How to manage lawn without bee genocide?

grizzly_beer

I am house sitting for my parents. I have been mowing the lawn every week at [no.4] as instructed (If it were my house, I would just leave ir grow, for various environmental reasons, but its not my house and while house sitting I am living here rent free so I was just doing whatever my dad requested)

I was away myself though for about 2 weeks.. When I came back the lawn was a carpet of little flowers (normally its just grass and nothing else) theres a constant low level buzz of bees and pollinators if I stand in the garden now.

I really dont want to cut it now and deprive the bees. My dad does not like having to mow the lawn every week, I honestly dont know why he does it, the lawn gets precisely zero use.

Before I kill all those flowers I thought I would do some research and see are there any alternatives. If I knew some more I could present some different options to my dad and maybe save him some pointless work + also save the bees.

Questions...

1. What are the options here? Eg. I was thinking one option might be to mow it at the highest setting on the lawnmower [no.7] and thus avoid a lot of the flowers.

2. Where can I do more research and find more resources on this? Like some youtube video aimed at a total noob would be perfect.

Pics of current situation below. Thanks for any advice!

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058251031/how-to-manage-lawn-without-bee-genocide

How about a dedicated 'wild area' or maybe planting some shrubs and flowers to help wildlife. That's a very sterile looking set up.

looksee

Ah that's lovely - though as Jim Hodge says, a bit bare of trees and shrubs. Still its your parents house so their choice.

What you could do is mow a tidy area round all the edges, a couple of mower widths, its surprising how tidy it makes the place look, without stripping all the flowers. You will have to cut it once in the season though, in the late summer probably, or it will go kinda rank. That will be a job beyond an ordinary mower, is there a farmer who would cut it for you (they almost certainly won't want the grass so you will have to get rid of it, there will be too much to let it lie). You could then cut it a couple of times as necessary to keep it tidy for the winter and let it grow again next year. Or invest in a professional service to do the long cut. If your father wants it back to what it was it will have to be cut short a few times before hand over to get a decent look on it.

At the back of our house we mow 1/2 one week and the other the following week. So it’s keeping on top of the grass but allowing the flowers to regenerate too.