The local council didn't mow in May. In the middle of town, on a verge next to a Tesco, popped up an orchid. They've probably mown it now.
I've mown the main lawn today, and a path next door and gone round the ox eye daisies that are flowering. I did find a couple of Knautia growing quite well in the grass. I've relocated them. Then it tipped it down with rain and the temperamental mower refused to restart.
My neighbour's May lawn looked beautiful, he's mown it now, but I haven't got round to doing mine since last month so I'm calling it 'balance'. 😄 Our wild border is seeding now and looks OK, but I need to put more flowers in it. Maybe I'll just leave another strip of lawn uncut..
Over 50% of all British butterflies are red listed as in danger of extinction and this summer looks to be even worse for them than usual. It's a powerful motivation to leave areas unmown and to put in native flowering plants and shrubs they can use.
Brambles and nettles are sometimes the only plants a butterfly can breed on - so they have their uses too. The swallowtail only chooses milk parsley.
It's been a great year for orchids around here. I counted over 100 plants in one small patch locally and they've been popping up all over the place. The big patch is in an area that NRW bulldozed flat a few years ago when they logged out all the larch in the woods. They cut a ditch around the edge and it's made a great bit of habitat for damp loving things.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Last year I did No Mow May for the first time.....this year I have a big patch of Birds Foot Trefoil....good result I think. Loads of other wild flowers too but most was already there, like Self Heal, various vetches, Spotted Medoc (is that good?), daisies, buttercups, also things I don't recognise. No orchids yet though.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
Update: other half mowed the lawn today on a high setting, avoiding the patch of Birdfoot trefoil and leaving a few areas unmowed. The second in more than two months. Afterwards he remarked on how different it looked and said he missed the flowers and had really liked them. They'll be back, I said and they will. Probably with some more later flowering ones. Meanwhile some have seeded so there will be even more diversity next year.
Meadow Brown butterflies are appearing now.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
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Our wild border is seeding now and looks OK, but I need to put more flowers in it. Maybe I'll just leave another strip of lawn uncut..
Meadow Brown butterflies are appearing now.