52. #NoMowMay

In the Walled Garden I have been supporting #NoMowMay, a movement promoted by the charity Plantlife. The objective is to provide more wild flowers for pollinators.

Since they launched No Mow May in 2019, the figures show that you can increase the pollen count on your lawn by mowing less. The charity’s citizen science experiment asked people to leave their mowers in the shed for May and count the flower species that subsequently popped up in a one-square-metre patch of their lawn. The results were indisputable: changing the way we mow can result in a tenfold increase in the amount of nectar available to bees and other pollinators.

The grass in the Walled Garden has not been cut since 30th April. Our wild flowers have mainly been dandelions, and the fledging birds and bees have loved having the flowers and the longer grass to hide in. I have also seen a lot more bees, butterflies and moths in the area. But it is really looking quite wild now, and I am looking forward to being able to cut it again this weekend.

#NoMowMay is now followed by gardeners across the UK, and by the local councils responsible for roadside grass verges and other public spaces. There are a number of interesting articles on the subject.

A Guardian article on how getting councils to manage verges for nature would create a combined area the size of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh for wildflowers.

A Gardens Illustrated article on how reducing mowing encourages biodiversity in our gardens.

BeeVive encourage setting aside an area of lawn for wildflower seeds to increase the biodiversity even further.

I might try adding some wildflower seeds to the lawn next year, and seeing how that does.