No Mow May

Any one else taking advantage of “no mow May” as a good excuse to avoid cutting the grass?

We are supremely fortunate in having a large garden with several grass areas surrounded by pastureland.

The bank in the lower garden is always a pain to cut with the mower so I’ve left it with the following result.




It’s alive with bees and hoverflies.

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I experimented with a no cut policy at the back , having listened to Kate Bradbury on Gardeners’World. It just got longer, longer and achieved nothing in the way of flowers , so it was cut back.

While that didn’t work, the front will be a riot of OxEye Daises shortly .

At the front of my house is land tended by the council and that has been a riot of daisies and buttercups, it fitted the requirement of No Mow In May to the T

Today the council cut it and you can see all the dead pollinator friendly flowers lying there.

Cllr **** will be hearing from me .

This is attached to my front fence , I do weed but selectively and a thistle that you can’t see here will be uprooted and replanted from the council owned verge to my back garden

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@badger1954

Lovely!
Nice to see the orange poppies too.

I’d be sorely tempted to never mow it again, especially given your description of the site.

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There are areas of the garden I leave. It’s 3.6 acres in total and on a hill with slopes and terraces so it’s always tempting. On the other hand if you leave it too long it’s a massive job to get it back at the end of the season and I’ve been told to take it right down to soil level.

Those areas I’ve left, however, are so full of plant species and natural wildlife they are a joy. It’s a relief to see so many insects, especially bees, going about their business.

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We are doing no mow full stop…only in a small town garden with a mixture of planted plants (to help create a boundary) and just letting it go.
I just cut the ‘hay’ at the end of the year.

It can take a number of years for wild flowers to start and establish - we are trying to help by throwing wildflower seeds onto it and I believe we have some yellow rattle popping up. We had a self seeded red poppy in the back garden last year which is maintaining it’s presence
We had snowdrops and bluebells this year - mixture of shop bought bulbs and rescued from back garden when we repaired the back wall.
There are speedwell’s, a range of buttercups and the yellow flowers that look like dandelions but are not. I do transplant things like self seeded forget me nots.
I do try to collect the dandelion seedheads before they hit the wind.
We have other plants coming up as well so will need to keep an eye on what they are to minimise invasive ones…

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Weird month theme! I used to have no-mow periods of up to a month, at various times, including May. The result during the growing season when it is wet plus having sunny days, April - Sept, invariably has been a deterioration in lawn condition taking weeks or months to recover, compared even to my normal infrequent mow of once a fortnight to once a week at peak grow times, The extent of the deterioration depends on the number of weeds that became established, which in turn may depend on how warm and wet. As of last summer I have a robot lawnmower that I send out 3 times a week whenever weather allows during the growing season, and as a result so far there are fewer dandelions and other weeds and the garden looks a lot neater. (There is a separate wild area, which has turned from the intended wildflower meadow to typical garden weeds - we have to rethink it!)

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That’s the problem , my wildflower area got invaded by nettles . The nettles come from an abandoned area behind my house . I can be ruthless as there certainly isn’t a shortage .

So it’s pulling the nettles out with the roots , great fun . The rewards though are photos like this

Canon 7d Mk 11 , Sigma 150 Macro Lens

Nice bokeh

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We haven’t mown the Green in May for several years now - just gets better each year. So damn interesting, with cow parsley the highlight.

A shot from this evening…

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No Mow May - My daughter wishes!
She paid a wildflower specialist gardener to prepare and plant wildflowers in a 1mx10m strip at the side of her house. It cost a lot of money, but was starting to flourish at the beginning of May, when the maintenance gardeners for the estate came around and mowed right through it - she was devastated - still trying to get compensation to cover the costs, but either way, not enough time now for it all to grow back :frowning:

That’s very frustrating. Perhaps some will survive the unintended ‘Chelsea Chop’ and come back stronger next month?

That’s what we are hoping for, thanks

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No mow ever, our little patch and beyond


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My route to and from work. Disappointed to see the trimming underway this afternoon - no doubt for H&S (shared pedestrian/cycle route).

I do understand that , it’s when the grass is cut and the pollinating flowers lost simply for tidiness

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I’ve not mowed for several years; ok, the combination of dog and hens means it is not necessary, although rye grass can’t stand the damage ornamental grasses thrive and the hens love searching for grubs amongst them. I don’t cut the verges outside my house either; it’s just as well that they don’t block or hinder drivers pulling out of the lane.

In my embryonic wood ducks and hens need to be moved around regularly to avoid poaching, but paths thru’ the trees have been cut to facilitate public access.

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Looking at the flowers on the other side that does seem to be bad timing to cut the vegetation back so early. The council would probably get away with it on the grounds of public safety and access.
In many areas this growth is a result of councils finally stopping weedkiller use on verges, which was a long overdue measure but it does mean that vegetation, including roots and soil, is starting to encroach on roads and pavements.

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A few snaps from this evening…

There’s a corncockle on steroids in mix - about 3 ft high…

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We have a number of verges/banks alongside some of the narrow lanes in the Oxon/Berks area near me which are not being cut at the moment. It does require more care when driving as they can hide a car or child on a bike.

Ok. Count me in. I’ll commit to not mow the “lawn” around the goose house.

Willy.

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One end of the garden needing re-seeding has gone wild so I’ve left it:

Huge sow-thistles appearing everywhere too:

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