge of Manchester city centre my lawn exists in a plant pot.

Not all bad news though, the giant roundabout on one side was turned into a wildflower meadow a few years back and is teaming with wild plants and on the other side there's a couple of acres of wildflower meadow that backs on to a school.

The are both maintained and contained by the council as well, so hey don't look feral or unkempt.

There’s no point in having grass unless you’re going to make it like a nice lawnwildflower meadow

ftfy 😉

https://www.teabreakgardener.co.uk/create-a-wildflower-meadow/

@slowoldman is your OH a bee?

She's my honey.

Cut mine down yesterday - the dust and pollen blocked the filters on my hover mower.

There weren't many weeds and flowers in the lawn, so not sure it did much for wildlife. Seen more birds getting food out the lawn since it was cut.

Probably wouldn't bother again

We've had a no mow section at the end of the garden for a few years. It always starts off looking great - long grass etc, but slowly large weeds take over and then they die back in autumn leaving bare mud (having shaded all the grass to death).

Not quite figured out the right maintenance routine to keep it healthy grass all year round.

One year it was nettles and in the end I dug them all up inc all their feeders spreading left right and centre.

We seem to get a lot of Blue Alkanet in the garden, which the bees like, but it smothers all the grass in the no mow area very quickly.

I’ve been not mowing my front garden (quit s****ing, yes, you) since a drought a few years back caused the grass to die but the weeds to live. The difference is dramatic - the front garden hums with grasshoppers and hover flies. The back has no grasshoppers, and far fewer hover flies. Apart from the mowing, both front and back gardens are equally planted up with plenty of flowers and left to grow in a nature friendly manner. If you can bring yourself to leave a patch uncut through the summer I think you’ll notice the difference. Mine is cut into a neat circle, with herbaceous plants all around, so it looks more deliberate and less of a forgotten thing.

I'm a miserable dinasour, but this NMM business and 'wilding' (interpreted by many to just let your garden go to shit!) isn't helpful and is just a fad.

Lawns are good, maintained lawns are good. (Ask blackbirds). By all means set aside an area for wildflowers & do what you can for hogs/bees/butterflies etc, but NMM just creates a mess and discourages those that thought they were helping from doing it again - 'cos their lawn/garden is left looking like crap.

Even simply potting some wildflowers helps - doesn't take a lot. And lasts all spring and summer rather than one month.

*Bores off into the background*

Edit: Good timing Mr Bee.

[IMG] [/IMG]

That’s not Mr Bee, that’s @slowoldman s other half!

OMG that tea break Gardner thing makes me want to cry

Many of the best natural wildflower meadows thrive on poor soils. I live in the Chiltern Hills where chalk grasslands support a series of biodiverse meadow habitats replete with pretty wildflowers on the thin calcareous soils

How so much can be so wrong in two sentences, is beyond me!!

Meadows are hard to recreate people, scarify, throw seeds around and pray is your best hope. No mow May is undoubtedly good for biodiversity but you are not going to suddenly create meadow vegetation.

Footflaos, lack of grass is the point!

Much of what you wrote bearnecessities is illconcieved lawns are not good for biodiversity. However you are correct in saying that no mow may creates the wrong impression with most gardners

Footflaos, lack of grass is the point!

There is also a lack of anything else, I just tend to get one dominate weed kill off everything else - certainly not like a traditional meadow, full of lots of different flowers.

Eg Blue Alkanet takes over which is great whilst it's flowering - bees love it. But once that finished there is nothing else left. I think the area is too shaded to be a decent meadow.

I just tend to get one dominate weed kill off everything else – certainly not like a traditional meadow, full of lots of different flowers.

This is undoubtedly due to too high soil nitrogen levels.

Well I’ve decided on no mow year. Just mowing around the edge of smaller areas and then in the larger back garden I’ve mowed a few paths through the wilderness. Will see how it pans out but being a fairly wild woodland garden which continues into the woods with no hedges or fences it kind of fits.
Can anyone remember the wildflower you can sow that will outcompete the grass?

Can anyone remember the wildflower you can sow that will outcompete the grass?

Yellow rattle will preferentially parasitise grasses over flowers but it won't outcompete them.

Lawns are good, maintained lawns are good

No they’re not and no they’re not. They are a very strange affection and just a chore. The whole bit of green outdoor carpet thing is just weird.

I blame the 18th century.

just let your (sic) garden go to shit!) isn’t helpful

It is helpful. OTOH I’m afraid you’re correct and it will be just a ‘fad’, misunderstood by most, misapplied by most, and forgotten before learned.

I’ve been doing no-mow-May. Someone else did it for me 😉

Patience, patience. I've mowed my lawn into blocks, mowing the edges, and an intersecting series of paths. It looks like I'm still bothering to cultivate the lawn, but the clover in it has just started to flower. I happily watched a handful of bumblebees start on it today. Last year I left it for all of May and June and it was an absolute seething carpet of bees and other pollenators. I've got a couple of cotoneaster bushes and they're just starting to flower. They're alive with bees. I've a patch that is left completely wild with nettles and brambles, and brash all my cuttings from any trees I prune, which means there's loads of rotting wood and cover for any wee beasties that appreciate it.

I try to mow the grass as little as possible, but have to keep it fairly short so I can see and pickup the turds the dog leaves behind.

I've got quite a small garden so I only leave a few acres to grow wild.

We compromised. 1970’s on the left. 2000’s on the right…

We did NMM but have had to chop it short while we sell the house. As soon as we can I’ll let it grow again. Lots of the ‘weeds’ in our lawn attract pollinators, which is cool but also mowing the lawn is worse than hoovering.