Are you brave enough to let your lawn grow?

By 15 March this year, my neighbour with his bad knee had already cut his lawn twice. By the end of the year, I bet he will have done it 30 times.

Now I know that for some people a pristine bowling-green lawn is one of their biggest prides in life, but for most in our time-stretched society it is a downright chore.

There's no good scientific reason why a piece of grass needs to be chopped to within a millimetre of its life every week, so it is largely a cultural thing. .

However, if we didn't cut lawns quite so much, it would be great for all sorts of garden wildlife, from hedgehogs to sparrows to butterflies. It would also cut down on carbon emissions in the garden. And a longer lawn is generally better able to withstand hot, dry weather.

So the RSPB is challenging everyone to give the mower a rest and leave at least part of their lawn to grow longer this year.

And here's how - nice and simple:

For a Spring Lawn Meadow: don't mow until early July. Then just mow like normal until the end of the year. The grass will grow lush throughout the spring, and this method is great for growing beautiful spring bulbs in a lawn such as Snake's-head Fritillary and crocuses.

For a Summer Lawn Meadow: mow once or twice in early spring; then leave until late August or September. The grasses will grow tall, flower and fade like a swaying hay meadow. You may need to chop it with shears before you mow, but think of all the effort saved!

If you're still nervous, try a Quick-burst Lawn Meadow: just leave out a couple of mows in maybe May or June.

In all three, you'll see little flowers appear that normally never get chance to bloom, like speedwells, medicks and daisies. Get down on your hands and knees and you'll see beetles and other minibeasts gratefully using their new little jungle, while at night it is richer feeding for Hedgehogs.

But what about how it looks? If you mow neat edges around your longer areas of grass and straight paths through the middle of it, it'll show you know what you're doing and it can look really quite beautiful.

For the kids, why not mow a winding maze amongst it?

Go on, give it a go! Together we can make it the norm, not the exception.