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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.
Our lawn has had its last mow (except the wild area, which is left anyway).
By not mowing the lawn it will look after itself during this warm weather. I'm seeing quite a few people watering (in April unheard of). This is a waste of time.
I'm hoping this May, that the message will get through to more people. Even a small 1m sq patch will benefit nature and wildlife if left alone.
Not cut the grass yet this year. I'm itching to get the mower out.
Luckily we are away a lot in May so it can hang in there til June.
I've rigged up a water butt to collect our shower water ,so we use that on anything we don't eat.
I did a mow at the weekend. Plan is to now leave about 1/3 unmowed, and also wildflower seeded + soil topdressed. The rest needs mowing due to lots of foot traffic, bouldering wall etc. Pond is doing well though. It's fed from 4 linked rainwater butts, but those are low now so could do with a rain shower or 2. Currently there's 3 big frogs, water boatmen, 1 newt (may be more?), tadpoles, snails, and plenty of dragonfly larvae. The 1000s of tadpoles we did have are now down to a few due to the newt, dragonfly larvae and magpies that have been scoffing them. Hoverfly eggs have appeared on some of the marginal plant leaves too. The surface plant coverage is poor currently though as the lilly leaves have only just reached the surface, so I might rake out some of the algae that has appeared.
Only mowed a large enough patch to sit on this year & round the edges at the front, will see what grows this year but if not much might have to resort to potting as well..
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).
Some pond action just now.
I love No Mow May.
It's usually around this time of year that i start thinking, "ah balls, probably going to have to cut some of that grass at some point, how tedious".
Then I realise that if i sit on my arse and do nothing instead, i will be saving the planet. Win win!
Then I'll probably forget til July
People who own the field behind us announced they were going to turn it in to a wild meadow 2 years ago (think he just couldn’t be arsed mowing it)
2 years later it just a heap of dead weeds, toughty grass and not much else . In fact I don’t think anything could survive in it.
Certainly not seen any wildlife
Field on the other side of the road gets cut 2-3 times a year by a bailer. You then get a few days of birds of pray swarming, taking pray from the field
Ah yes, many people just think a wild flower meadow will appear if left. It's a good few years of 'looking after the land', scattering the seeds, waiting for the flowers to grow and produce their own seeds to scatter. However on leaving it, there may well be orchids and other hidden flowers and plants waiting in the wings.
Ours is a wildlife garden but it still needs to be taken care of. The nettles really did take over, so we have culled some of those and kept them in a smaller area, this has allowed a honeysuckle to grow and spread in our hedge, as with most things there has to be balance.
If every garden or greenspace had a hedge (bush or bushes), a tree, a wild patch, some water, a rotting log pile and a mini meadow then nature will thrive.
Trying to work out how to do this & still allow my daughter to do some footie practice on our small lawn.
I might suggest keeping an unmowed border & mowing the central bit, so she can have a kick about.
Aging parents have a big lawn, lot of work to mow. If it were my own I'd cultivate it and put wildflowers in. Any methods for making it a bit meadowy rather than just unkempt?
We're in the final straight of our small porch rebuild. Once done the front lawn is getting ripped up and a wildlife friendly garden installed. I had to remove our wonky birch in the front but it's being replaced by a rowan and I want a 'hedge' of blueberries in front of the window.
The back still has a lawn for the two boys but the rest of the garden borders are wildlife friendly. I enjoy this time of year seeing life springing back. The apples are in blossom the primula vialli are starting to emerge.
Once the boys stop playing on the grass as much we'll stick a pond in. And replace the lawn
From what I've read on wild flower medows, grass has a high nutrient requirement where as most wild flowers don't so you need to stop feeding and for the first few years removed any mown grass to keep the grass in check and allow everything else to get a roothold.
BBC Breakfast reporting NMM like this is a new thing.
Any methods for making it a bit meadowy rather than just unkempt?
Mow a border round the edge, and perhaps a path meandering through the middle if big enough, but leave the majority uncut.
