No mow May

My employers have done no-mow May. The gardeners are just starting to cut the edges of the lawns, and slowly making paths through it.

pondo
Full Member
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?

Probably the best way is to scrub back some of the lawn and take as much grass away as possible. This will look bare but wildflower seeds need areas that aren’t fertile. Mix some wildflower mix with sand,scatter, water well and tread this down. The better option is to grow the wildflower mix in pots and plant up the individual flowers straight into your preferred lawn area. As I’m not an expert but have years of experience it takes time to grow a mini meadow and it doesn’t always look great for years after. Best thing is to just make it for nature and something will probably grow in time.

As per my previous post I started letting an area of the garden grow a bit late in May but it has come on nicely and I will leave it until late August so that it can recover to lawn before winter

It divides the garden up quite nicely

It hasn’t been long but really happy to see clover and forget me nots coming through

The back of the garden that only strim once at the end of the season for the last five years or so is turning into a nice jungle. We have had a hand in guiding it but it has done its own thing this year. It is full of wildlife

The pond we put in last year is so active it was a great addition for the wildlife. It has frogs, newts, and all sorts of little creatures. I said I would be really happy if we had dragonfly visit because they are never seen in our village but I had two damselfly mating by it yesterday.

jp-t853 – gorgeous.
The little blue flowers are ‘speedwell’ of which there are many varieties.
The damsel flies will come eventually, it takes a few years for the larvae to grow and come out into the big wide world.
Edit – the pond probably needs some oxygenating plants and at least 60 – 75% cover (pond plants attract insects and help the dragonflies climb out of the water when the time is right). A good garden centre with a fishery/pond section will advise.
Your garden is perfect.

Show me your pond!

Bearnecessities from STW started a thread ^^ 3 yrs ago, loads of info for pond health. :o)
‘Sorry don’t know how to link it’.

Thanks for the compliment we are really happy with the way the garden is shaping this year with minimal input and the longer grass sections will be a regular feature.

It was a bit of an unknown risk putting the pond in a more shady part of the garden but it has worked well.
We have plants at the other end and although I saw no frogspawn there are nice fat tadpoles in the foliage of the smaller plants. This is where the damsel flies settled.
We have a pump circulating water which is how I found out we had newts because one was stuck against the inlet. I released it and it swam away fine but the pump now has some tights around it to stop things getting sucked in.

Yeah, I think No Mow May is a bit half-hearted.

My lawn throws up buttercups, devils paintbrush and clover which are all starting to flower now. By end of June the clover will be fully flowering so I’ll wait until then to mow the blocks. It’s the clover that brings in the most bees and on a warm day when it’s in full bloom it can be absolutely covered in them. We’re at over 1200 feet so the lawn has a habit of returning to moss and all sorts of weeds anyway, so I gave up on “manicured” long ago.

The garden got a good rake and a high cut with the mower this evening. First time since April. It could do with rain and a few more weeks of sunshine to grow some more wild flowers.

Out front is coming on OK now, difficult to see in photos I think but there are plenty of flowers now. I’ve been pulling out the long grasses to hopefully stop them taking over completely and will see if we can get away with leaving it until the end of the summer.

And more 🐝🐝

Taking inspiration from others in the thread, the back is going to get the edges mowed and a couple of paths down to the shed etc but mostly left.

We’ve done no mow may (well no mow summer tbh!) on the top bit of our garden again (our garden is a bit stupidly large – we bought a garden with a knackered house attached). Did it slightly differently this year by only doing one cut in March – last year I did a cut at the end of march as well as the start. Seems to have resulted in more wild flowers. Also we’ve had some of the yellow rattle we’ve been planting for the past couple of years taking, as well as a lot of dog daisies. Still mainly grass but seems a bit wilder at least. I cut windy paths into it that our little ones love running down. Also planted a load of native trees (mainly hazel) to break up the grass a bit.

Will now leave this as is until some point in august where i’ll have a nasty few days of cutting it for hay, hand bailing it, and giving it to which ever local mad horse person wants it.

I took down the dog fence the previous owner put up in strategic places a couple of years ago. Get a lot of badgers, muncjac and somewhat unexpectedly the day before yesterday two (very large, but i assume Roe) deer bucks cavorting up and down the garden chasing each other which was quite exciting.

Got the drone out to make a quick video.

Out front is coming on OK now, difficult to see in photos I think but there are plenty of flowers now.

