No-Mow May

It is a lovely idea, but rather depends on how tall your grass grows in May.

I have just had, a nearly no cut April, which is colder than May. The grass on the front lawn was so long, 6 inches plus that our large battery powered lawnmower, quite simply could not deal with it and I had to lug the big motor mower round to the front of the house to cut it. We bought the battery powered on to avoid doing that as it is now such a struggle.

Our large back garden was not as bad, but cutting the grass was exhausting and took twice as long as normal. By the time I had done it I was exhausted.

We do have a patch of garden, about 25 foot square that was a lawn when we moved in 25 years ago, but which I immediately left to grow wild, After 25 years, it is tangled and scrub like, but for any insects etc there, it is a permanent uncut and unwatered reserve.

So if you are thinking of doing this, do think about how you will manage to cut it at the end of the month.

We often go weeks with no-mow because it's simply too wet. When you live in a rainforest (temperate), life is like that. We have lots of wild flowers.

When it all get OTT we get the scythes out.

In the dry south - thinking of our Oxon garden; I used to keep cold tea, tipped out of the teapot into a bucket, for watering – I can't imagine it can be much of an issue.

Nice idea but I agree that the problem would be in tackling the very long grass after May. My lawnmower wouldn't cope and neither would I ....and the bin would be over full.

Well, scythes are OTT for us, although we do use a strimmer on occasion.

However, although we live in the south, we live in a clay vale that has a high water table. When we had an extension built last year, the builders had pumps in the foundations for a month or more until the walls were built, as they were permanently full of water.

Even in the hottest years of the first decade of this century, our lawn stayed green, without watering, even when the media were full of pictures of scorched dry grass.

I cut my grass as infrequently as possible so I'm happy to participate. I have a basic lightweight Bosch mower which can cut through wet grass a good six inches tall. Dandelion flowers are already turning to seed. I'm tempted to nip of the heads but blackbirds, goldfinches and sparrows like the seeds.

The Council in my area have been following No Mow May, June, July, August, September for the past few years!

I'll leave part of it as usual as it's interesting to see what comes up but we have someone to cut our lawns. If everyone did that round here he'd be out of a job and wouldn't be able to pay his bills.

If you don't want to leave the lawns then there are plenty of bee-friendly plants which do better in the borders than in a lawn.

For some reason poppies grew around our garden beds last year and one which is orange, is flowering already. Goodness knows where they came from!

I would definitely leave part of it unmown if I still had a lawn, but I’m in a flat now.

I bet that’s papaver rupifragum, aka Spanish poppy, Calli. I have lots and they flower from April to October every year. If not deadheaded religiously they will seed around. Beautiful flowers and they’re hardy perennials. Mine were originally from Sarah Raven.

Our council did a no mow last year. One of the patches was on the corner of a busy junction and you couldn't see whether or not it was safe to pull out.

Another patch was surrounded by houses on three sides and the residents got fed up of dandelion seeds etc. blowing round and mowed it.

Most likely where you are to be Welsh poppies surely Callistemon21? They even grow in the cracks in the pavements by me, they come in orange and yellow, and all shades in between.

I’m going to continue mowing my lawn, but I’ve got a wild patch at the end of my garden for the insects, and I grow lots of flowers that they love (which are prettier and less invasive than dandelions).

Most likely where you are to be Welsh poppies surely Callistemon21?

Yes, some most probably are and the seeds may have been dropped by a bird Casdon! The ones which are flowering now are bright orange but there were red ones in two other beds last year. Very random but I'm happy.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202205/medium-260833-20220502-175427.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202205/medium-392043-20220502-175518.jpg

Here it is:

I think GSM must be right then, that one definitely isn’t a Welsh poppy, they are single petals, more like this.

Callistemon That is a beautiful flower. Happy to trade you. I have Welsh Poppies, mostly yellow which joyfully pop up everywhere and purple poppies which appeared from nowhere.

No, it doesn't look like a Welsh poppy

If not deadheaded religiously they will seed around.
I don't mind. It's not in a flower bed, I grew sprouting broccoli there last year and the poppy appeared amongst the broccoli!

Sparklefizz

The Council in my area have been following No Mow May, June, July, August, September for the past few years!

Sparklefizz. I didn’t realise you were a Glasgow Gran.

I'll ask my neighbour if it's come through the fence. She has a beautiful well-tended garden.

Esspee

Callistemon That is a beautiful flower. Happy to trade you. I have Welsh Poppies, mostly yellow which joyfully pop up everywhere and purple poppies which appeared from nowhere.

Swap you some seeds for purple ones ?

Callistemon- maybe a Californian poppy? They are prolific self-seeders and somehow make it to other gardens where no poppies have existed before!

That’s definitely the same as mine.