What's better for wildlife fence to fence overgrown "lawn" or immaculate lawn in the middle and borders full of other plants?
Now disclaimer I do not possess an immaculate lawn, but our front lawn is mown at least once a week, it's short and green, it contains a good 75% moss in parts, it has clover and daisies, lesser celandine and numerous other low growing "weeds" but they rarely get to flower. It's never been fed or weeded (life is way to short to weed a lawn).
To be fit for what we use it for it needs to be short and walk-able it doesn't need to be particularly flat or even which is lucky.
However it's mown with a 40kg petrol lawnmower and I do not feel remotely guilty about it, I would feel much guiltier about wasting precious metals to make a battery to mow my lawn than the tiny amount of fuel the 175cc motor takes.
BUT and there's always a but I also have large areas (about an 1.5 acres) of unmown/rarely mown grass the unmown areas do not become a lovely wildflower meadow, that takes work to create, they become a nightmare of thistles, nettles, goosegrass (goose grass and nettles are a particularly nasty combination btw as the goose grass ensures the nettles get you coming and going) sycamore seedlings, elm seedlings and burdock, I just spotted a hogweed appearing in one spot as well, I will have to make sure it's a normal one not a giant one. (which I am by law required to kill here) the whole lot grows higher than my head and is just nasty to look at and live with, the butterflies like the thistles for the week they are in flower the rest of the time it's just a haven for voles. The occasionally mown area does much better, it's mown about once a month, it contains nettles, celandine, ground elder, cow parsley, wood avons, crow garlic, thrift, dandelions, strawberries... all of these will survive with monthly mowing in some cases unfortunately well.
So back to the point. have whatever lawn you want if you are being made to feel guilty about it do something else. add a pond, stop using any chemicals (if you do) give money to a reforesting charity, whatever but have the lawn that you like.
They is no sin in tending to a proper lawn I've never felt guilty mowing my own lawn 2-3 times a week if I can . I won't hesitate to get rid of a weed in the lawn by hand or herbicide and removing the moss . If you starting going down what beneficial in the garden to the environment / wildlife you'd be removing half + of anything in the garden , privet - Cherry laurel hedge in the garden don't trim seen as the you'd be removing flowers for insects . Any double flowers in the garden like some roses - dahlias - dianthus - lilies - cosmos etc might as well compost them no benefit to pollinating insects, the one of the few that will benefit from such plants are slugs ( not short of them ) and probably earwigs on dahlia .
If you like your lawn immaculate and it makes you happy keep doing it or if you like wild flowers and moss in with the grass do that what ever makes you happy , you shouldn't be guilted into not doing something you like.
I don't personally garden for wildlife but I am happy to share it with the majority of them that visit the garden , Nor do I garden environmentally peat based compost comes to mind , I don't go round throwing chemicals round willy-nilly but I am not afraid to use them if needs be.
"What's better for wildlife - fence to fence overgrown "lawn" or immaculate lawn in the middle and borders full of other plants? "
An exploration of the factors would make for an interesting phd.
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(Bees love privet if you let it flower.)
Where's a sociologist when you need one?
The quoted comment is interesting in its use of extremes. As in all lawn. I very much doubt there's may all lawn gardens around. I wonder of there's any all border gardens around?
Our back garden has maybe two 2.5m x 0.5m sloping lawns that we haven't cut since moving in 2 months ago. Our front is kind of a work site as we attempt to remove a monster stump. It has maybe 4m x 2m lawn surrounded by borders. Also not mown yet. Its got a few hollows in it too.
The best bit of our back garden is all the paths around the borders and in the wildlife, upper garden. It's so full of life. From visiting mammals to visiting birds. All that will start with the flowers and insects. You need the habitat for them. The only question is how much is the habitat compared to your other competing requirements. That's personal choice.
Talking of personal choice, we're too close to moving in to have that. Personal choice starts fully after a year of occupation. Then we can start imposing our choice on the garden. Well, apart from the trees and shrubs that have gone because of illegal damage (front conifer cut back hard by someone and not the dead owner) or because of them being dead or other valid reason.
Lawn for us is not a priority. Despite inheriting 3 lawn mowers with the house.
I think a perfect lawn is a thing of great beauty, though I don't have one myself. If you think about how very few there are in ordinary gardens, however, there is little cause for guilt. And what about all the golf courses - should they be re-wilded? I'd rather see that than the odd garden spoiled for its owner.
I'm all in favour of wildlife-friendly gardening, and very much attempt this myself. Over the past years I've on several occasions read articles proclaiming how important gardens are nowadays as last refuges for wildlife, and I'm only slightly exaggerating. These articles would somehow give the impression that this was all a great thing about gardens, rather than a terribly depressing reflection of the state of our ecosystems. So, whilst I do try make the garden a little haven, gardens are a drop in the ocean compared to everything else that's going on. @BenCotto made this point very well above. Even so, individual commitment to a sustainable life style is not enough, we need systemic change to steer away from the disaster course we're on.
The problem with this is how winy it sounds, I'm fully aware of that. This era is truly exceptional, and only a fraction of what is happening and what is awaiting us is reported in the media. The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming.
I don't think that sounds whiny. It sounds interested in responsibilty.
It will always be tempting to get into 'What-aboutery' - "what about China/India/the US, what about big business, what about population levels, what about frequent fliers, what about people who have baths every day, drive everywhere, eat meat etc etc etc". But it's a case of both/all/and - not 'instead of'. "It's not our fault guv", at government, household, corporate, city, council or individual level isn't going to get any of us very far. "A big boy did it and ran away".
Posts
If you like your lawn immaculate and it makes you happy keep doing it or if you like wild flowers and moss in with the grass do that what ever makes you happy , you shouldn't be guilted into not doing something you like.
I don't personally garden for wildlife but I am happy to share it with the majority of them that visit the garden , Nor do I garden environmentally peat based compost comes to mind , I don't go round throwing chemicals round willy-nilly but I am not afraid to use them if needs be.
The quoted comment is interesting in its use of extremes. As in all lawn. I very much doubt there's may all lawn gardens around. I wonder of there's any all border gardens around?
Our back garden has maybe two 2.5m x 0.5m sloping lawns that we haven't cut since moving in 2 months ago. Our front is kind of a work site as we attempt to remove a monster stump. It has maybe 4m x 2m lawn surrounded by borders. Also not mown yet. Its got a few hollows in it too.
The best bit of our back garden is all the paths around the borders and in the wildlife, upper garden. It's so full of life. From visiting mammals to visiting birds. All that will start with the flowers and insects. You need the habitat for them. The only question is how much is the habitat compared to your other competing requirements. That's personal choice.
Talking of personal choice, we're too close to moving in to have that. Personal choice starts fully after a year of occupation. Then we can start imposing our choice on the garden. Well, apart from the trees and shrubs that have gone because of illegal damage (front conifer cut back hard by someone and not the dead owner) or because of them being dead or other valid reason.
Lawn for us is not a priority. Despite inheriting 3 lawn mowers with the house.
Absolutely. Tomorrow if possible.
The problem with this is how winy it sounds, I'm fully aware of that. This era is truly exceptional, and only a fraction of what is happening and what is awaiting us is reported in the media. The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming.