Northern CA here.. We've had a "mow when we remember to" kind of a year and it seems the grass has won and ended up suppressing all or at least most of our lovely flowerly plants
I remember a lot! I do have 2 wildflower areas though around my fruit trees,with just a mown path,I don't feed or weed the rest of the grass. Plenty of daisies, celendines just about gone. I now (at the moment) twice a week,hand qualcast and leave the clippings
I don't think "no-mow May" is a "thing" here in Ireland - so maybe we need a notice in the front garden explaining that the lawn is being left to benefit wildlife, or we may scandalise the neighbours...
We are developing an intentional wildflower meadow in the back garden, where nobody else will see it. It looks as if we've had a reasonable germination of yellow rattle, sown in bare patches last autumn, though it remains to be seen if it seeds itself and continues in future years.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
I think No Mow is a kind of international campaign, a bit like Veganuary or Movember (cancer awareness) - a chance for people investigate something if they are wary. It's to encourage people to embrace more biodiversity in their gardens and not be wedded to the idea of a 'perfect' manicured lawn. Highly tended lawns still seem to be a big part of the idea of the English Garden - stripes and all that. Most people don't know there is a huge insect crisis going on.
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They say that yellow rattle is quite hard to get going.
My grass area has the usual clay weeds. It is mowed reasonably often. I prefer the weeds to the grass even though a bee stung my foot last year. I abhor monoculture grass, It it is still possible to have a flattish mowed 'lawn' and still have wildflowers.
No-Mow May might work for us in Colorado USA, but I have a few reservations. In our generally dry climate lawns do seem healthier and required less water if the grass is not cropped too short. But some types of grasses tend to lay over and become matted if left to grow too long. We have a lot of lawns using kentucky bluegrass, fescue blends, and perennial rye grass. We do have a few folks who experiment with Xeriscaping by using native grasses and very little irrigation.
My first concern if my mowing is paused until June and then resumed, is not about the mower handling the job, but wouldn't that effectively "scalp" the lawn and expose the tender parts of the grass blades to sun scorch?
Secondly, I live in an area with neighborhood homeowner covenants and grass length is one of the limitations. Not sure I could get away with mowing the borders only. And besides, I have enough trees and wood chips that the grass clippings make for great green content to balance the browns in my compost pile.
And let's face it, although they look nice, lawns are completely unnatural. No where in nature do you find vast expanses of a single species of plant. It's no wonder we face many problems as a result.
Happy spring and may your gardens be pest free this year.
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https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/64224/i-Rhinanthus-minor-i/Details
We are developing an intentional wildflower meadow in the back garden, where nobody else will see it. It looks as if we've had a reasonable germination of yellow rattle, sown in bare patches last autumn, though it remains to be seen if it seeds itself and continues in future years.
I abhor monoculture grass, It it is still possible to have a flattish mowed 'lawn' and still have wildflowers.
My first concern if my mowing is paused until June and then resumed, is not about the mower handling the job, but wouldn't that effectively "scalp" the lawn and expose the tender parts of the grass blades to sun scorch?
Secondly, I live in an area with neighborhood homeowner covenants and grass length is one of the limitations. Not sure I could get away with mowing the borders only. And besides, I have enough trees and wood chips that the grass clippings make for great green content to balance the browns in my compost pile.
And let's face it, although they look nice, lawns are completely unnatural. No where in nature do you find vast expanses of a single species of plant. It's no wonder we face many problems as a result.
Happy spring and may your gardens be pest free this year.
Doug