No mow May

anagallis_arvensisFull Member
Not watched the video above but no more may is a bit simplistic.

It's worth watching. I enjoyed it a lot.

Yes wildflower meadows need hardly any nourishment, so a bit of work is needed. The first year it can look great, but there after maybe not so. Poppies for example need the whole area turned/ploughed over to germinate the seeds again.

As others have said, flowers/weeds tend to plant themselves where they want to be. Our path is full of valaria, herbs, wild strawberry, Astrantia, aquilegia, buttercups, foxgloves and others I can't name, they arrived without any help from me.

Kormoran - the little blue flowers sound as though they are 'speedwell'.

Our wild path.

Love it.

I made a hedgehog feeder a while back out of a pallet to encourage them into the garden a while back.  Seems to work really well, needs a u-bend to keep it the cats.  We had a mother and pups living in our leaf pile for a while, they're often regularly on the garden and I've tripped over a hedgehog at least one (no harm done).

I've left the back lawn grow long, but generally mow it in June.  The front lawn I've stripped off and put in wildflowers with a mown a path in the middle, not in full bloom yet, but a few bits are starting now.  I'll only mow that once a year

Thanks for the hedgehog tips everyone, the pallet bothy looks ace!

,@bunnyhop yes that is the flower, thanks! It's everywhere, it looks great amongst the grasses. Very pretty and meadow like, it is the best we've had and without even trying.

I've got a load of teasels on the go this year, beautiful flowers and Finches love the seeds. They look great in the winter especially against the snow and frost. Once you've got a couple they seed themselves very easily

I know it’s early, but, here’s one of the areas that I leave to grow. I cut it in late September and with the mild weather it has grown nicely, I managed to avoid scalping it so the tussocks and “lumpy” bits have remained and hopefully full of invertebrates and small animals overwintering. It’s covered with 8” of snow today so I hope they’re all snug!

Have you got a photo wheelsonfire?

I needed to mow the bits we do mow after September as the grass keeps growing, but it's been too wet and the snow from this morning has thawed making it wetter.

Had a field fare and 2 redwings looking for worms, this is a first in our garden, so leaving it wild has paid off.

@Bunnyhop I thought I had included a picture, I’ll try but it won’t allow me at the moment, I’ll do some experimenting.

This is the same area of grass now, it’s died back a bit with the tussocks still formed that will provide habitat for overwintering mammals and insects such as the meadow brown butterfly. On a slightly different note, I don’t adopt the scorched earth policy of my neighbour so the front garden may look untidy during winter, the herbaceous plants haven’t been cut back yet and leaves are left to decompose and feed the soil. I was thinking of doing it soon but whilst having breakfast I was able to watch goldfinches and blue and great tits feeding on the seed heads of the Japanese anemones and michaelmas daisies - a blackbird was rooting around in the leaves. Untidiness is the friend of the natural world!  

I've had an extension built where my lawn used to be, which means no more no mow May for me, at least not up on the flat top piece. However, with the spoil from the footings I've built three huge raised beds using sleepers, which will have a dedicated pollinator friendly range of plants. 

I've spent this morning planting damsons, apples and plum trees where I had some overblown trees reduced or removed, and am about to plant a pollinator friendly hedgerow of blackthorn, hawthorn and dog rose about 15 metres of it down the sloped side, so loads of blossom and potential crops of sloes.  

I've got a shady patch under some oak and beech trees which remains wild with docks, brambles and various other spiky things, and that's also used as a brash pile for rotting down prunings and other bits of rubbish, so the creepy crawly stuff is reasonably well catered for. 

Be careful with the blackthorn, the thorns come straight out of the stems and if they pierce your skin often break off and stay. This can cause severe infection, I had one in the top of my head for about six months that went in whilst I was shredding. I wouldn’t be without them though, lovely blossom and an effective hedge, jays often plant acorns in blackthorn thickets so they can grow protected from cattle. 

Let's not get this thread crossed with the manscaping thread....

PLanning on leaving a few wild patches on our front lawn this year again. They had a bit of a trim in the autumn and are just starting to grow again. Is there any merit in giving them an early season buzz or should I just leave them to do their thing?

I leave them now, just trim the paths.

mmm Living in the area (in Spain)where grass is the preserve of the rich and most is plastic and  where they use organic mowers..

I’ll have to try harder next time it’s goats  but I do think they may have a few sheepz with the guard dogs keeping the whole ensemble from hoofing it.

Does look very green but it’s weeds due to the last 3 weeks of storm. DANA or Gota Fria.

I mowed the lawn about 3 weeks ago. Might just mow some paths through to the washing whirlygig and back, but leaving the edges long as last year an orchid grew.

The wild patch will hopefully provide a few more wild flowers that were hand planted from seed grown in pots (scattering hasn't worked too well). Also by growing the seeds in pots assured that there weren't any wildflowers that take over or don't belong in our part of the world. The lawn is beginning to look green and lush and not so clumpy anymore.

I am going for a no-mow patch, in the area that isn't as regularly walked over. Might boost it with some wild-flower seed and topsoil dressing as I have a wheelbarrow of topsoil left over from recent tree planting. Meanwhile the wildlife pond is good, lots of tadpoles and some of the adult frogs have hung around this year too. A small algae bloom has happened though as the surface coverage plants have not got to the surface and the barley hasn't done it's thing yet. Might add another barley bale.

Yak - the tadpoles should eat the algae when you start coming out of the spawn (ours do). Also mix some sand into the topsoil before throwing the wildflower seed mix, as they germinate better in poor soil conditions.

Great - hopefully the huge mass of tadpoles will get the algae down then. 

Thanks, will do. Hopefully this will be a decent area of longer grass and wild flowers. If it all works, I will get some pics up.

'BECOME A GROWER, NOT A MOWER'.

This was the message from the Butterfly conservationist talking on Breakfast news this morning. Certain butterflies feed on long grass. They need plants such as nettles to lay eggs and the long grass provides shelter for caterpillars. Yesterday in the warmer sunny part of our garden there were two peacock butterflies feeding on the lilac coloured wallflower, bees also on this wallflower and spotted my first hoverfly.

No mow summer has started for our wildflower patch in Surrey. As well as plenty of primroses and cowslips, it was nice to see this Snake's head fritillary survived from last year.

😀

Last year I only cut a single strip around the edge of the lawn and let everything inside grow. It looked really good, plus it meant you could walk round the lawn and get a good look at all the flowers and grasses without trampling it. 

Plan is to do that again this year. We've also got a heap of tadpoles in our tiny ponds, I am very excited about it. 

We don't have a mower as, although we have some grass...none of it is what'd be called 'lawn'. We strim it...but it is very very noticeable just how many bugs, butterflies, bees, wasps etc etc there are around us (we live in the Northern part of SW France..if that makes sense. So the very western edge of the Massif Central) Most of the farms (all of which are small, family affairs) around us use no or very little in the way of pesticides. Most noticeable when cycling as I always have to wear sunglasses/clear cycling glass and have learnt ot keep my gob shut !

Our wildlife friendly garden has been buzzing over this sunny period. Once the morning frosts have thawed, it's alive around 10.30pm with bees, hover flies, butterflies, moths and even the bats have been out the last few eveinings.

Our pond is thriving with all sorts and I'm hoping for more damselflies this year. They love to come out of the pond and have some long grass to move onto. 

Maybe at last the message is getting through to the population to have a go at NO mow May, even leaving a tiny patch is a start.