Just for reference, this is a photo of a restored meadow in the Lake District. This was a normal farmers field a few years ago. 
We’re half way through May and sadly grasses and wildflowers are struggling with the lack of rain.
I don’t want a lot of rain, but just a tiny shower now and then at night would be great.
Pictures hopefully in another week or so.
Anyone having any luck persuading their council NMM is a good plan?
I thought Bury Council was leaving that triangular traffic island at the top of Jubilee Way, but no - mown flat earlier in the week.
Unfortunately councils come under pressure from the neat and tidy brigade and also their own departments protecting budgets. Our bank adjoining the road has been full of colour from cowslips, primroses, violets, forget-me-nots and these had spread to the verge. This verge has been scalped to the shortest setting and is now brown. The holy concrete where I’d spread seeds has been weed killed, also now brown. Our front grass, cut once a year is full of insects, even though there’s no obvious flowers when you look closely there are plants that I call chimney sweep and others that the insects love. The grass at the back that I leave is thick, coarse grass that will develop later, I am hopeful for the insects this year as I have seen more already this year than the last few years. Bees are laying eggs in the bug house and the first ladybird larvae are appearing.
No Mow May encompasses our approach to gardening, no chemicals and let species sort themselves out a bit. This “flower” would have been uprooted in the flower bed but here in the long grass it’s beautiful and flourishing. These Hesperis Matronalis and foxgloves have self set on one of the raised vegetable beds but as they smell so nice and appear happy there we’ve left them for the bees and moths. Our approach is working as a fox cub has just popped it’s head into the potting shed to say hello to my wife!
Just spotted on the front grass on our return from holiday - a beautiful common blue! Not a very good picture as it was waving about in the wind but evidence that you don’t need conventional flowers to attract insects. 
The plant that I call “chimney sweep” that the common blue is feeding on is actually ribbed plantain. There’s been loads of insects on the front grass and not a conventional flower in sight!
There’s been loads of insects on the front grass and not a conventional flower in sight!
Similar to ours. Nothing booming (yet) but when you walk through the long grass a whole bunch of little dudes flutter away.
This year seems a little slower than last but the uncut areas are now full of speedwell and I think clover flowers. The odd buttercup and a small white flower that I forget the name of. Oh and the fox and cubs have gone mental despite the dry weather.
As before I've cut and trimmed the edge and a strip around the side of the lawn, it's only a small lawn but keeping the edge neat really looks good and kind of frames the flowers in the middle.
I've been feeding the tadpoles daily, the water is boiling when they home in on the food. You can sit and watch them for ages, at first you can't see them then suddenly they come up from all directions. My ponds are tiny, maybe a foot or so across, there are three in a cluster that are just old trugs sunk in the ground and planted and landscaped. Lots of insects hanging around
We have a little shed with a bird box attached, but this year a pair of Blue tits have found a hole in the shed where a knot has fallen out. Perfect blue tit size! They are completely unfazed by our presence, and pop in and out right next to us with food in their beaks
My red squirrel feeder has become a battle of wits as I try to defeat the local crow who has worked out how to open the lid. Every modification to thwart him has been quickly overcome. Last weekend I did get a fantastic interaction with a squirrel, I saw it's tail catch the sun and as it was on the ground behind a tree, I managed to get very close and waited for it to reappear on the trunk. Sure enough, he climbed above me then just sat and stared at me from a few feet, then went on its merry way
Finally this weekend has bought some decent rain
In the last 3 years our plum tree has produced 3-4 plums, I eat about 1 before the squirrels come scrumping. This year the tree is absolutely dripping with them, I've never seen such a dense crop. Still reckon I'll only get about 1 before the local wildlife embark on a plumfest in the yard.
Anyone having any luck persuading their council NMM is a good plan?
I don't know what prompted it, but Rotherham council actively put wildflowers into all the roadsides and central reservations and it really looks great as you drive in.
Had to mow mine last week. Picked up a dozen ticks walking from the back door to the garage... It was 20+cm long throughout and i do have a load of low growing stuff in there too, so there are still some wildflowers.