That which we call a lawn, with a little bit of planning can become a wildlife paradise and a thing of beauty
Hopefully many of you enjoyed taking part in Plantlife’s No Mow May, a nationwide scheme to encourage gardeners, communities, green space managers and local authorities to let lawns or other areas of grass or verges to grow for a month. The aim is to provide flowers for pollinators and a refuge for many other species of wildlife.
But you might have found that by the end of May the grass is too long for your mower to cut, while the insects and possibly other wildlife that have moved in have to flee as you destroy the habitat you’ve only just created. You may have also found that your lawn doesn’t have many flowers, so you just had a month of long grass.
With a little planning you can manage your lawn to benefit a wider range of wildlife without increasing your workload, the important thing is to create a lawn that you can manage. I’m sure that we are all guilty of having grand aspirations without fully appreciating the practicalities. If you have a large garden, only leave an area of long grass or wildflower meadows that you know you can cut (and have the tools to cut). If you have areas that can’t be seen, e.g., behind the shed, you may be happy to leave these areas permanently ‘wild’.
Infrequent mowing is the simplest way to increase the number of flowers for pollinators, to create meaningful wildlife habitat which benefits more than pollinators it is important to create a structural mosaic of vegetation heights. For any kind of vegetation, the more complex and diverse these structures, the more niches are available for wildlife. To encourage biodiversity, we must provide diverse habitats with different species being attracted to the different microhabitats that you provide.
An area of long grass left throughout the year, cutting just once in spring or every other year, is helpful in a number of ways. It provides wildlife with cover and safe travel along hedges and around water bodies, and somewhere to feed. Leaving areas uncut throughout the year gives invertebrates opportunity to breed and can be particularly useful for many moth and butterfly caterpillars, to overwinter in the thick base of the grass (thatch) as eggs or pupae. Bumblebees too, like to make their nest in the thatch of long grass. All this in turn provides an important food source for a variety of wildlife. Long grass typically provides shelter along the base of hedges and beneath trees, where it maintains humidity and reduces drying out of the hedge base or tree root.
(Long grass under trees, Credit John Day)
Grass doesn’t have to be left uncut to be beneficial for wildlife but try to mow less often and encourage low growing species such as clover, self-heal, birds foot trefoil, buttercups, speedwells, and daisies. You’ll be surprised, just by having the minimum height of grass at 75mm to 100mm, at how many flowers will grow as in the picture below.
There are now varieties of flowering lawn seed mixes or turf which have species tolerant of regular mowing.
(Variety of flowers growing in an infrequently cut lawn, Credit: Martyn Davies)
You may find that your lawn is already rich in wildflowers which will thrive once you stop cutting them every week, another option is to plant wildflower plugs.
Mow as infrequently as is practicable; this will vary depending on the time of year, the weather, or your children complaining that they can’t kick their football through the long grass. Obviously give children space to play – it really doesn’t matter. This is of course easier with larger gardens. But maintain their play area traditionally and allow the longer grass to grow around that where you can. It will all add to that structural diversity we talked about at the start.
The species of plants in your lawn may also influence your cutting frequency, leaving it uncut for longer periods when there are more flowers. If you have lots of dandelions, you might want to mow as soon as they finish flowering to prevent them seeding into your vegetable beds.
Even at times when there aren’t many flowers, non-flowering lawn plants such as plantain are useful for seed eating birds and short lawns are an important foraging ground for insectivorous birds such as blackbirds, starlings, pied wagtails, and robins, also providing nest sites for mining bees.
Unless it really bothers you, don’t worry about a mossy lawn, moss provides shelter for invertebrates and nesting material for birds.
If you have more than one area of lawn to mow, perhaps you could alternate your cuts. E.g., cut your front lawn this week and your back lawn next week, making sure that you always have some flowers.
A wildflower meadow will attract pollinators, seed eating birds, and provide a habitat for insects and food plants for caterpillars, which should provide you with many more hours of enjoyment than admiring your impeccable green lawn.
If you are going to create a reasonable sized meadow then it may be worth sowing yellow rattle, a semi-parasitic annual wildflower which will reduce vigorous grass growth and create more space for wildflowers. Then wait and see what species are already there, waiting to grow. If you are too impatient you can sow patches of seed or plant wildflower plugs of native species such as, Ox eye daisies, field scabious and knapweed, (but try to buy locally, or at least UK sourced seed).
Your meadow will need to be cut in late summer, so when deciding on the size of meadow that you are going to create you must consider the practicalities. A large area will need to be cut with a strimmer whereas a small patch can be cut with a pair of shears. If you must use a strimmer you need to consider the wildlife that is likely to have made your meadow its home over the summer. Be very careful, and first walk the area carefully – try to minimise trampling the grass too much. Cut to no lower than 20cm first. This gives things a chance to escape, and you a chance to spot and remove any wildlife. With care, a second lower cut can then be taken ideally to no lower than 7.5cm. The cuttings must then be removed and composted, as you don’t want to add any nutrients to the soil.
(Wild flower mix, Credit: RSPB)
In borders around a lawn, flower mixes with native and non-native varieties may be sown (above). These give a protracted period of colour to the garden. Try to include in the mix, varieties of late summer flowers to bloom from late August through to October. This can be a particularly hungry time for some of our pollinators. For a larger area it is best to aim for a more traditional meadow with a good mix of native flowers and fine grasses (below).
(Native wildflower meadow mix, Credit: John Day)
The RSPB website has some great advice for creating a wildflower meadow in your own garden.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/nature-on-your-doorstep/garden-activities/create-a-wildflower-meadow/
https://shopping.rspb.org.uk/wildlife-friendly-garden/wildlife-food/wildlife-attractor-seeds/rspb-mini-meadow-for-lawns-seed-pack.html
Creating a mosaic of vegetation types is ideal, but each garden doesn’t need to provide every type of habitat, our gardens exist within a network of gardens and green spaces. As long as we ensure that our gardens are accessible for wildlife to our neighbour’s gardens, then the habitat we create will be part of a larger mosaic in our neighbourhoods. So, if we all make sure that our patch is a useful habitat that we can easily manage and enjoy, we will be contributing to a useful local ecosystem.
(Mosaic of garden habitats, Credit: RSPB)