Perhaps it's sneaky thinking @Busy-Lizzie - get everyone who tries it used to looking a a shaggy area so they leave it be all summer or maybe just discover how hard it is to mow after a month and give up and leave it.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
We did No Mow May for the first time last year and are doing it again this year. Pollinating insects need a lot of help right now and long grass is good for them. We'll mow in June and then probably every 3-4 weeks after that but some parts of the garden will only get two cuts per year.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
But @Redwing if you mow in June you will mow everything that has taken up residence in the May grass and destroy their new habitat. I just don't understand no mow May where lawns are concerned, better to keep aside a wild area, even if small, which is rarely disturbed. That area can be cut at the end of the summer to allow for for fresh growth the next year.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
I do No Mow May,( I was ‘told off’ about it in a different thread ) but I don’t mow very much any way. Maybe once a month, I CBA to do what some people would call a proper job so all the edges get left. I also have a no mow wildflower area and the hole garden has a large hawthorn hedge around it. I have my mower permanently set to a high cut and don’t have a problem when it comes to mow. I don’t have any pets or kids to use the lawn so having it long doesn’t bother me. I also kind of like winding up my grandparents who insist on having a pristine bowing green. But each to there own if it’s not your cup of tea don’t do it. 🙂
I don't do no-mow any time unless it's not growing due to it being too dry or it being winter. I have fairly densely planted borders with lots of insect-friendly plants and no bare soil gaps unless I'm rejuvenating an area, and there's plenty of long grass in the verges, field boundaries and other gardens around here.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
But @Redwing if you mow in June you will mow everything that has taken up residence in the May grass and destroy their new habitat. I just don't understand no mow May where lawns are concerned, better to keep aside a wild area, even if small, which is rarely disturbed. That area can be cut at the end of the summer to allow for for fresh growth the next year.
I don't think it's quite as simple as that. I am not an entomologist but I am aware that different species emerge at different times so those feeding in May and maturing in May will benefit from No Mow May. 'Let June Bloom' is another concept that is being practiced by some people.
I agree that a wild area is very beneficial and I have those too. I think the No Mow May is aimed at overly manicured lawns which aren't much good to anything.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
Perhaps it's sneaky thinking @Busy-Lizzie - get everyone who tries it used to looking a a shaggy area so they leave it be all summer or maybe just discover how hard it is to mow after a month and give up and leave it.
I think that's exactly the point. Saying "Don't mow", or "Leave it all summer" to people who think you have to mow weekly - or more - to have a proper lawn is going to fall on deaf ears. Whereas one month, when the kids are at school anyway, feels much more doable, and people can give it a go knowing if they don't like it they can go back to what they did before. What's that phrase about perfection stopping action?
I'm doing it, I did it last year too, but everything is so dry now and for the foreseeable I doubt it'll be possible to tell the difference.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
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I left the back lawn last year. When I eventually did hack it down, I disturbed some horse flies who took umbrage
I've sowed a wildflower bed instead, which is starting to come up. Not a massive area but, then, I haven't got a massive garden
I have my mower permanently set to a high cut and don’t have a problem when it comes to mow. I don’t have any pets or kids to use the lawn so having it long doesn’t bother me. I also kind of like winding up my grandparents who insist on having a pristine bowing green. But each to there own if it’s not your cup of tea don’t do it. 🙂
Failure is always an option.
I agree that a wild area is very beneficial and I have those too. I think the No Mow May is aimed at overly manicured lawns which aren't much good to anything.
This year I've dug out sections of grass and sown specific wildflower meadow areas, so will be keeping the rest of the lawn closely clipped.
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I'm doing it, I did it last year too, but everything is so dry now and for the foreseeable I doubt it'll be possible to tell the difference.