Thank you for the research you've done ✅ My former neighbor once called me and told me that there is one daisy in my lawn. I said:"how nice" and he told me that he pulls them out directly. The new neighbors don't mind and we enjoy all those daisies in their and my garden 🐝🌼🐝🌼🐝
I enjoy my daisies too. I remember seeing a daisy-filled lawn for the first time as a child, and being delighted by it. I couldn't understand why the 'grown-ups' got the mower out so quickly!
My prescription for lawn mowing: Eliminate 50-75% of it!! LOL. As a result, I now use a 40v battery operated mower that mows the entire yard on one charge. 😊. Of course I realize this is not always possible. I'm reminded, however, of what a good decision it was for me, when I get to watch the butterflies and hummingbirds flock to my flowering vines and perennials that have replaced the lawn.
Thanks for the very common sense advice.I am blessed to live in a very rural area in the Midwest United States . Our whole farm consists of meadows and woodland so the pollinators have plenty without my lawn even though there’s plenty “weeds” in my lawn for them and I plant pollinator friendly flowers in my garden , I love watching all the pollinators , butterflies and hummingbirds!
That does sound lovely. At Great Dixter, their flower borders are full of pollinators, many of which live in the countryside beyond, so garden + countryside is a wonderful combination.
Sometime ago I read that having a lawn was a social marker since it is unproductive land: the bigger the lawn, the richer the owner. I care for a garden - not my own - where the lawn has currently disappeared. The shady area is totally blue with forget-me-not, the sunny places are a riot of daisies and buttercups , the dappled shade is overrun with violets and wild pansies. I think the generous rain of these last weeks plus higher temperatures and quite a few warm days have done the trick. Will only mow in the middle and follow good advice of letting the sides go higher. Thank you for the educational content.
That does sound beautiful. And yes, a lawn used to be a social marker (it indicated you had lots of staff who could keep the grass short, plus the point you make about unproductive land), but once the lawn mower was invented (1830) it slowly became more accessible to a wider group of people.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Still, despite the lawnmower it remains unproductive land. The appropriation of signs of wealth is very often IMO followed by the decline of a robust, practical and inexpensive lifestyle. For example buttons used to be a sign of wealth because this meant that you could afford clothes made precisely to your current size whereas poorer people wore adjustable gathered clothing wearable whatever your size. Since buttons have been widely adopted we spend lots of money during our adult life buying clothes due to fitting issues. To support my argument, see Indians wearing saris or Japanese wearing kimonos, all adjustable. Also porcelain against pottery. So it is with lawn versus productive soil which is why I personally strongly prefer the cottage style garden. Lastly in France some municipalities have taken the habit of cutting road verges only in October which is quite a good thing. Of course there are panels explaining why in case people wonder. Again thank you for your wonderful channel through which I found Rosy @ Rosy gardening . You two ladies are generous wells of science !
@@pansepot1490Not really idyllic since there is a grey heron which insists of treating fishes and frogs from the pond as peanuts which is a current problem as well as an alarming invasion of bindweed everywhere !
This is so good to see, I've been advocating this for many years now as you know. If biodiversity and our precious pollinators and other insects (food for birds to take to their young etc) are a priority when gardening, then it's best to choose a path towards the end of March and stick to it. No Mow May was a great initiative but encouraged people to get out with the mowers on 1 June and strip everything away. I've mentioned this many times before, that all those insects and creatures that have made a home in that longer grass or utilised it for breeding, will be decimated. Insects and other creatures don't usually just live in the month of May and finish their life cycles by 1 June. Mown areas are good, I'm sure we've all witnessed Starlings searching around for grubs in mown lawns a good few years ago now. Not all lawns, if just left unmown will turn into a meadow, many older lawns that have not been re-turfed in the last 10-15 years will be better than lawns in new-build homes. But that's not to say that a nectar lawn or meadow area cannot be achieved with the right plants and planning. Enjoyed watching this, thank you 😊
Thank you. I think one of the huge advantages of No Mow May is that it encourages people to start thinking about their lawns in a more relaxed way. It doesn't feel like a permanent commitment, but it is often the start of changing ways.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I'm really pleased that Plantlife have changed their message this year, after a lot more people have been raising the issue via social media. Creatures will make a home in May, whereas if the lawn had continued to be cut they wouldn't have, so the cut in June is actually more detrimental than just mowing throughout, rather than providing a false sense of security for these creatures for 4 weeks. I note this year that Plantlife are now advertising "let it bloom in June" and have mooted a "knee high in July" etc - on social media we started the #nomowsummer initiative a few years ago, to try to get the message across. I'm not averse to short grass either, it provides a lot of open feeding ground for Starlings and Blackbirds, but again mowing a path/paths through and making the area look intentional is way better than providing a false habitat all over, and cutting down important insects and their larvae etc ☺
It's fascinating how well you combine gardening that is both elegant and sustainable. Thanks for showing us that it's not one approach versus the other.
another really helpful video thank you Alexandra. People do get puritanical about these things so it's useful and enjoyable to have a practical and balanced view. Also helpful tips like mowing from the centre outwards to give creatures a chance to escape, so logical... but why didn't I think of that?!
A great book about wildlife in the garden is "no nettles required" by Ken Thompson. They did a survey over about 60 gardens in Sheffield. The main conclusions are : 1) Natives are not needed. Back when America, Europe and Japan were connected, insects were feeding on the same plants, pollinators on the same flowers. So a european bee can handle an american aster or a chinese kalimeris no problem. In fact, gardens with natives didn't have more insects : it's gardens with the most variety of flowering periods. 2) Lawns were almost devoid of life. Slug pellets didn't have much of an effect on insects (they did nothing to slugs though, only to snails), but herbicides did. And they saw that many gardens lacked long grass in winter, which is essential for many bumblebees and butterflies nesting. They also tested bumblebee shelters as recommended by the wildlife organizations : they overwhelmingly don't work. Nettles didn't work either to attract butterflies when added to gardens that didn't have it. So regarding lawns, just mow paths in it, it's a beautiful look. But you still have to cut the meadow once a year otherwise the soil gets richer and richer and you'll get brambles then a forest. If you really need to mow it, why not only mow it once in Spring, then again in Summer ? But you really shouldn't mow it in autumn and winter for insects to use tall grass as shelter. In spring and summer, you don't really need a wildflower meadow if you have perennials, borders. They will feed insects more than your meadow would anyway.
I think Doug Tallamy is awfully good in explaining the situation in the US. He differentiates between generalist and specialist insects. A generalist isn't picky so will feast on all the foreign plants, but a specialist has coevolved with certain plants, and in this case, native plants are all important.
@@sarahlyon6187 It is possible that either the UK has very few specialist insects, or they simply don't live in urbanized environments anyway. But the study didn't find any more diversity in gardens with a lot of natives. The author suspected that it's also because "native" doesn't mean much. The UK has very few natives due to the previous glaciation events, just like most of Europe, at least compared to the Americas, Australia or Africa. It would be interesting to see the same study in other parts of the world.
@@nicolasbertin8552you don’t get more diversity of insects with keystone native plants.. you have certain insects that are native to your area that only eat or reproduce on one kind of specialist plant.. if the native plant goes you lose that specialist insect. Variety is good but there are varieties of trees and flowers that host most of your native pollinators and they are important to that local food web because there are other bigger things that eat those bugs. A few cornerstone natives do the majority of the lifting when it comes to actually keeping the specialist species alive. Where I am Oaks do more lifting than all other flowers people plant combined. One big Joe pye weed plant will be more beneficial than an entire home Depo plant center planted out.. more bang for your pollinator buck. Not all pollen is equal either some pollen is way better than other. We are only beginning to understand all of this and the environment is toast at this point.
