No mow may

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120649616#Comment_120649616

I think it also depends on where you are. Our garden is ostensibly neat and tidy but has it's hidden 'wild' areas. It has a large variety of flowers trees and shrubs with plenty of cover. Pesticides and herbicides aren't used. We've had over 50 species of Bird recorded, 8 of bumble bees, many solitary wasps, butterflies, moths, frogs, newts etc. We even have a pair of breeding woodpeckers this year. Of course many species have declined but others, given a little helping hand, are thriving in some locations. Many people just don't look or are not looking at the right place at the right time. All that said, a token No Mow May or letting a lawn grow wild won't do much to help most species.

RainInSummer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120649565#Comment_120649565

Yeah. Same. Every single trip in the sunny half of the year meant the car was matted with bugs. Just doesn't happen now.

whisky_galore

There's a bit of whataboutery on this thread along the lines of "but what about China" when doing anything about emissions is discussed. It's like it's everyone else's fault and it's up to everyone else to suck it up and do their bit, but oh no, not me, shur I'm not part of the problem at all at all. It won't kill you to do a No Mow May, its like we are stuck in this omg my garden will look a fright and the neighbours will be talking mindset.

And then we have those who stick their fingers in their ears and pretend everything's grand.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120650857#Comment_120650857

That's an unfair comment TBH. If there is, it's a tiny bit. The main thrust of the thread is positive towards doing what best helps nature and there are many valid opinions on the best overall response we can give.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120649616#Comment_120649616

Yah but any warm May evening in the 1970s/ 80s and you'd be driving on country roads and the car windscreen would be plastered. There's still insects about but nowhere near as many moths/ butterflies as there used to be. On the other hand you can sit out in the evening here now and no be driven indoors by the midges.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120649616#Comment_120649616

That's because your lights are attracting them and you are relatively slow moving. It doesn't mean there are the same numbers of insects around as years ago.

Likewise many animals are active at dusk, night and dawn and would not be seen anyway during daylight hours, it doesn't follow there are heaps of them.

Kincora2017

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120649196#Comment_120649196

Like a lot of things it’s essentially keeping up with the Jones. It used be a sign of wealth that a large landowner could afford to use some of his private land for recreation purposes(I.e not for farming) and that this would be kept weed free by an army of serfs. Fast forward to the present day and various changes in fashion, but it’s still the case that a manicured lawn is seen as socially favourable.

In other words, it’s the Brits fault!

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120653113#Comment_120653113

And '50s US lawn and picket fence culture, as we imitate them a lot.

Dakota Dan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120653055#Comment_120653055

There’s the same amount as 40 years ago.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120668119#Comment_120668119

Have you gone out and counted them?

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120668119#Comment_120668119

I posted a link earlier into European research that showed biodiversity numbers have gone through the floor.

You should contact the researchers and tell them that their scientific analysis is wrong because you know what you saw the other night moving in front of your tractor

paddylonglegs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120669176#Comment_120669176

I did, checks out.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120670158#Comment_120670158

What about bugs with really short legs?

Don't really want to cut it...

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120671831#Comment_120671831

Thats great, I would assume the soil is quite poor and or thin and there isn't a huge amount of grass compared to other plants. No need to cut that for a bit if you don't want to.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120672104#Comment_120672104

Soil is terrible. Pure sub-soil.

Plan was to dig it up this year but kinda liking it.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120672212#Comment_120672212

For good grass dig it up for a good wild flower meadow leave it alone. If the soil is too good then the grass grows at the expense of the wildflowers and only the weedy wildflowers will persist. With poor soil you get a much bigger range of wild flowers.

The rub is you need to keep the soil fertility down so ideally when you do cut you need to remove the resulting crop. If you leave grass and wildflower cuttings behind each year soil fertility will slowly increase.

An option with what you have is to regularly mow some paths through the grass to give you access which is a good idea as it means you won't be trampling on the wildflowers to get access.

looksee

Also cutting paths and maybe the edges gives it a kind of half-civilised look, as though its intentional rather than just happened.

ECO_Mental

My no mow May is working out quite good......the grass is amazing now

My no mow May is about 18 months long now 😎

GreeBo

^ Looks great!

I think people are being overly harsh on having well kept lawns. Just because you keep your grass neat doesnt mean you arent doing your bit for bio diversity. Go look at any golf club, they have some of the most manicured grass around yet are teeming with wildlife because they compliment the grass with trees, flowers, bushes, wild meadows etc.

It doesnt have to be a choice between a wild meadow or a putting green, you can do something in the middle and mix it up a bit.

magicbastarder

no mow may was good for the daisies and skutchgrass in our lawn, but i did find twayblade in it for the first time ever.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120649196#Comment_120649196

not sure if it's still in print, but 'the forgiveness of nature' by graham harvey is well worth a read; starts out talking about football pitches and ends up deep in ecology. but he does go into the history of the development of the lawnmower and how manicured lawns came about through social climbing; because it used to be very expensive to have a manicured lawn (e.g. back in the days when a lawnmower took two people to operate) so everyone wanted one.

windowcills

Yesterday I saw a petrol station in the country with long grass around it, i first assumed it was closed for years, but there was a few cars and went in and it was a really nice shop

When i left i was saying to the wife that they should tidy up the outside for more businnes

Reading this i feel bad, but maybe if there was more wild meadows i and other people might start to think differently

looksee

I was just looking at an area we left wild last year and it looked lovely - I put a photo up of it. This year we just left it to get on with it and it is an unsightly tangle of nettles, collapsed daisies ( they will come out, they are not right for the area) hogweed and grass. Its rich soil in the shade of a 'hedge' of full grown trees on the edge of a field. Last year there were lots of foxgloves but this year does not seem to be a foxglove year. There is a nice patch of sweet woodruff, but that's about all of interest.

magicbastarder

on the flipside of that, we had very poor showing from our foxgloves last year but this year is much better (i think some of the ones we have are perennials)

The Continental Op

Foxgloves are a pioneer species they do best on newly cleared land, so do really well when old forestry blocks are felled.

In the garden I think you need to keep letting them restart in new areas. Keeping an area hoed when the foxgloves are flowering then stopping the hoeing as seed is produced can help establish new patches.

I did visit one (Yellow Book) garden in the UK where they had only white foxgloves. Garden was a good couple of acres and every bed had white foxgloves. Talked to the owner and they started with a few whites in with the pinks and vigorously rouged out any pinks for a few years until they were left with mainly whites but still had to pull out some pink ones each year.

looksee

I grew some lovely foxgloves in a previous garden, for a couple of years I had a glorious mix of colours but eventually they all reverted to purple - or only the purple seeded- apart from the white ones and they just kept coming. I think though, I actually prefer the natural purple to the multicolours.

looksee

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2023/0703/1392111-orchids-dublin-trinity/

Lovely find!

POBox19

No Mow no more, at least do it the easy way!

https://www.lidl.ie/p/garden/20v-robot-lawn-mower/p40754

magicbastarder

i don't think you've read the thread!