Every May, the charity Plantlife encourages garden owners and green space managers to take part in “No Mow May”. By not mowing your grass, Plantlife says you will be “liberating your lawns and providing a space for nature”. And we think this is a fantastic idea and something we strongly encourage you to do. Here’s why!
Since the 1970s the UK has lost nearly 97% of its flower rich meadows. Not only is this a huge loss of plant life, but it’s a huge loss of food sources for pollinators too. As we all know, pollinators are essential for life on earth and so we should be helping them out where we can. And it can’t get much easier than not mowing your lawn, can it?!
Leaving your lawn for the month will allow wildflowers to grow and flower. These will provide vital food sources for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, as well as looking really rather beautiful too. Flowers such as clover and daisies, dandelions and buttercups will flower, but you may be surprised by what other wildflowers grow too.
As well as providing food sources for pollinators, allowing your lawn to go wild can also help to tackle pollution and can lock away atmospheric carbon below ground. It’s definitely something that could make a significant difference to the environment, especially as there are over 20 million gardens in the UK. Imagine the increase in wildflower areas if even just 10% of people joined in!
Once May is over, perhaps you would consider leaving your lawn to develop into a wildflower meadow. If converting the whole lawn won’t work for you, perhaps a section of it could be allowed to rewild? Not only would there be great benefits for pollinators and wildflower populations, but it would be a beautiful addition to your garden space too. Below you can see a photo of a meadow area that started life as a section of unmown lawn. We have developed this over several years to become a beautiful, species rich area, with lots of native and non-native flowering plants and wildflowers. If you’d like to rewild an area of your lawn, we’ve written more about how to do this here. We highly recommend it!
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