I have a 3 x 3 meter patch that i've been thinking of letting grow, maybe cutting it just twice a year. What two months in the year would it be best to cut back?
Interesting thread this and comments have inspired me to actually go for 3 different levels of cut this year. I'm another that has a lawn that drains quickly and i don't get lush green for long, so this might be the way forward with it. I can keep a walk way cut short but i get clover, daisies and other small flowers coming through and i can leave those for weeks without cutting.
But the 3 x 3 meter patch is the one i need to educate myself on. Just let it grow?
I've just seen Ronnie O'Sullivan at the garden center. I think he was eyeing up a plant.
I can not really see the point in not mowing for 4 weeks, it's just a load of hype.
I'm by no means an expert and it's just an idea: maybe May is important because there are not that many flowers around us that provide food for insects. In June however, there are more other flowers providing food. On the other side, what is living in a lawn will lose its home in June once mowing starts again. We would need to know what is living in a lawn in June to make a judgement.
If you live in one of those drought ridden areas - yes, it makes sense to do something else rather than trying to maintain a 'lawn'. If you don't, then have a bit of both - if your site and conditions suit, as I said earlier. An area you leave permanently, and an area you cut as normal. Very simple IMO.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
My understanding is that it allows the flowers in the lawn to set seed … working on the same principle as the traditional hay meadow … when the grass is cut in June the seeds fall to the ground and can germinate and grow.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I don't know if I'm wrong but it appears a big factor is the conditions we are leaving the lawn? It seems people with heavier richer soils with good moisture levels will end up with the grass outcompeting the flowers, it's like the wild flower situation really isn't it?
It didn't work so well for me because I have the heavy rich soil that grass loves and grows fast on. When I mow it on a higher setting I see the low growing flowers though. So it likely isn't one way fits all.
... maybe May is important because there are not that many flowers around us that provide food for insects. In June however, there are more other flowers providing food....
Plenty of flowers in May here, most of which are buzzing with insects. Forget-me-nots, honesty, perennial wallflowers, arabis, iberis, choisya and dicentra/lampho-whatsit all in full bloom. The last of the daffodils, magnolia pulmonarias and brunneras still have flowers. Aquilegias, lilac, ceanothus and geums just starting, and alliums and knautia will be out in a couple of weeks. Probably more that I've forgotten about and will be surprised by. June tends to be a bit less floriferous but there will be foxgloves, lupins, knautia, weigela, and the mid-later perennials, salvias and fuchsias should be starting.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Insects are lucky in your area reaching miles of food sources @JennyJ . Where I live, I’m the only one with a flower garden in development and the council mowed our grass today 😒 Insects have spend a lot of energy to find food.
We're not doing No Mow May. Having tried having long grass in our small orchard area with just one mown path through the middle for the past couple of years, I now find it's too much hard work come August/Sept to cut it down by hand. It's impossible to mow it when it's long.
We have lots of flower borders for the insects and bug hotels/log piles etc and our Council no longer strim the big grass verge until September so that's enough wild habitat I feel. We don't have any hedgehogs in this area either, too many badgers.
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Interesting thread this and comments have inspired me to actually go for 3 different levels of cut this year. I'm another that has a lawn that drains quickly and i don't get lush green for long, so this might be the way forward with it.
I can keep a walk way cut short but i get clover, daisies and other small flowers coming through and i can leave those for weeks without cutting.
But the 3 x 3 meter patch is the one i need to educate myself on. Just let it grow?
I'm by no means an expert and it's just an idea: maybe May is important because there are not that many flowers around us that provide food for insects. In June however, there are more other flowers providing food.
On the other side, what is living in a lawn will lose its home in June once mowing starts again. We would need to know what is living in a lawn in June to make a judgement.
I ♥ my garden.
Very simple IMO.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It didn't work so well for me because I have the heavy rich soil that grass loves and grows fast on. When I mow it on a higher setting I see the low growing flowers though. So it likely isn't one way fits all.
Insects have spend a lot of energy to find food.
I ♥ my garden.
We have lots of flower borders for the insects and bug hotels/log piles etc and our Council no longer strim the big grass verge until September so that's enough wild habitat I feel. We don't have any hedgehogs in this area either, too many badgers.