What is No Mow May?
Plantlife, the wild plant conservation charity, started the No Mow May campaign in 2019 to encourage garden owners to put their mower away during May and let wildflowers grow. In the UK we have lost 97 per cent of British wildflower meadows since the 1930s, which has removed a vital source of food for pollinators such as bees and butterflies.
What are the benefits of not mowing your lawn?
Leaving your grass to grow a little longer can have huge benefits to your environment and to wildlife. Even grass mown every four weeks will provide plants for pollinators. Less mowing encourages wildflowers to grow in your lawn and this is beneficial to pollinating insects such as hoverflies, bees and butterflies. Wildflowers also provide food for other creatures such as birds and small mammals. No Mow May participants have reported almost 100 species of pollinators on their lawns including 25 types of moth and butterfly, and 24 types of bee.
Flowers to look out for in your lawn
Once you stop mowing your lawn it won’t be long before you notice an increase in the number of flower species growing in it. Which flowers you see will depend on how long you let the grass grow. Restricting your mowing to every four weeks will allow flowers like bird’s foot trefoil and clover to flourish, while plants like knapweed and musk mallow are more likely if you restrict your mowing to two to three times a year.
Top 10 most spotted wild lawn plants
The wild plants that you’re most likely to spot in lawns that have been left to grow long over a few weeks include familiar plants such as daisies and dandelions, as well as a few that might be considered weeds but are valuable to wildlife, such as common mouse-ear, a type of chickweed. Here are the top ten most recorded wild plants as a result of No Mow May.
Daisies (Bellis perennis)
Daisies are a native perennial plant that not only attracts bees, but also provides food for the cocksfoot moth and seed-eating birds such as sparrows and finches.
Common bird’s foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)
This common meadow wildflower is a larval food plant for the common blue and green hairstreak butterflies, as well as a source of nectar for pollinating insects.
Oxeye daisy (Leucantheum vulgare)
This daisy is far taller than its relative, the lawn daisy, at 30-60cm tall. The centre of each flower is made up of lots of tiny flowers, packed full of nectar that benefits pollinating insects including hoverflies, butterflies and bees.
Creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens)
Although considered a weed in some situations, this spreading perennial is valuable to insects. It flowers from May to August, providing nectar and pollen for flies, beetles and honeybees.
Yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor)
The annual wildflower yellow rattle attracts many types of bumblebee, solitary bees and hoverflies. Unlikely to find its own way to your meadow, you will need to sow fresh yellow rattle seed in autumn, but it’s worth doing as this wildflower helps to suppress grasses, which encourages other flowers to grow. Once it’s established in your lawn, it should self seed, creating new plants for the following year.
Field forget-me-not (Myosotis arvensis)
This annual wildflower is long flowering, with tiny blue flowers from April through to September. It’s on the RHS list of Plants for Pollinators and will self seed to provide plants year after year.
Meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris)
Buttercups are popular with a variety of insects, including flies, wasps and hoverflies. They are also a particular favourite with the large scissor bee. The meadow buttercup’s flowers are held on slim stems that can reach 1m tall.
White clover (Trifolium reptens)
White and red clover both produce a lot of nectar – white clover attracts honey bees and short-tongued bumblebees, while red clover attracts bees with longer tongues. The leaves are collected by wood mice and it’s a food plant for the common blue butterfly.
Common mouse-ear (Cerastium fontanum)
This variety of chickweed is often viewed as a weed, but letting it grow wild in part of your garden will bring benefits to wildlife. It’s a good food source for insects – the clusters of small white flowers appear over a long period, from April to September, providing nectar for bees and butterflies.
Dandelion
Dandelions are usually viewed as weeds, but these cheery yellow flowers are a good source of nectar for bees and butterflies, and their seeds provide food for small birds such as bullfinches and greenfinches. Dandelions are now included in the RHS’s Plants for Pollinators list.
How to take part in No Mow May
Visit Plantlife’s No Mow May to sign up and commit to a longer lawn. Let Plantlife know what size your lawn is and find top tips for managing your green space in May and throughout the year.
from BBC Gardeners World Magazine https://ift.tt/XhY1qQc
