No Now May
I’m back in the garden this week because I wanted to make a comment on ‘No Now May’, the initiative first promoted by the charity Plantlife.
For anyone who hasn’t heard of it, it’s pretty much all in the title. We are encouraged, instead of continuing to mow our lawns to a short sward, to allow them to grow for the month of May in which it is most likely that the wild flowers such as daisy, germander speedwell, selfheal etc will flower. I’m writing about this in June as it’s worth asking what happens after May?
First I guess we need to ask, why let the wildflowers blossom? Having lost all but a very small percentage of our species rich grasslands since the 1930’s our lawns can help to provide much needed food for pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies of course but also beetles, wasps and flies to mention just a few. Now, my lawn is a step too far for most as it isn’t really what one might recognise as a lawn, not having been mowed for the third year. This is not to say it is neglected, but I like to call it ‘horticulture for herbivores’. It’s managed for a set of species, such as many butterflies and moths, that require longer grass to lay eggs and go through the growing stages of larvae (caterpillar) and pupae (chrysalis) before hatching again into the adult winged butterfly or moth. I’m basically tending a caterpillar farm.
So I’ve popped over to my neighbour’s beautiful garden, as I spotted the other day that not only is it splendid in its ornament but also managed really well for nature. The key to this is having a selection of different mowing regimes with the front lawn kept short and neat, other areas have been left for the grasses and forbs (non grasses) to flower, with paths mowed shorter between. Different areas of the garden depending on the conditions offered, host a much varied range of wildflowers and grasses. As I write this towards the end of May, the unmowed areas grow a host of wildflowers including bugle, sorrel, plantain, cowslip, hawkbit and speedwell, meadow foxtail are the first of the grass flowers to appear. I know though that after this, birdsfoot trefoil, mouse-eared hawkweed, common yarrow and many more will follow on.
All of these flowers will offer food and sustenance to a variety of insects. The flying insects of which we’ve seen a mid-summer decline of 82% since 1990.
Basically insects need all the help that they can get and so do the birds, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals that eat them.
So, many flying insects require pollinating plants to feed from their nectar. But, the larval young of many of these insects require these plants for food to fulfil their very specialised diets of only one to a handful of species of plant #larvalfoodplant 🤟
The charity Butterfly Conservation recently revealed that restoring the natural habitat of long grass for butterflies can increase their numbers by up to 93% and attract a wider range of species.
If that’s not a good enough reason to let our grass grow where we can, I don’t know what is, and don’t stop in June.. .Let it grow on and insects will thank us.
I love my neighbours’ garden as it shows how we can marry the aesthetic of a well kept traditional garden, but also allow it to be a much needed support to nature.
In other news, I found some hedgehog poop in the garden which I’m pleased about!