Every garden should have nettles even if it's just a large pot in the corner. In the UK I doubt there is a more important plant species group than nettles for butterflies. They are essential. Multiple species need them to lay there eggs on. Flowers attract butterflies to fly into your garden and bees etc but these creatures have to live as egg, larvae and chrysalis somewhere else and that is the nettle. Small gardens should never be judged in isolation they are part of a large eco-system as well as being a mini one. I've watched bees come and cut pieces of petal off my plants then fly off over my bungalow roof and probably were then going to fly a hundred+ yards to an old hedge on a bank around a sports field. Adding things may take time to bear fruit and I doubt your author took ten years on his study but the bees could not do what I said five years ago because the flower beds did not exist. I should mention that the bees to get to my petals fly over about 4 acres of grass that is mowed once or twice a year. The otherside of the hedge is seven acres of playing field grass.
@@nicolasbertin8552It takes a very long time to repopulate an area, positive intervention is needed. If you want what is absent to comeback you have to put it there or what is local and most common will simply fill all the available niches. You also need to support what you put there and not just dump it and hope. I actually VERY selectively poisoned most of the docks (not all) to open up space for what I planted and will be replanting and sowing some species to reinforce the small numbers that have got a foothold. I've watered establishing plants in drought. I've doubled up on the leaf fall (though I will not do that again as doing it two years in a row seems to have don the trick). I also saturated the area this spring (and am set to do it again soon) with anti slug nematode worms. It is not a long term plan the latter but it was obvious the slugs were stopping some plants from reaching maturity. I'm sure a balance will be reached eventually but if it was say rabbits I'd also intervene. We have badly damaged nature we will, even at the local garden level, have to help it recover.
part of the point of No Mow May is to encourage people to try out what it's like to leave their grass long. It is to encourage you to keep some of it long through the year. There is no need at all to cut it back short on June 1st.
Yes, I agree, we've done 7 weeks in parts (as you could probably see). And we do six months of no mowing in the front. But I think some people worry that they won't be able to cut it short again if they do want to, so I think it's nice for people to know they can. You hear such a lot of doom-mongering from the lawn maintenance companies...
It depends upon how high my grass grows. I have a lot of grounds to mow, and it is hard on my lawn mower. I will try and go along as possible. We have a lot of land we do not mow that is left wild for all of mother natures creatures. We have started planting more native plants as well. Love your videos!
Alas there is a big misunderstanding about „No Mow May“: A lawn needs a completely different care than a meadow - and vice versa. A lawn doesn’t turn into a meadow just by not mowing it during one of the most important months of the lawn season, it just causes a lot of issues. I wish people would distinguish between a lawn and a meadow. You can’t have both at the same time.
Such a delightful and informative video! I just love how your narration and filming made it seem as if the creatures were walking with us. I will be sending this to my dear stubborn friend in the country (ish). She has a husband who loves his riding mower 😢 All the best to you from one of the same people here in U.S. . (SC)
Very informative! I noticed some pretty hyacinth had spread into a patchy lawn area near a tree in my back garden so I thought thats the perfect patch for no mow May. Hopefully next year will be even more flowers 💚
Wonderful, well thought out information. I learned a lot and this will be helpful as I transition most of my yard into native plants and low growing natives for my lawn. Thankfully, my neighbors are tolerant of my untidy “lawn”.
This is a great to the point video on a simple step to rewilding for everyone with lawns. A good alternative ad to the 'perfect lawn' product/ services companies. I think there are to many misconceptions about not mowing, even amongst gardeners. People should widen their perceptions on what a 'good' lawn is. They should consider how much resources and effort it takes to make a plain green manicured wildlife desert in your garden.
I like how you never fertilise nor water your lawn. I do the same in Melbourne though mine is only 1/10 the size of yours. I pull out all the weeds by hand and after 1 whole year, all the bare brown patches have grown green again with the lawn grass. When the lawn is fully covered in grass, weeds have little chance to flourish.
Speaking of allowing critters to escape, a few weeks ago I had an arborist cutting down a 25' 150 y.o. silver maple trunk that we'd topped about 4 years ago because it was rotting and out came a raccoon. (Large city in Idaho, USA). I also have a "resident" mountain lion at night so it wasn't unusual, just wasn't expecting it. Anyway, now I know what was eating my hens. Great video as always.
Great video!! Also… How the hell do people think they’re gonna have a meadow of wildflowers when, any plant in a lawn that doesn’t have the shape of a blade of grass, gets sprayed with herbicides or removed? Even clover?
Speaking of lawns, please don't do like my neighbor did last week. After spending two hours fertilizing his yard, he saw the arrival of a flock of cattle egrets arrive to look for insects. He tried shooing them away to no avail. We live in a hot climate that enjoys visits from storks and various egrets on a regular basis, yet so many folks want their pristine lawn and disregard the consequences.😢
I live on eastern Long Island in the US and can't let the lawn grow high because of the ticks. My property is half wooded and has lots of deer and mice...along with voles, moles, and various other wild creatures living on it that carry ticks. Every year, from March until November, I pull tons of ticks off of me after I get through doing yard work...in spite of the fact that I drench my clothes with permethryn and use deet sprays on my skin religiously I've been reinfected with Lyme many times since I first got infected in 1985 and get the standard 3 week course of Doxy to try to nip it in the bud, but it never completely goes away. What worries me more than Lyme is the Alpha Gal infection, which makes you allergic to red meat. There's no treatment for it and the red meat allergy can last for years. A few people I know got it and still can't eat red meat after a decade. I do enjoy my red meat, so I'm extra cautious about protecting myself from tick bites now. Eastern Long Island is a very damp areas, right near the ocean and there are a lot of oak trees. Ticks love damp areas and wooded areas with leaf mulch. I don't water my lawn in summer...just the shrub and perennial borders, so the actual grass lawn is dying off and is being replaced by moss, which grows well here. I'm hoping that the moss will kill off the grass so that I won't have to mow at all.
That does sound horrible, as you say, ticks love damp conditions so if your lawn grass is regularly damp, that makes a difference. My parents' lawn eventually converted almost entirely to moss and they were delighted. As you say, they hardly ever had to mow.
Good morning Alexander, So nice to listen to your gardening advice, always most interesting. It is up to the individual gardener to care for their lawns. I would love to use a scatter pack winter flowering on the lawn, but with the watering of those, the grass will keep growing!! 🤣 and I will not be any better off. As you say, select an area where to plant country flowers, we do not have rolling lawns, so I do not mind keeping the grass. Just enjoy your garden, do as you please. I love the small garden insects, unfortunately we have an invasion of big black ants and they will have to go, they are borrowing everywhere. We have not used poisons in the garden for a long long time, but the ants have to go. Do take care, enjoy a beautiful day wherever you are. Kind regards.
the best thing to do is to leave a patch of grass or a lawn no mow EVER. this will allow biodiversity to thrive. you can also just mow a path through it. also buy a pack of meadow seeds that are local to your flora and rake them in in the winter.
That's fine if you've got a large garden. It takes me about 5 minutes to mow my lawn, which has a wildlife pond in it too. There's no way I can leave any of it permanently unmown.
@@FireflyOnTheMoon - I can't do that, our garage/shed intrudes into our garden so we have to get to that from the house. There are already wide mixed borders around the lawn, as well as a wildlife pond in the lawn - basically the lawn is a path between the house and the shed and the way around to the borders.
In our interview with Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter - a garden that gets top marks for biodiversity from the ecologists - he says that both short grass and longer grass can benefit different species, and that the key to biodiversity is diversity or difference. So in that sense, you are all correct - and provided people do keep on having different ideas, opinions and approaches, then that will help biodiversity. The problems arise when there is a 'one size fits all' approach, because that creates problems when applied to the natural world. If you haven't seen the Great Dixter interview, it's here ruclips.net/video/l7VGjBOby5I/видео.html
In a western American context where wildflowers in lawns don't exist beyond possibly dandelions, the grass type is a non-native Kentucky bluegrass, and people do often use weed killers and fertilizers, is it worth doing no-mow May? If I had a native buffalo grass lawn that wasn't weed killed or fertilized, it would seem more worthwhile.
I think a grass that had been treated with weedkiller probably wouldn't have any flowers at all, but longer grass does have some benefits of its own. It's a very personal decision - you might consider experimenting with it and deciding whether it's worth it for you.
