No mow May

An infestation by greenflies is often followed by other insects that eat them. Ladybird larvae, for example, are voracious predators, they look nothing like the adult version as they’re long and black with reddish spots. Unfortunately spray insecticide kills these too. Balance in the garden, even a small one can take time but eventually a chemical free environment can be achieved.

Dandylions you say?  I seem to have cornered the market in just one of my paddocks!!

Yet despite this, yesterday, the council contractors massacred the verges down our street with the petrol ride on mower as usual. It WAS full of dandelions.

It still will be!

Interestingly this is one of the paddocks that I previously mowed to look like a long lawn – the act of mowing it has actually spread the dandylion seeds and helped them flourish.  The paddock next doot is left to grow and is just taken for hay twice a year and doesn’t have anything like the concentration.

So the council might actually be helping nature along by cutting at this time of year.

Molgrips – If you have to spray roses, maybe just use water, or an environmentally friendly washing up liquid (maybe ecover) diluted with luke warm water. Otherwise try and use your fingers.
With blackfly on my beans I just swidge them them manually.

I tried to introduce some meadow flowers to a section of our garden – I put several packets of seed down last year but nothing came through, and neither has it this spring. I’ve been told that I really need to start with bare soil and properly cultivate the seeds rather than sprinkle onto the grass but I am not keen on that level of hassle. Is there any seed that will take just by scattering onto the grass?

PS, my grass is looking a right state – all this rain and then warm sunshine and it’s out of control already – I can’t see me leaving it for another 20 days.

Is there any seed that will take just by scattering onto the grass?

Keen to know that too. I’ve got some lovely grass that we don’t intend to cut again, ever, and not keen (and there are more pressing jobs) to hawk it to bits to encourage wildflowers to properly cultivate.

I’d like to do it, but we have a dog. I keep the lawn cut so I can find and pick up the poops

Yeah. Us too.

I guess we could fence off a section of the garden and allow that to go wild, just now the rest for sitting and dog-pooping!

So the council might actually be helping nature along by cutting at this time of year.

Our verges were full of dandelions and until last week I was ready to big up Birmingham city council for leaving them be – last Thursday they all got hacked down and I was much saddened. 🙁 Imagine my surprise when the verges were full of dandelion flowers just a few days later, and now they’re gone all seedy. 🙂

If you have to spray roses, maybe just use water,

They get sprayed with water a lot, this is Wales 🙂 When I do spray I do it highly locally, and it’s usually on either buds or before flowers are out.

Yellow rattle might take on a lawn but typically there’s quite a thatch which hinders the seeds from reaching the soil and germinating.

If you can rake a few patches really hard it might help. Make sure you get down to soil level and scratch it up a bit.

Of course lawns do sprout weeds so some seeds must get through! It will revert to wild over time, it will just take longer if you start with a well established lawn and don’t do anything to weaken it.

I have a bit at the back of the garden that we started to leave to nature about five years ago after a thread on hear. The advice seemed to be that wild flowers would not thrive due to its position under trees and with it being damp soil. I love it

We put a pond and stream in last year. We didn’t get any frog spawn but we have frogs and newts this year living in it

We are a bit late to the no mow. I am quite attached to my lawn for the dogs needs and places to relax but we are letting some areas grow up now so we will see how that works

I gave up and cut mine yesterday. Twice. And again today. It took forever and the lawn looks like a 1970s rugby league ground. Never again.

Is there any seed that will take just by scattering onto the grass?

Most seeds will die or get eaten by birds as they don’t make good contact with the soil, so you’d have to scarify a bit I’d think, same principal as overseeding grass seed on a lawn?

We put a pond and stream in last year.

Wait – you put a stream in?!

I put the wildflower seeds down at the same time as i’m either finishing up with the spring round of scarifying, or when i add fresh top soil. Depends when i remember.

A good watering (or a solid downpour) helps as well.