You’ll be on similar ground to me – hardly any soil and then sand 🙂

My no mow may was a largely a result of not owning a lawnmower – didnt occur to me to buy one when I moved last autumn. perfect for nice flowery lawns becuase the ground is pretty infertile so the more competitive grass can muscle everything else out. I found the grass grew most vigorously are the edges where the border have been cultivated more over the years – you can see areas that have maybe been veg patches in the past and again the grasses there are very robust.

Great to see what really ground should look like – that once a square foot of turf would have been a valid subject for art

If its not been mentioned already the ‘Park Grass Experiment’ is an interesting read in that inadvertantly the control field – the one where no work was done to improve the ground is the most most varied and diverse.

Finally gave my lawns a trim with a hedge trimmer! But basically cut above the various flowers just taking off the taller grass stalks and the shaggier grass at the edges. Maybe get a mower next year. 🙂

I gave up in the middle of the month.
We still had a little snow arriving up until mid april this year (not settling though) and one last dump on the 1st/2nd May. So the grass hadn’t even started moving.

Come the middle of the month it was well on the way to 6″ tall and still going. Both kids have picked ticks up from it and i’ve found a couple on my legs. So i cracked the mower out and set it going on maximum height.

The front “lawn” has gone mental as well. But i’ll leave that another couple of weeks.

I am fortunate to have 8 acres of grass and trees, i mow about 1.5 acres of it and the field 6 acres is not cut for Hay until the end of June.

I have endless amounts of wildlife and wild flowers but i do pull out Ragwort.

Spring/ summer 3 of our rear meadow. Mowed in Autumn and Spring. As you can see this year the oxide daisies are making a bid for dominance.

Previous lawn was dense as we used a mulching mower. In year 0 we let it grow all summer then cut it really short and scarified it so lots of bare mud was showing. Sowed some yellow rattle and meadow mix and pretty much let it get on with it apart from the mowing. The low yellowy things are the yellow rattle. There are also dandelions, buttercups, ragged robin and some other stuff there. We had poppies initially, but none this year 😪

Well that didn’t seem to work I will try another way…

Oh dear its so long since I shared photos, sorry peeps

Well it’s going to be hard work getting this down to knee height!

Still at least I’ll earn my afternoon beer in the sun

Well that wasn’t as bad as I feared. Lots of bind weed, horse and mare’s tail pulled at the back but plenty other stuff to take it’s place with a bit of luck.

A glorious elephant hawk moth seemed less than happy about my trimming but scuttled off quickly when placed on the woundwort.

Yellow thing in the first and purple thing second and third are new this year too.

The poppies look like they may be returning later in the year as well which is nice

Just taking the bins down the drive and noticed among the buttercups and long grass a paler yellow flower with pointy leaves. I’ve identified it as yellow rattle and found some more on the aforementioned shared lawn. I’m amazed that it’s arrived on its own, never scattered any seeds in the 35 years we’ve been here so can only assume a dormant seed from when it was last meadow in the 1920’s or brought in by a bird or mammal.
Isn’t nature amazing!

Found a few unidentified flowers in the front lawn but the back is still monoculture at the moment.

Bring on ‘let it bloom June’ and ‘can’t be arsed to cut the grass july’

We did an accidental no mow May though being away. Well I did mow at the very start of May, but not again until this morning. Disappointing results, almost no flowers, a couple of buttercups and some yellow rattle that’s spread from my upper wild meadow and was just starting to bloom. Some tall daisies hadn’t come out, and they got chopped.

Other than that, lots of grass flowers, but that’s not much use for the wildlife! And a month’s growth didn’t need collecting, just mulched down fine.

The permanent wild meadow OTOH is going great, all sorts of things have arrived over the few years we’ve had it.

My conclusion is that a single month of no mowing is a bit of pointless gesture, at least this year, in my garden. Maybe elsewhere and if it hadn’t been so dry, things might have been a bit better.

Incidentally with ref to the previous poster talking about yellow rattle, I’m amazed how little mine has spread. I seeded the wild meadow when I established it some years ago, it’s an absolute sea of yellow every year, and I get about half a dozen of them each year in the proper lawn which is all of 5 feet away and down hill.

My conclusion is that a single month of no mowing

Oh, I assumed it meant no mow [until its after] May, so five months plus probably three at the end of last year.

