This weekend will begin No Mow May, a campaign from the charity Plantlife. They urge gardeners to let their lawn grow throughout the month of May without mowing, watering, or fertilizing.
This practice allows wild plants to thrive and provide nectar for insects.
Thousands of people take part in Plantlife’s annual Every Flower Counts citizen science survey, the largest ever study of garden lawns in the UK. The charity says the results show a “radical shift in attitudes towards lawn management is under way”. It says 78.8% of 2,157 EFC participants last year did not mow for a month before taking part in the survey, an increase from 33.6% in 2019.
People who chose not to mow discovered more than 250 wild plant species in their lawn last year, including wild strawberry, wild garlic and very rare plants. Many orchids were also seen, including the declining man orchid, green-winged orchid, southern and northern marsh orchid and bee orchid.