Just waiting for the comments from neighbours on how we’re spoiling the look of the close, might have to rake a patch & plant some proper wild flower seeds to keep their gnashing at bay.

Well from or original massive bunch of tadpoles, we now have far fewer, but some of those are big ‘uns. Guessing the big ‘uns have eaten some of the little ‘uns.
The new trees look like they have taken, even some blossom, but I think we now need to be on the lookout for fruit and get rid of it asap.

We’ve left the front to grow and see what it does, not much colour unfortunately but there’s a few bits starting – some clover that I scattered last year is starting to show up and there’s a few dandelions, buttercups, daisies and some purple things (?)

There are also some tall grasses that I’m considering carefully strimming to above the height of everything else 🤔

The back was getting like a jungle so had to cut, it gets too wet and unmanageable if I don’t keep it a bit short.

There’s some white clover which the bees love and it usually survives the mower on its highest setting.

Also lots of this yellow clover, my phone tells me it’s Suckling Clover. That definitely survives the mower, any way I can encourage that to grow over more of the lawn? Good idea or will I regret it? Our lawn is mostly moss tbh and it would be good to replace the moss with something that flowers.

And we’ve still got the failed wild meadow at the bottom of the garden, it gets taken over with Mares Tail which I periodically pull out. It’s a lot of grass with a few flowers in it. The yellow rattle is coming through this year so I might sow another load of that in autumn and see if it beats the Mares Tail 🤞

I’m going to mow tomorrow, but I’m going to leave the bottom third of the garden all summer, I’ll mow a path to the trampoline and shed.

It’s been a hit with this fellow

I won’t touch our bank for another month – every year we let it run wild as long as we can. The daffodils are still out, and the bees are back hiving in the bank too.

I’ve had to give in, and mow the front today, albeit on a high setting this time around. We’ve just come back from a week in Lincs, and it was getting on for knee-high in places, also Mrs Lawman was scowling at me and saying there’d be sofas and washing machines flytipped in it before long. To be fair, I started No Mow May in mid April, so its had nearly 6 weeks untouched up to now.
I could see little of interest apart from seeding grasses, loads of dandelions, daisies, a few large plantains and some clover. But I’ll happily confess to a pretty poor level of botanical expertise, which means there may be more there which I’ve not seen or recognised.
The back lawn needs kept fairly short at all times for doggy business.

I could see little of interest apart from seeding grasses, loads of dandelions, daisies, a few large plantains and some clover. But I’ll happily confess to a pretty poor level of botanical expertise, which means there may be more there which I’ve not seen or recognised

As I understand it, the overall biome of most gardens is pretty poor. You need to actively introduce species, consider soil improvements including fungi and microorganisms etc.

Our lawn has a few daisies in it but precious little else.
Is long grass in itself good for bugs or can I give it a cut?

Cut mine. Scarified it , aerated it sanded seeded and top dressed it.

Moss isn’t much fun to play on when it stays wet.

Also added an electric sheep to keep it at a decent length

The bank and ditch + roadside are all still growing their best life with all the wild seeds I planted when I restructured it – as is my native hedgerow species hedge all up the side of the house so I don’t feel guilty.

Going to leave mine for another few weeks. It’s full of clover which hasn’t yet flowered. I enjoy making interesting patterns/blocks so it doesn’t look too unkempt. It’ll stay lie this until the end of June if the last couple of years are anything to go by.

The wisteria is full of bees, and I’ve an enormous climbing rose which is about to flower. There’s another 1/3 acre of steep slope full of various wild flowers and tree blossom for them to go at.

Have let front & back grow and all I have now is longer monoculture grass. Given the previous owner actually used the lawn as a putting green I think it’s going to take a couple of years to get more stuff in there.

To those complaining that there’s ‘only’ daisies and dandelions in their lawn, can I suggest you take some time to appreciate how nice they are as flowers? I think they’re great and insects certainly agree.

