No Mow May.

Why you shouldn’t cut your grass this month.

One of the visible impacts of lock down was the abundance of daisies, dandelions, cuckoo flowers and other wild flowers popping up on roadside verges as grass went uncut around the country.

Not only are these small wild flowers pretty, they are a vital source of spring nectar for bees and NOT doing something, like cutting the grass, is actually equivalent to taking a positive action for the environment. 

It is estimated that private gardens in this country cover over 10 million acres, that’s more than all our nature reserves put together. Encouraging biodiversity in your lawn by allowing your grass to grow 2 or 3 inches tall requires less work than more frequent mowing and allows for an abundance of small flowers thus providing much needed nectar for bees and butterflies. 

UK Charity Plantlife estimate that it takes 5 daisies, 2 dandelions and 6 buttercups to provide enough nectar for just one honey bee a day. We know that 97% of wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930’s and agricultural land is often dangerous to bees because of pesticides, or it is a mono-crop desert that only provides nectar in the month that one crop flowers. This means that lawns, grass verges and other green spaces are a vital lifeline and source of food for bees and butterflies.

So if you want to do something simple to help your local environment then why not consider letting your grass grow into a meadow?  Then you can see which wildflowers grow and which pollinators you attract.

Letting the grass grow is pretty simple but here is a guide on going from lawn to meadow by The Wildlife Trusts to get you started.

You can also take part in Plantlife’s fabulous No Mow May which is a citizen science project encouraging the use of lawns to feed pollinators.

Bee Inspired!