No, there's no chance I could mow it once June came round, it has been cut twice already and on the first cut it was already 20cm or so tall. I do have a huge amount of grass, some bits kept longer than other bits and some bits never mown, the never mown stuff doesn't get wildflowers it gets nettles and sycamore saplings. The lightly mown areas (cut to a minimum of 7cm) are mass of dandilions, yarrow, thrift, wood avons, lesser celandine, cow parsley and daises, there might even be some grass in there on occasion.
I just don't get no mow may. the lawn would be completely unmanageable for a domestic mower after that.
@B3 You should probably keep it out of the pond then.
No. I keep my main lawn short so my son can play football on it. But I have two smaller lawns (both about 20 metres by 12) that are always kind of no-mow. One I leave as a meadow and don't cut back until the end of summer, and the other gets mowed about once a month at most.
No there is plenty to feed the bees in my garden and the surrounding wild banks. Our less frequently cut lawn (2-3 weeks) becomes clover rich in the summer. Interestingly we don't mow excessively but out neighbours that do have a regular grass cutter person, but have 20x more dandelions than us so mowing is not all bad.
Yes! I am keen on the idea and have done so for years.
I will still mow a little bit as a sports pitch/play area, even then it’s once every two weeks. The wildlife can have the rest of till the end of summer.
The areas near the house has to be mowed once very four weeks though as I don’t want fleas too close to the house, which my dear cat drags in almost every other day if left long.
We have a wildlife area around fruit trees, which is cut once a year. Apart from that, the 2 lawns are cut pretty much all of the year. It's normally the last big job and the first. We have 2dogs,you need to be able to see where you are walking....you know what I mean. This year and last,there was hardly any gap, mowing started very early. I don't feed/water/weed the grass,but can't stand it messy/long. Don't know about not cutting it this month,we haven't had much rain,but it grows like wildfire.
We don't do no mow May but we do have some no mow at all areas as it's a large plot. We keep the front grass mowed but it is full of naturalised cyclamens and the usual stuff like daisies, clover, plantains, self-heal.
We have a gravelled area at the back which was badly prepared and laid by the previous owners and is now full of red clover, ox-eye daisies and many other wildflowers all thru the seasons. It will be slowly turned into a dry garden with shrubs, sub-shrubs and perennials that will thrive there and will remain a haven for insects and lizards.
We have a large expanse in the middle of our plot where an old barn used to be. We leave that unmown all thru summer and it buzzes with insects on the wild orchid (one so far), achillea, eryngium, daisies, thistles, knapweed, malva and so on.
There is a large, deep, unlined pond originally dug out to provide water for cows and it has all sorts of wild bog and pond plants that have arrived by themselves since we had it cleared. Masses of insects, frogs and toads in there.
We leave a huge patch of nettles and brambles against one wall of the old farmhouse ruin and we're not precious about the under storey of plants in our mixed hedges so there's plenty of food and shelter for a wide range of critters and birds.
We cut the grass in the rest of the plot so we and the dogs and cats and even the chooks when there's no bird flu restrictions can roam and run and play at will.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
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But I have two smaller lawns (both about 20 metres by 12) that are always kind of no-mow. One I leave as a meadow and don't cut back until the end of summer, and the other gets mowed about once a month at most.
I will still mow a little bit as a sports pitch/play area, even then it’s once every two weeks. The wildlife can have the rest of till the end of summer.
We have a gravelled area at the back which was badly prepared and laid by the previous owners and is now full of red clover, ox-eye daisies and many other wildflowers all thru the seasons. It will be slowly turned into a dry garden with shrubs, sub-shrubs and perennials that will thrive there and will remain a haven for insects and lizards.
We have a large expanse in the middle of our plot where an old barn used to be. We leave that unmown all thru summer and it buzzes with insects on the wild orchid (one so far), achillea, eryngium, daisies, thistles, knapweed, malva and so on.
There is a large, deep, unlined pond originally dug out to provide water for cows and it has all sorts of wild bog and pond plants that have arrived by themselves since we had it cleared. Masses of insects, frogs and toads in there.
We leave a huge patch of nettles and brambles against one wall of the old farmhouse ruin and we're not precious about the under storey of plants in our mixed hedges so there's plenty of food and shelter for a wide range of critters and birds.
We cut the grass in the rest of the plot so we and the dogs and cats and even the chooks when there's no bird flu restrictions can roam and run and play at will.