Apologies if already covered, but, I did no mowing at all last year for the majority of my very small lawn. Only cut a strip around 4 sides so we could get to the borders. That left a 2.5 x 2.5m bit of lawn to go wild. Unsurprisingly only grass or clover (no flowers) grew 😂. So, after this year leaving it until after we get back from annual trip to the lakes, I’m wondering if we should plant spring bulbs so that they grow through the lawn in spring, and they then get cut down after flowering post-no mow may??

I cut mine on Monday as it getting ridiculous and no flowers were left.

I’m done with this now, it’s a mess and I can’t find my bike anymore

The local squirrels plant oak trees for me, got quite a few little saplings growing now, one of which is now taller than me!

Plenty of flowers growing in the lawn too, I’ll wait until the wild orchids have died before cutting the grass.

Ultra tidiness and neatness is partly what’s got us into this biodiversity mess, and what initiatives like NoMowMay are trying to combat, re-educate etc.

I’m working on embracing the idea of it being ‘a mess’ and plan to leave mine wild at the back, apart from a mown strip around the edge to access borders like @fazzini

May not look like your Grandparents’ lawn, but it’s a much better habitat for wildlife.

This was the first May we’ve taken this approach and I’m happy with the outcome. We didn’t stop cutting all the grass during the month as we’d not managed a post-winter cut before the end of April due to weather/location, but rather than cut all the grass we’ve left one quarter uncut along with letting the boundaries grow in a bit too. The garden’s massive and the uncut area’s approx 25m x 15m. I wish we’d adopted this approach sooner: looks better IMO, much less work and far quicker to cut the grass now. We’ve always had a lot of wildlife in the garden and this can only be better for it.

Mown a meandering path through the ‘wilding’ section where we’ve got a few more fruit trees establishing.

Ultra tidiness and neatness is partly what’s got us into this biodiversity mess, and what initiatives like NoMowMay are trying to combat, re-educate etc.

It’s certainly made me think and change my behaviour. We’ve not fully embraced the ‘mess’ approach but we’re partway there – need a balance between a decent mown area for the kids to play on, while letting a good part of the garden go wild.

Jeez, is that the local park, or your actual garden?? 😳😂

Can I just remind the impatient amongst us, that nature takes her time.
Our lawn has been left over the summer months for several years and it’s only in the last two that red clover has appeared.
Keep at this and flowers will come, wildlife will appear.
Just crouch down on a sunny day and watch the amount of insect life hovering above the long grass area. Lots of insects use the long grass as a sanctuary.
It doesn’t matter if you only leave a square metre uncut, it’s better than nothing.

Our lawn will be left now for a while longer as we’re in a drought.

I’d love to leave our bottom third longer but I don’t think it would be good for Mrs Pondo’s blood pressure. 🙁

Can I just buy a bucket of wild flowers seeds and chuck them on the lawn for next Spring? Should I do that now, pre-cut, or post-cut, or leave it till Autumn or something? Or is that just a waste of time?

We’ve also got a carpet of wild strawberries !

Also- some lovely gardens on show here 👍

I agree with @Bunnyhop patience is key! I carefully mowed round violets on joint front lawn, starting over 30 years ago, these have now spread and my no mow spring and summer areas (I mow my neighbours on very high to stop him butchering ours), has now got orchids (in the wrong acid soil), ladysmock, fox and cubs and others. I am lucky to have a very large garden (small house) and there are some areas I don’t cut at all and some only once in very late Autumn, the variety of flowers, insects and birds that we get is better every year – buttercups took a while to arrive but now they take over after the cowslips. If you leave your grass then it flowers too, lots of different varieties and pretty in its own right.
My wife recently said that our front looked like we’d died so I tidied the edges and cut some neat defining strips and all is good, we’re still alive to appreciate it too, bonus!

Not mowing related but currently laying in a hammock enjoying the bees in the garden 🐝

Have left a strip up the middle where the daisies are.
The front has dandelions about 18 inches high. Once they have gone I’ll cut the front