I guess that’s why the allotmentistas send me snotty messages.

Of course a big motivator in allowing lawn to turn to meadow, apart from the various bits of wildlife it attracts, is that a Poldark might turn up during your Diet Coke break

What, and tempt Mrs brain away? I’ll pass ta.

No mow May followed by massacre June seems daft to me but better than nothing I suppose. Not that I think everyone in every circumstance should have to turn their lawn into a wilderness. If you have the right area which doesn’t need to be used for leisure purposes then just leave it all summer.

I started a few years ago with my front lawn which is a chalky slope and on the edge of the South Downs National park with a meadow further down the street so prime candidate. The bank is shared with the neighbour who has a grass cutter shave their half own to an inch every 2 weeks and is mainly moss.

I’ve gradually seen more variety appearing including one year a bee orchid. I got more proactive last year by scattering loads of yellow rattle and poppy seeds and was pleased to see that a few areas have yellow rattle flowering now and lots of poppies about to come out.

It’s so much less hassle than cutting the awkward slope and beautiful blowing in the breeze and sunshine. Lot’s of insect life too. I’m disappointed all the other semis in the row haven’t followed suit seeing how attractive it is. I’m thinking of having a small information board about the meadow and some of the species to see if it inspires passers by.

Indeed, we tend to hold out as long as we can on our bank – I am aiming for one cut this year if I can…

It seems that fibre installers think they can dump all their work stuff (pipes, barriers, tools etc) on my grass now – pretty sure they wouldn’t have done it on an immaculate lawn ☹️

We too will be keeping the lawn un-mowed until late August. I do trim the edges of the veg plots.

I’m thinking of having a small information board about the meadow and some of the species to see if it inspires passers by.

What a great idea.
Walking around to a friends house last night, I noticed a lot of previously perfect gardens, with little areas of wildness, this trend is definitely gathering pace.

Oh and to all the people watering their lawns last Sunday in a heat wave, at the hottest time of the day – nooo. Your lawns will survive, just keep them long and stop using up precious drinking water.

‘Plant life’ has continued the ‘No mow May’ with ‘let it bloom June’.

I’ve discovered more red clover, plenty of white clover and the rattle starting to flower.

‘let it bloom June’

We’re embracing this, I’ve got much better things to spend my time on than cutting grass. There loads of life in the garden now, bees are all over it and seem to be enjoying themselves 😎
It might go a bit too wild once it starts raining again, it’s been dry for weeks apart from a couple of heavy showers last night.

Even more places are embracing it. This is my office location at Stirling university.

A few years ago this was mown down to 2cm of grass. So lovely to now have such a rich environment, contributing to better human health & well being, better biodiversity, locking up carbon, improving soils and better water retention. Nice one @StirUni ? pic.twitter.com/p5hitYz6zh

— Matt Robinson (@mattoutandabout) June 8, 2023

Well I left a section of the front garden, it looks terrible and I’ve dandelions every where.  I did nothing to it other than not mow it

The uncut verges are looking amazing.

Well I left a section of the front garden, it looks terrible and I’ve dandelions every where. I did nothing to it other than not mow it

I’ve learned to embrace the dandelions and re-aligned my idea of what looks terrible or not.

Horticulturists assemble! My very small lawn has steadily been taken over by clover, which I’m happy with and for the last month I’ve left it all alone as the bees love it. Unfortunately, horsetail has been invading too and it’s taking over everything. Any recommendations for weedkiller that you’ve actually used to good effect to control the horsetail but not kill everything else?

Our garden bird feeders are usually just visited by sparrows, recently Gold finches have taken to visiting but they only feed on the seeds of the black napweed  we have growing.

Our goldfinches will eat sunflower heart chips from one of our feeders.

@fanzzini – I personally don’t like any form of weedkiller. It will affect other creatures if poisons eg slug pellets are used.

Apart from trying to pull it up by hand, it’s hard to know what to do.

Our own lawn has only been cut once since’ no mow May’. I used the hedge cutters to trim the long grass, then the mower on a high cut. The ‘wild bit’ is just left bang in the middle. There are two short mowed paths through the lawn. The amount of extra moths, butterflies and other insects has been noticeable. More bats, more mammals, more birds. A few more wild flowers have popped through: yellow rattle, red clover, cornflower,ragwort and lacy phacelia.
Our hedges won’t get cut until mid August.