Great info. But really it should be no mow February-June. Lady bugs, grasshoppers, praying mantises and frogs, to name a few, need these grasses as early as February. Not mowing from December to June is very admirable of you. Wildlife says thanks. ☺️
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I know I’ve said it before, but I really enjoy your content and all the beautiful gardens you show us. I’ve been gardening for decades but I’ve been so inspired by you. Thank you.
Thanks for this video. Interesting re the ticks. I have kept to no mow may, june and July for several years now and believe I have noticed more insects. Could be my imagination but feel that I am doing my small part towards wildlife and pollinators
I think what's really important is to make sure that you have the maximum amount of growing plants - whether they're border plants or lawn grasses. I am concerned that the 'anti-lawn' movement will encourage people to use concrete, stone, brick pavers or even artificial grass, under the impression that it is either 'better' than lawn or that a lawn is just as bad.
Last year I laid turf and it took really well . Unfortunately due to ill health plus lawn mower issues it was several weeks before it was cut . By this time it grew too long and doubled over on itself trapping in rain water. Mist of the grass died . Since then it’s been over seeded 3 times and it’s still looking awful , literally tufts of grass . I’m now waiting for the weather to become warmer and planning on new seed ( maybe last box was bad batch ? ) and seeding again. I have also been told my use of a flymo didn’t help Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you from the uk
In regards to your flymo: it slashes grass more than it cuts like scissors, leaving rough edges, weakening the plants. Many gardeners address the top soil, but grass roots can grow 3 metres deep; are you sure your soil is healthy enough with good, uncompacted structure? Have you ever compost fed your lawn each year in the fall before? Observe where the soil stays wet the longest, take a post digger and drill holes of about 90cm deep throughout the garden, in the beds too if necessary. Fill the holes with rough pebbles to speed up drainage. Keep the Pebbles just below the surface, not to intervene with your mower. You can let the grass grow over them, just know where they are. This should prevent loss due to rot and suffication. Lawns actually are high maintenance, as you need to airate the top, rake mosses off and cut the grass with a special bladed rake every few ears to encourage the roots to rejuvenate 360*. Unless you improve the soil first, I'm afraid you'll waste a lot of good will and money.. How much shade and water drip is overhead? Try a sports seed mix, as they are usually tougher species. You can find specific wild flower mixes for your area as well. Hope this gets you off to a good start. Have a great season and good luck! 🌿👒🐦
@@moniquemannaert3468 thank you for your reply . I used top soil before laying the turf and again when over seeding . I also used a fork to aerate when over seeding . The turf took really well. The problem was I wasn’t able to cut the grass soon enough and it grew too long . I seem to have good soil as everything seems to flourish that’s planted. It is a north facing garden and my neighbour has grass that’s just fine . I used a good make of turf and seed. I think I may of bought a bad box of seed as none of it germinated.
There may be an issue with the grass seed. Some grass seeds are single stems and need to be re-seeded more often, others will spread and create a more resilient lawn. Here's a post that explains this: lawnassociation.org.uk/uk-grasses-all-you-need-to-know/ In terms of fertiliser - some lawn seeds now come with a slow release fertiliser coating, so take a look at these: www.johnsonslawnseed.com/product-range. I'd suggest working out what the best seed type is for your soil conditions, then re-seeding again and seeing what happens.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I bought medallion seed and turf . The turf looked amazing until it grew too long ( my fault ) I did turn the soil before laying the turf . I bought the seed from eBay so I don’t know if it was stored correctly. Thank you so much for your advice and love your garden 🪴
I haven't used a mower in 21 years (grassed area about 1.5 acres?) You're right, you won't get wild flowers flooding in the first year. Nature is subtle, gentle, introducing species one at a time for the most part. My first Spring - one Bluebell right in the middle of the lawn. It looked so out of place, yet determined to make its matk, I had to laugh. Since then, it is the mother of dozens of colonies, thousands of progeny - who's laughing now, eh? First Summer - a surprising wealth of both Trefoil and Clover, a bit of Buttercup, a few Dandelions, the odd Thistle, and Bracken in the corner. After that, every year, I received at least one new species of wild flower. Hemp Agrimony was possibly the most surprising one. I'd never seen it before and was highly suspicious that some neighbour was playing a trick for a while. But, it's an absolute beauty of a plant, tall, pretty, great for damp spots and a true butterfly magnet. Scabious, Wood Sorrel, Wood Anemone, Pink Campion, Hartstongue Ferns (I love those, a bit exotic looking), Primroses, Hens & Chickens, White Ptarmigan (I don't know the real name for this plant), Red Clover, Autumn Crocus, Dog Lichen on the exposed rocks, rushes, Carex, lots of diffetent types of grasses now - and 2 wild orchids!! (I think they might be different colour shades of the same type of orchid, but not complaining). Plus, I get a lot of free tree seedlings now - Hazels particularly. (Definitely not complaining there either). I've tried scattering packets of wild flower seeds, but they seem to come up here and there in the first year, and not in the second. So I didn't bother after 2 seed packets. I've already been treated to 2 new additions to the garden this year - a pretty yellow flower growing in a gravel path (still have to look it up), and the very palest pink shade of Campion I've ever seen. Has a different petal shape to the pink ones, so not of their ilk The fungi too! Boletes, Waxcaps, some funny green thing, Velvet Shank grew all over a fence post, Fly Agaric and Griselles. These little beauties got me interested in fungi in general, and I made fungal dips for new trees to give them a boost. In a few years hope to see an increasing number of new fungi types sprout. Ooh, and the animals that come with it - frogs, toads, newts, many more birds than you had before (Red Kites hunt here now). The biggest prize of them all - lizards. Yes, I get deer too (both Red and Roe), but only have had 2 tick bites in all these years, and then I couldn't guarantee I got them here in this garden, as I spend most days clambering around the neighbouring woods for an hour or two as well. I dress to protect myself from ticks and they don't like peppermint spray. I also find regularly eating oranges something of a fly deterrent too.
Thank you for this most useful information! Is there any benefit to sprinkling wild flower seeds on a lawn that is overrun with weeds and patchy (we’ve just moved in!)
If you want to add wildflowers then strip out patches of lawn and weeds and sow them into the soil like normal seeds. Many people also find that planting wildflower plug plants is a good way of getting a proper meadow going. There's more in this video here: ruclips.net/video/akVORa8BPG0/видео.html
I would not use those store-bought seed packets. You don't know the quality, but also, a lot of the flowers won't be native to your area. Rather, I would suggest planting with intent. Buy a single wildflower that's native to your area and put it somewhere. It'll develop seeds that you can use elsewhere in the yard, but in the mean time you have a chance to learn about that plant and see how it grows. There's no hurry to this. And if you like that one plant, you can always buy more of them to build yourself a nice "drift" or "clump" of them that's attractive to the eye and really draws in the birds and bees.
The thing that is killing off the insects is the planting of non-native plants everywhere. This causes what Dr. Doug Tallamy calls "fragmentation" of the ecosystem. Insects are usually Specialists and need a specific plant for some part of their life cycle. People often forget that insects don't travel far, and they have not GPS or internet connection to let them know where the next food stop can be found. We tend to think that things can migrate like we imagine birds do, but that's only true to a point. The average insect might travel a mile in its entire life, which is short enough. If you look at the average home landscape, 80% of it will be non-native plants that native insects don't recognize as food or shelter. Everyone wants the pretty foreign plants they see on the television or internet. They buy what's commonly available at the store in town. And when you have a million homes in just one area that are all using non-native plants..... that means you've effectively fragmented the ecosystem so badly that insects simply cannot find the food that they need. How many have died off because there's no food for them anywhere they looked? According to Dr. Tallamy's research, turf grass, the lawns everyone's so proud of, make up the 2nd largest crop under cultivation in the US. We have more acreage under turf grass than 20 of our largest national parks - and we have huge national parks! Lawns are not "ecosystems". The Turf Companies will tell you that, but every study done on the ecosystem benefit of lawns shows that they are basically inert. They're a black hole in the food web of the local ecosystem. They're pretty, sure, but they are non-native and thus do not actually interact with the ecosystem to a degree that's even marginally comparable to what native plants would do. Everyone loves those pretty foreign flowers and shrubs. I do too. The problem is not understanding the damage caused when we add up all these non-native plants. We often talk about the loss of native habitat when it comes to the burning of the Amazon Rainforest, but ignore that we do the very same thing in our own back gardens. There is no practical difference between burning things to ash, and planting non-native species that don't feed the native species. One might look worse than the other, but both destroy the local ecosystem and kill off wildlife. it's just a matter of how fast they do it. To me, though, the worst aspect of this all is the loss of that "Sense of Place". Today, you can go from Idaho to Ireland and find people using the very same plants in their landscaping. The cities all use whatever's popular at the moment for the public spaces. Everything's mass-produced in huge nurseries and growing operations so you only get a handful of approved plants and then it's up to you to mix and match in the hopes of creating something that looks nice. But it's still the same plants that can be found on the other side of the nation, or world. When I got my formal training in horticulture, there was not a single mention of the importance of native plants for the ecosystem. The focus was always on making the money, getting those sales, and now we are riddled with invasive plants everywhere. I'm sad about that, but I think I'm more saddened by the fact that my region has lost something very important -- that Sense of Place that made us different from everywhere else. The streets of my town should be lined with Redbuds or Yaupons or even stout Oaks. instead, everywhere you look there's another Crepe Myrtle.... just like every other place around here. It's genuinely depressing. And, yeah, the insects have died off around here. I used to have to scrub my windshield every time I filled up with gas, but now, I only have to hose off the dust and pollen. I can't remember the last time I hit an insect while driving, even through the country. No insects means no baby songbirds because that's what the birds need when they're in the nest. Soft, squishy, protein-packed caterpillars and mosquitoes are the mainstay of a baby bird's diet. They can't eat seeds from your bird feeder. They need those insects, and not having them because everyone's planting non-native plants in their yards means that we've lost 3,000,000,000 songbirds just in my lifetime.
You make some good points, but it's important to remember that loss of habitat (building, concrete or artificial grass in backyards etc) and the use of fertilisers is the primary cause of insects dying off. Because everywhere will always get some unusual weather a complete reliance on native plants can be unwise. Research by the RHS shows that it's always good for gardeners to plant native plants, but including some non-native plants which flower at different times of year or which offer habitat is immensely valuable too. It's also worth remembering that 'invasive' plants aren't the same as 'non-native plants'. Many non-native plants are not invasive and have much to offer the eco-system, even though the wrong plant in the wrong place can also be very damaging. There's no 'one size fits all' solution, we all have to keep muddling along, doing our best and asking questions.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden According to the research done by Dr. Tallamy, non-native plants, whether they're 'invasive' or not, provide very little function to the ecosystem We've seen this even with cultivars of native plants as shown in the studies done by the Mt. Cuba Center. The pollinators evolved with a single plant that they rely on for some part of their life cycle. If that plant cannot be found nearby, the pollinators die. That's not to say that some pollinators who are "generalists" can't do well. The European honey bee, for example, gets by no matter what you stick in front of it. And it can build hives most anywhere. Our concern, though, is for the 95% of pollinators which are Specialist insects and require a certain plant sometime in their lives. In the US, the Monarch Butterfly is often cited as an example of this symbiosis since it needs the Ascliepias genus for it's larvae to nibble on. The problem isn't that there are no Asclepius anymore, but that the patches of them have been so fragmented by both development and the planting of non-native plants, that the Monarch's don't have the energy to get from one patch to the next. The Monarch is only the most known example of this, but most insects are specialists in that same vein. Yes, the building of roads and houses destroys habitat, but that problem is compounded by all the gardens being fileld with non-native plants that the local food web hasn't evolved to live with. It's a contentious subject, for sure. 😁
Certainly not mosquitoes as they breed more when there is more water available and No Mow May doesn't increase the water sources. Snakes may vary according to where you live.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden There are copperheads in my area. They seem to stay in the woods surrounding my property, but I'm wondering if I let my grass grow tall whether it will invite them into my yard and be a risk when we then do eventually mow in June. Maybe mowing from the middle of the yard out like you said would be the answer for this concern.
If we don’t get some proper rain here in north central Alberta soon, we won’t have anything to mow anyway! Our area has already had several grass fires and forest fires are becoming an issue in the province. With no rain I don’t have slugs but the ants are taking over the yard!! 🐜🐜🐜 🇨🇦
I unintentionally did No Mow April and all these flowers and bugs have moved in. Can I mow it now and restart it for May or should I leave it be for another month?
You can do either. You might want to experiment with leaving some areas long, then mowing others shorter. If you leave an area for two months, your lawn mower might struggle to cut it, but if it's a small area, you could use shears. But, really, it's up to you - you can't do anything 'wrong'.
In the past years April has been a very cold month in the uk. May is the only period to renew rhe lawn after winter and before the summer. No mow May is jus not practical in the uk
I've found it works very well in the two years I've done it. Lawns grow at temperatures above 5C and the UK average temperature for April 2023 was 6.7C. April 2022 was a warm April - 10C-13C around the UK. And the winter overall (Dec 2023, Jan, Feb, March 2024) was the fifth warmest on record with an average UK temperature of 5.29C, which means that, with the exception of frosts and cold areas, grass never really stopped growing. Figures from UK Met Office.
If you renovate a lawn it's better to wait for April or may with temperatures above 10. 5 degrees is too cold for seeding. I would never do no mown may anyway. Thanks for the videos
Oh WONDERFUL! A new FASHION for people to follow! Save the newts! Save the frogs! Now, what's the NEXT new fashion some intellectual has dreamed up to control my life?
If you're in a part of the US where lawns grow really well without much care, you might need a commercial grade mower in June if you don't mow in May. There's the potential to mow over a nest of bunnies. Your house might also look vacant, which is an invitation for someone to take your air conditioner or break into your house. I'd rather see people here in my region just go back to having clover in their lawns.
Plantlife (the charity that organise it) have signs that people can buy explaining that they're mowing the lawn long, which would help people realise it was deliberate not just an empty house. You're right that very thick, long grass would need a heavy-duty lawn mower or scythe rather than something like a Flymo. We were fine mowing our lawn after 7 weeks with a standard size petrol mower, so you'd probably be OK after a month in most places, but yes, it is a factor. And agree with you about having clover in the lawns.
Sadly this is my experience in the US, our lawn would be 8-10 inches had we not mowed twice already, and it's not even May yet. Without a professional to clear the grass in June, I don't recommend it for the US.
Yes, it's HOAs I was referring to when I said that some people live in areas where there are regulations about how high your lawn grass can grow. I wonder if some of those regulations will soften in time?
Well, as Fergus Garrett said at Great Dixter - some wildlife need longer grass and some need short grass and access to the soil, so if we're all different, even that will help. Great Dixter is superbly biodiverse and it has several areas of mown lawn.
As the video explains, there's currently no evidence to suggest that longer lawn grass encourages ticks, unless you have very wet weather. Deer and woodland are the two biggest factors for ticks. That's current research. Future research may come up with different conclusions.
This seems to be an ill thought out idea. For many well established lawns this is going to be an environmental disaster. A lawn that has been organically managed, kept short but never over mown for a period of years, will be rich in plants etc that require short grass. Allowing grass to grow tall will devastate these species. Carefully study your lawn over a summer and you may well be amazed at how many very short plants are thriving in it (daisies for example in this context are large plants). A square yard may well have over a dozen species. The lawn may have dozens more over a year. Do watch for the numerous birds that forage for invertebrates and seeds in your short lawn they will not be able to do this in long grass. New lawns will be species deficient (plant, animal and fungi) but doing this "no-mow-may" will reduce the likelihood of acquiring new ones. For me utility lawns for play etc are fine and about a million times (a billion if you like) better than the horrendous green plastic fakes. Utility lawns will be mainly grass but by definition they can not be left unmoved. I suspect most lawns are for aesthetic purpose. I say moss is good, down with the stripy lawn and d@@th to the plastic fake lawn. I have seen the self-raising-flowers (weeds) grow in the plastic and the only realistic way to get rid is to poison, that I can think of. To my way of thinking if you want something that looks like grass, then have grass. But I say mow, selectivly by pass some plants temporarily (I let some of the Fox-and-Cubs have at least one seeding per year even though they are tall) but don't over-mow. I'm lucky in that I do have at the northend of my garden three whitebeams and two sycamores in about 80 square yards. Another white beam and a similar area of mowed grass are the otherside of my fence (I annexed part of our enclosed communal garden to do the wildlife stuff) So far this spring 25 species have flowered and I will have achieved 50 this year (the goal is a hundred self sustaining species in 5 years, so far two years) this complements the woodland and woodland margine inside my garden. This does not happen naturally, starting with just five species to get the rest in takes time, effort, money and most importantly educating people to see self-raising-flowers and not weeds. The trick I used was to get as much colour in as possible using bulbs though that is not the goal. I like species others like pretty species. If the landlord gets back in it will be mowed to the grown and raked completly free of any leaf litter and thus most of it will be bare earth, dead but tidy.
@@FireflyOnTheMoon You don't know what I'm talking about do you? Try growing bushes where your grass is and see what happens to the grass. Big plants shade out smaller plants. What has taken years to develope can be killed off very quickly.
I think there's a difference between an 'organically managed lawn kept short but never over mown' (which is a very small proportion of lawns) and the average standard lawn that's usually mown once a week (and may be fertilised or treated with weed or moss killers). If someone is managing their lawn knowledgeably for particular species, then they are unlikely to want or need to do No Mow May. The initiative is aimed at helping people to relax about their lawn care and consider new possibilities. There are benefits and disadvantages to every action we take, but on the whole the benefits of allowing standard lawns to grow a little longer probably outweigh any disadvantages.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Remember I'm talking about the SMALL stuff. Do you really know if your claim about advantage is true? Can you really say how many species of plants are in your own lawn, or were before your TALL grass in May policy began? Do you know if you lost much? The lawn that inspired my comment is mowed 18 times a year over 7 months rain or shine and that's it (for decades). It is managed in no way at all. It's a communal area of grass in an enclosed area for pensioners (thus lightly used) nothing special except the range of small plants and the life that depends upon them. There is likely to be a lot more lawns than you imagine like it. In fact there are probably at least a dozen different types of small lawn in terms of management. I'm thinking of a terrace of eight houses and every small lawn is different. They range from the weedless billiard smooth to literally a patch of wild grass which ain't seen a mower in the five years I've been walking past it. I simply think people don't know what is there. I remember about 30 years ago a local councillor at a public meeting advocating a piece of "brownfield" ground should be develop he told us that it only had a few trees on it: it had amongst many other things 5 species of orchid and sundews. I've just looked on Google Maps it has not been developed but the woodland has expanded to cover the whole area. I doubt there are any orchids or sundews now because the TALL stuff has done it's job. I'm talking about Garston Coking/Gasworks site Banks Road on the edge of Liverpool. It probably exists still because of toxic materials in the ground. There is nothing unique about "brownfield" being environmental gems either: if they are old enough it's common, curiosity has made me climb walls and fences to tresspass over many decades. Nearby they created the "Coastal Reserve" on the edge of the old Liverpool Airport, the price was three species of orchid eliminated by their works. They meant well but they did not look properly. I guess they "probably" guessed too.
Thank you for the research you've done ✅ My former neighbor once called me and told me that there is one daisy in my lawn. I said:"how nice" and he told me that he pulls them out directly. The new neighbors don't mind and we enjoy all those daisies in their and my garden 🐝🌼🐝🌼🐝
I enjoy my daisies too. I remember seeing a daisy-filled lawn for the first time as a child, and being delighted by it. I couldn't understand why the 'grown-ups' got the mower out so quickly!
Did the old neighbor do the world a favor and leave?
My prescription for lawn mowing: Eliminate 50-75% of it!! LOL. As a result, I now use a 40v battery operated mower that mows the entire yard on one charge. 😊. Of course I realize this is not always possible. I'm reminded, however, of what a good decision it was for me, when I get to watch the butterflies and hummingbirds flock to my flowering vines and perennials that have replaced the lawn.
Thanks for the very common sense advice.I am blessed to live in a very rural area in the Midwest United States . Our whole farm consists of meadows and woodland so the pollinators have plenty without my lawn even though there’s plenty “weeds” in my lawn for them and I plant pollinator friendly flowers in my garden , I love watching all the pollinators , butterflies and hummingbirds!
That does sound lovely. At Great Dixter, their flower borders are full of pollinators, many of which live in the countryside beyond, so garden + countryside is a wonderful combination.
Sometime ago I read that having a lawn was a social marker since it is unproductive land: the bigger the lawn, the richer the owner.
I care for a garden - not my own - where the lawn has currently disappeared. The shady area is totally blue with forget-me-not, the sunny places are a riot of daisies and buttercups , the dappled shade is overrun with violets and wild pansies.
I think the generous rain of these last weeks plus higher temperatures and quite a few warm days have done the trick.
Will only mow in the middle and follow good advice of letting the sides go higher.
Thank you for the educational content.
Sounds idyllic. 😊
That does sound beautiful. And yes, a lawn used to be a social marker (it indicated you had lots of staff who could keep the grass short, plus the point you make about unproductive land), but once the lawn mower was invented (1830) it slowly became more accessible to a wider group of people.
This is so good to read 🥰
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden
Still, despite the lawnmower it remains unproductive land. The appropriation of signs of wealth is very often IMO followed by the decline of a robust, practical and inexpensive lifestyle. For example buttons used to be a sign of wealth because this meant that you could afford clothes made precisely to your current size whereas poorer people wore adjustable gathered clothing wearable whatever your size. Since buttons have been widely adopted we spend lots of money during our adult life buying clothes due to fitting issues. To support my argument, see Indians wearing saris or Japanese wearing kimonos, all adjustable.
Also porcelain against pottery.
So it is with lawn versus productive soil which is why I personally strongly prefer the cottage style garden.
Lastly in France some municipalities have taken the habit of cutting road verges only in October which is quite a good thing. Of course there are panels explaining why in case people wonder.
Again thank you for your wonderful channel through which I found Rosy @ Rosy gardening . You two ladies are generous wells of science !
@@pansepot1490Not really idyllic since there is a grey heron which insists of treating fishes and frogs from the pond as peanuts which is a current problem as well as an alarming invasion of bindweed everywhere !
This is so good to see, I've been advocating this for many years now as you know. If biodiversity and our precious pollinators and other insects (food for birds to take to their young etc) are a priority when gardening, then it's best to choose a path towards the end of March and stick to it. No Mow May was a great initiative but encouraged people to get out with the mowers on 1 June and strip everything away. I've mentioned this many times before, that all those insects and creatures that have made a home in that longer grass or utilised it for breeding, will be decimated. Insects and other creatures don't usually just live in the month of May and finish their life cycles by 1 June. Mown areas are good, I'm sure we've all witnessed Starlings searching around for grubs in mown lawns a good few years ago now. Not all lawns, if just left unmown will turn into a meadow, many older lawns that have not been re-turfed in the last 10-15 years will be better than lawns in new-build homes. But that's not to say that a nectar lawn or meadow area cannot be achieved with the right plants and planning. Enjoyed watching this, thank you 😊
Thank you. I think one of the huge advantages of No Mow May is that it encourages people to start thinking about their lawns in a more relaxed way. It doesn't feel like a permanent commitment, but it is often the start of changing ways.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I'm really pleased that Plantlife have changed their message this year, after a lot more people have been raising the issue via social media. Creatures will make a home in May, whereas if the lawn had continued to be cut they wouldn't have, so the cut in June is actually more detrimental than just mowing throughout, rather than providing a false sense of security for these creatures for 4 weeks. I note this year that Plantlife are now advertising "let it bloom in June" and have mooted a "knee high in July" etc - on social media we started the #nomowsummer initiative a few years ago, to try to get the message across. I'm not averse to short grass either, it provides a lot of open feeding ground for Starlings and Blackbirds, but again mowing a path/paths through and making the area look intentional is way better than providing a false habitat all over, and cutting down important insects and their larvae etc ☺
It's fascinating how well you combine gardening that is both elegant and sustainable. Thanks for showing us that it's not one approach versus the other.
Thank you!
another really helpful video thank you Alexandra. People do get puritanical about these things so it's useful and enjoyable to have a practical and balanced view. Also helpful tips like mowing from the centre outwards to give creatures a chance to escape, so logical... but why didn't I think of that?!
I'm wondering why we didn't! Definitely something I should have checked earlier.
This was excellent! Thank you for the additional information on the optimal ways to mow once that time comes.
A great book about wildlife in the garden is "no nettles required" by Ken Thompson. They did a survey over about 60 gardens in Sheffield. The main conclusions are :
1) Natives are not needed. Back when America, Europe and Japan were connected, insects were feeding on the same plants, pollinators on the same flowers. So a european bee can handle an american aster or a chinese kalimeris no problem. In fact, gardens with natives didn't have more insects : it's gardens with the most variety of flowering periods.
2) Lawns were almost devoid of life. Slug pellets didn't have much of an effect on insects (they did nothing to slugs though, only to snails), but herbicides did. And they saw that many gardens lacked long grass in winter, which is essential for many bumblebees and butterflies nesting. They also tested bumblebee shelters as recommended by the wildlife organizations : they overwhelmingly don't work. Nettles didn't work either to attract butterflies when added to gardens that didn't have it.
So regarding lawns, just mow paths in it, it's a beautiful look. But you still have to cut the meadow once a year otherwise the soil gets richer and richer and you'll get brambles then a forest. If you really need to mow it, why not only mow it once in Spring, then again in Summer ? But you really shouldn't mow it in autumn and winter for insects to use tall grass as shelter. In spring and summer, you don't really need a wildflower meadow if you have perennials, borders. They will feed insects more than your meadow would anyway.
I think Doug Tallamy is awfully good in explaining the situation in the US. He differentiates between generalist and specialist insects. A generalist isn't picky so will feast on all the foreign plants, but a specialist has coevolved with certain plants, and in this case, native plants are all important.
@@sarahlyon6187 It is possible that either the UK has very few specialist insects, or they simply don't live in urbanized environments anyway. But the study didn't find any more diversity in gardens with a lot of natives. The author suspected that it's also because "native" doesn't mean much. The UK has very few natives due to the previous glaciation events, just like most of Europe, at least compared to the Americas, Australia or Africa. It would be interesting to see the same study in other parts of the world.
@@nicolasbertin8552you don’t get more diversity of insects with keystone native plants.. you have certain insects that are native to your area that only eat or reproduce on one kind of specialist plant.. if the native plant goes you lose that specialist insect. Variety is good but there are varieties of trees and flowers that host most of your native pollinators and they are important to that local food web because there are other bigger things that eat those bugs. A few cornerstone natives do the majority of the lifting when it comes to actually keeping the specialist species alive. Where I am Oaks do more lifting than all other flowers people plant combined. One big Joe pye weed plant will be more beneficial than an entire home Depo plant center planted out.. more bang for your pollinator buck. Not all pollen is equal either some pollen is way better than other. We are only beginning to understand all of this and the environment is toast at this point.
Every garden should have nettles even if it's just a large pot in the corner. In the UK I doubt there is a more important plant species group than nettles for butterflies. They are essential. Multiple species need them to lay there eggs on. Flowers attract butterflies to fly into your garden and bees etc but these creatures have to live as egg, larvae and chrysalis somewhere else and that is the nettle. Small gardens should never be judged in isolation they are part of a large eco-system as well as being a mini one. I've watched bees come and cut pieces of petal off my plants then fly off over my bungalow roof and probably were then going to fly a hundred+ yards to an old hedge on a bank around a sports field. Adding things may take time to bear fruit and I doubt your author took ten years on his study but the bees could not do what I said five years ago because the flower beds did not exist. I should mention that the bees to get to my petals fly over about 4 acres of grass that is mowed once or twice a year. The otherside of the hedge is seven acres of playing field grass.
@@nicolasbertin8552It takes a very long time to repopulate an area, positive intervention is needed. If you want what is absent to comeback you have to put it there or what is local and most common will simply fill all the available niches. You also need to support what you put there and not just dump it and hope. I actually VERY selectively poisoned most of the docks (not all) to open up space for what I planted and will be replanting and sowing some species to reinforce the small numbers that have got a foothold. I've watered establishing plants in drought. I've doubled up on the leaf fall (though I will not do that again as doing it two years in a row seems to have don the trick). I also saturated the area this spring (and am set to do it again soon) with anti slug nematode worms. It is not a long term plan the latter but it was obvious the slugs were stopping some plants from reaching maturity. I'm sure a balance will be reached eventually but if it was say rabbits I'd also intervene. We have badly damaged nature we will, even at the local garden level, have to help it recover.
part of the point of No Mow May is to encourage people to try out what it's like to leave their grass long. It is to encourage you to keep some of it long through the year. There is no need at all to cut it back short on June 1st.
Yes, I agree, we've done 7 weeks in parts (as you could probably see). And we do six months of no mowing in the front. But I think some people worry that they won't be able to cut it short again if they do want to, so I think it's nice for people to know they can. You hear such a lot of doom-mongering from the lawn maintenance companies...
It depends upon how high my grass grows. I have a lot of grounds to mow, and it is hard on my lawn mower. I will try and go along as possible. We have a lot of land we do not mow that is left wild for all of mother natures creatures. We have started planting more native plants as well. Love your videos!
Thank you!
Really well explained. Very balanced. Thank you.
Great advice
Alas there is a big misunderstanding about „No Mow May“: A lawn needs a completely different care than a meadow - and vice versa. A lawn doesn’t turn into a meadow just by not mowing it during one of the most important months of the lawn season, it just causes a lot of issues. I wish people would distinguish between a lawn and a meadow. You can’t have both at the same time.
Yes, that's what this video says.
Interesting. Nit an issue for me since I have no lawns anymore. I've converted everything to garden beds, either flower or veg. It's no mow forever. 😊
Such a delightful and informative video! I just love how your narration and filming made it seem as if the creatures were walking with us.
I will be sending this to my dear stubborn friend in the country (ish). She has a husband who loves his riding mower 😢
All the best to you from one of the same people here in U.S. . (SC)
Glad you enjoyed it! my husband is very happy not to mow so often!
Very informative! I noticed some pretty hyacinth had spread into a patchy lawn area near a tree in my back garden so I thought thats the perfect patch for no mow May. Hopefully next year will be even more flowers 💚
It should be lovely!
Wonderful, well thought out information. I learned a lot and this will be helpful as I transition most of my yard into native plants and low growing natives for my lawn. Thankfully, my neighbors are tolerant of my untidy “lawn”.
Sounds like a great initiative.
This is a great to the point video on a simple step to rewilding for everyone with lawns. A good alternative ad to the 'perfect lawn' product/ services companies.
I think there are to many misconceptions about not mowing, even amongst gardeners. People should widen their perceptions on what a 'good' lawn is. They should consider how much resources and effort it takes to make a plain green manicured wildlife desert in your garden.
I like how you never fertilise nor water your lawn. I do the same in Melbourne though mine is only 1/10 the size of yours. I pull out all the weeds by hand and after 1 whole year, all the bare brown patches have grown green again with the lawn grass. When the lawn is fully covered in grass, weeds have little chance to flourish.
I agree!
Speaking of allowing critters to escape, a few weeks ago I had an arborist cutting down a 25' 150 y.o. silver maple trunk that we'd topped about 4 years ago because it was rotting and out came a raccoon. (Large city in Idaho, USA). I also have a "resident" mountain lion at night so it wasn't unusual, just wasn't expecting it.
Anyway, now I know what was eating my hens.
Great video as always.
Heavens!
Thanks for a brilliant review!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is very useful information. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
🌿ALWAYS INTERESTING 🌿
Great video!! Also… How the hell do people think they’re gonna have a meadow of wildflowers when, any plant in a lawn that doesn’t have the shape of a blade of grass, gets sprayed with herbicides or removed? Even clover?
Agreed!
Speaking of lawns, please don't do like my neighbor did last week. After spending two hours fertilizing his yard, he saw the arrival of a flock of cattle egrets arrive to look for insects. He tried shooing them away to no avail. We live in a hot climate that enjoys visits from storks and various egrets on a regular basis, yet so many folks want their pristine lawn and disregard the consequences.😢
We love our visiting birds.
Good info, tfs!
I live on eastern Long Island in the US and can't let the lawn grow high because of the ticks. My property is half wooded and has lots of deer and mice...along with voles, moles, and various other wild creatures living on it that carry ticks. Every year, from March until November, I pull tons of ticks off of me after I get through doing yard work...in spite of the fact that I drench my clothes with permethryn and use deet sprays on my skin religiously I've been reinfected with Lyme many times since I first got infected in 1985 and get the standard 3 week course of Doxy to try to nip it in the bud, but it never completely goes away.
What worries me more than Lyme is the Alpha Gal infection, which makes you allergic to red meat. There's no treatment for it and the red meat allergy can last for years. A few people I know got it and still can't eat red meat after a decade. I do enjoy my red meat, so I'm extra cautious about protecting myself from tick bites now.
Eastern Long Island is a very damp areas, right near the ocean and there are a lot of oak trees. Ticks love damp areas and wooded areas with leaf mulch.
I don't water my lawn in summer...just the shrub and perennial borders, so the actual grass lawn is dying off and is being replaced by moss, which grows well here. I'm hoping that the moss will kill off the grass so that I won't have to mow at all.
That does sound horrible, as you say, ticks love damp conditions so if your lawn grass is regularly damp, that makes a difference. My parents' lawn eventually converted almost entirely to moss and they were delighted. As you say, they hardly ever had to mow.
Good morning Alexander, So nice to listen to your gardening advice, always most interesting. It is up to the individual gardener to care for their lawns. I would love to use a scatter pack winter flowering on the lawn, but with the watering of those, the grass will keep growing!! 🤣 and I will not be any better off. As you say, select an area where to plant country flowers, we do not have rolling lawns, so I do not mind keeping the grass. Just enjoy your garden, do as you please. I love the small garden insects, unfortunately we have an invasion of big black ants and they will have to go, they are borrowing everywhere. We have not used poisons in the garden for a long long time, but the ants have to go. Do take care, enjoy a beautiful day wherever you are. Kind regards.
Oh, dear those ants sound horrible. We are so lucky in the UK not to have some of the more difficult-to-live-with insects.
the best thing to do is to leave a patch of grass or a lawn no mow EVER. this will allow biodiversity to thrive. you can also just mow a path through it. also buy a pack of meadow seeds that are local to your flora and rake them in in the winter.
That's fine if you've got a large garden. It takes me about 5 minutes to mow my lawn, which has a wildlife pond in it too. There's no way I can leave any of it permanently unmown.
@@justrose1305 Ditch the lawn and put in native flowers
@@FireflyOnTheMoon - I can't do that, our garage/shed intrudes into our garden so we have to get to that from the house. There are already wide mixed borders around the lawn, as well as a wildlife pond in the lawn - basically the lawn is a path between the house and the shed and the way around to the borders.
In our interview with Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter - a garden that gets top marks for biodiversity from the ecologists - he says that both short grass and longer grass can benefit different species, and that the key to biodiversity is diversity or difference. So in that sense, you are all correct - and provided people do keep on having different ideas, opinions and approaches, then that will help biodiversity. The problems arise when there is a 'one size fits all' approach, because that creates problems when applied to the natural world. If you haven't seen the Great Dixter interview, it's here ruclips.net/video/l7VGjBOby5I/видео.html
In a western American context where wildflowers in lawns don't exist beyond possibly dandelions, the grass type is a non-native Kentucky bluegrass, and people do often use weed killers and fertilizers, is it worth doing no-mow May? If I had a native buffalo grass lawn that wasn't weed killed or fertilized, it would seem more worthwhile.
I think a grass that had been treated with weedkiller probably wouldn't have any flowers at all, but longer grass does have some benefits of its own. It's a very personal decision - you might consider experimenting with it and deciding whether it's worth it for you.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Thank you.
Great info. But really it should be no mow February-June. Lady bugs, grasshoppers, praying mantises and frogs, to name a few, need these grasses as early as February. Not mowing from December to June is very admirable of you. Wildlife says thanks. ☺️
Thank you!
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I know I’ve said it before, but I really enjoy your content and all the beautiful gardens you show us. I’ve been gardening for decades but I’ve been so inspired by you. Thank you.
Thanks for this video. Interesting re the ticks. I have kept to no mow may, june and July for several years now and believe I have noticed more insects. Could be my imagination but feel that I am doing my small part towards wildlife and pollinators
You are!
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden thanks 😊
We gave up on having a lawn at all. I love the wildflowers and long grasses in my garden and lawn mowing is such a waste of time...
If you live on a small property it is better to remove part of the lawn and replace it with a flower bed that will attract pollinators.
I think what's really important is to make sure that you have the maximum amount of growing plants - whether they're border plants or lawn grasses. I am concerned that the 'anti-lawn' movement will encourage people to use concrete, stone, brick pavers or even artificial grass, under the impression that it is either 'better' than lawn or that a lawn is just as bad.
In my area mowing is restricted during the summer months.
It's so interesting, everyone has different regulations.
Last year I laid turf and it took really well . Unfortunately due to ill health plus lawn mower issues it was several weeks before it was cut . By this time it grew too long and doubled over on itself trapping in rain water. Mist of the grass died . Since then it’s been over seeded 3 times and it’s still looking awful , literally tufts of grass . I’m now waiting for the weather to become warmer and planning on new seed ( maybe last box was bad batch ? ) and seeding again. I have also been told my use of a flymo didn’t help Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you from the uk
In regards to your flymo: it slashes grass more than it cuts like scissors, leaving rough edges, weakening the plants. Many gardeners address the top soil, but grass roots can grow 3 metres deep; are you sure your soil is healthy enough with good, uncompacted structure? Have you ever compost fed your lawn each year in the fall before? Observe where the soil stays wet the longest, take a post digger and drill holes of about 90cm deep throughout the garden, in the beds too if necessary. Fill the holes with rough pebbles to speed up drainage. Keep the Pebbles just below the surface, not to intervene with your mower. You can let the grass grow over them, just know where they are. This should prevent loss due to rot and suffication. Lawns actually are high maintenance, as you need to airate the top, rake mosses off and cut the grass with a special bladed rake every few ears to encourage the roots to rejuvenate 360*. Unless you improve the soil first, I'm afraid you'll waste a lot of good will and money.. How much shade and water drip is overhead? Try a sports seed mix, as they are usually tougher species. You can find specific wild flower mixes for your area as well. Hope this gets you off to a good start. Have a great season and good luck! 🌿👒🐦
@@moniquemannaert3468 thank you for your reply . I used top soil before laying the turf and again when over seeding . I also used a fork to aerate when over seeding . The turf took really well. The problem was I wasn’t able to cut the grass soon enough and it grew too long . I seem to have good soil as everything seems to flourish that’s planted. It is a north facing garden and my neighbour has grass that’s just fine . I used a good make of turf and seed. I think I may of bought a bad box of seed as none of it germinated.
There may be an issue with the grass seed. Some grass seeds are single stems and need to be re-seeded more often, others will spread and create a more resilient lawn. Here's a post that explains this: lawnassociation.org.uk/uk-grasses-all-you-need-to-know/ In terms of fertiliser - some lawn seeds now come with a slow release fertiliser coating, so take a look at these: www.johnsonslawnseed.com/product-range. I'd suggest working out what the best seed type is for your soil conditions, then re-seeding again and seeing what happens.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden I bought medallion seed and turf . The turf looked amazing until it grew too long ( my fault ) I did turn the soil before laying the turf . I bought the seed from eBay so I don’t know if it was stored correctly. Thank you so much for your advice and love your garden 🪴
I haven't used a mower in 21 years (grassed area about 1.5 acres?)
You're right, you won't get wild flowers flooding in the first year. Nature is subtle, gentle, introducing species one at a time for the most part.
My first Spring - one Bluebell right in the middle of the lawn. It looked so out of place, yet determined to make its matk, I had to laugh. Since then, it is the mother of dozens of colonies, thousands of progeny - who's laughing now, eh?
First Summer - a surprising wealth of both Trefoil and Clover, a bit of Buttercup, a few Dandelions, the odd Thistle, and Bracken in the corner.
After that, every year, I received at least one new species of wild flower.
Hemp Agrimony was possibly the most surprising one. I'd never seen it before and was highly suspicious that some neighbour was playing a trick for a while. But, it's an absolute beauty of a plant, tall, pretty, great for damp spots and a true butterfly magnet.
Scabious, Wood Sorrel, Wood Anemone, Pink Campion, Hartstongue Ferns (I love those, a bit exotic looking), Primroses, Hens & Chickens, White Ptarmigan (I don't know the real name for this plant), Red Clover, Autumn Crocus, Dog Lichen on the exposed rocks, rushes, Carex, lots of diffetent types of grasses now - and 2 wild orchids!! (I think they might be different colour shades of the same type of orchid, but not complaining).
Plus, I get a lot of free tree seedlings now - Hazels particularly. (Definitely not complaining there either).
I've tried scattering packets of wild flower seeds, but they seem to come up here and there in the first year, and not in the second. So I didn't bother after 2 seed packets.
I've already been treated to 2 new additions to the garden this year - a pretty yellow flower growing in a gravel path (still have to look it up), and the very palest pink shade of Campion I've ever seen. Has a different petal shape to the pink ones, so not of their ilk
The fungi too!
Boletes, Waxcaps, some funny green thing, Velvet Shank grew all over a fence post, Fly Agaric and Griselles.
These little beauties got me interested in fungi in general, and I made fungal dips for new trees to give them a boost. In a few years hope to see an increasing number of new fungi types sprout.
Ooh, and the animals that come with it - frogs, toads, newts, many more birds than you had before (Red Kites hunt here now). The biggest prize of them all - lizards.
Yes, I get deer too (both Red and Roe), but only have had 2 tick bites in all these years, and then I couldn't guarantee I got them here in this garden, as I spend most days clambering around the neighbouring woods for an hour or two as well.
I dress to protect myself from ticks and they don't like peppermint spray. I also find regularly eating oranges something of a fly deterrent too.
Thank you for this most useful information! Is there any benefit to sprinkling wild flower seeds on a lawn that is overrun with weeds and patchy (we’ve just moved in!)
If you want to add wildflowers then strip out patches of lawn and weeds and sow them into the soil like normal seeds. Many people also find that planting wildflower plug plants is a good way of getting a proper meadow going. There's more in this video here: ruclips.net/video/akVORa8BPG0/видео.html
I would not use those store-bought seed packets. You don't know the quality, but also, a lot of the flowers won't be native to your area. Rather, I would suggest planting with intent. Buy a single wildflower that's native to your area and put it somewhere. It'll develop seeds that you can use elsewhere in the yard, but in the mean time you have a chance to learn about that plant and see how it grows. There's no hurry to this. And if you like that one plant, you can always buy more of them to build yourself a nice "drift" or "clump" of them that's attractive to the eye and really draws in the birds and bees.
Dreaming of all this carpeted lawn everywhere being turned into wildflower meadows
The thing that is killing off the insects is the planting of non-native plants everywhere. This causes what Dr. Doug Tallamy calls "fragmentation" of the ecosystem. Insects are usually Specialists and need a specific plant for some part of their life cycle.
People often forget that insects don't travel far, and they have not GPS or internet connection to let them know where the next food stop can be found. We tend to think that things can migrate like we imagine birds do, but that's only true to a point. The average insect might travel a mile in its entire life, which is short enough.
If you look at the average home landscape, 80% of it will be non-native plants that native insects don't recognize as food or shelter. Everyone wants the pretty foreign plants they see on the television or internet. They buy what's commonly available at the store in town. And when you have a million homes in just one area that are all using non-native plants..... that means you've effectively fragmented the ecosystem so badly that insects simply cannot find the food that they need.
How many have died off because there's no food for them anywhere they looked?
According to Dr. Tallamy's research, turf grass, the lawns everyone's so proud of, make up the 2nd largest crop under cultivation in the US. We have more acreage under turf grass than 20 of our largest national parks - and we have huge national parks!
Lawns are not "ecosystems". The Turf Companies will tell you that, but every study done on the ecosystem benefit of lawns shows that they are basically inert. They're a black hole in the food web of the local ecosystem. They're pretty, sure, but they are non-native and thus do not actually interact with the ecosystem to a degree that's even marginally comparable to what native plants would do.
Everyone loves those pretty foreign flowers and shrubs. I do too. The problem is not understanding the damage caused when we add up all these non-native plants. We often talk about the loss of native habitat when it comes to the burning of the Amazon Rainforest, but ignore that we do the very same thing in our own back gardens. There is no practical difference between burning things to ash, and planting non-native species that don't feed the native species. One might look worse than the other, but both destroy the local ecosystem and kill off wildlife. it's just a matter of how fast they do it.
To me, though, the worst aspect of this all is the loss of that "Sense of Place". Today, you can go from Idaho to Ireland and find people using the very same plants in their landscaping. The cities all use whatever's popular at the moment for the public spaces. Everything's mass-produced in huge nurseries and growing operations so you only get a handful of approved plants and then it's up to you to mix and match in the hopes of creating something that looks nice. But it's still the same plants that can be found on the other side of the nation, or world.
When I got my formal training in horticulture, there was not a single mention of the importance of native plants for the ecosystem. The focus was always on making the money, getting those sales, and now we are riddled with invasive plants everywhere. I'm sad about that, but I think I'm more saddened by the fact that my region has lost something very important -- that Sense of Place that made us different from everywhere else. The streets of my town should be lined with Redbuds or Yaupons or even stout Oaks. instead, everywhere you look there's another Crepe Myrtle.... just like every other place around here. It's genuinely depressing.
And, yeah, the insects have died off around here. I used to have to scrub my windshield every time I filled up with gas, but now, I only have to hose off the dust and pollen. I can't remember the last time I hit an insect while driving, even through the country.
No insects means no baby songbirds because that's what the birds need when they're in the nest. Soft, squishy, protein-packed caterpillars and mosquitoes are the mainstay of a baby bird's diet. They can't eat seeds from your bird feeder. They need those insects, and not having them because everyone's planting non-native plants in their yards means that we've lost 3,000,000,000 songbirds just in my lifetime.
You make some good points, but it's important to remember that loss of habitat (building, concrete or artificial grass in backyards etc) and the use of fertilisers is the primary cause of insects dying off. Because everywhere will always get some unusual weather a complete reliance on native plants can be unwise. Research by the RHS shows that it's always good for gardeners to plant native plants, but including some non-native plants which flower at different times of year or which offer habitat is immensely valuable too. It's also worth remembering that 'invasive' plants aren't the same as 'non-native plants'. Many non-native plants are not invasive and have much to offer the eco-system, even though the wrong plant in the wrong place can also be very damaging. There's no 'one size fits all' solution, we all have to keep muddling along, doing our best and asking questions.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden According to the research done by Dr. Tallamy, non-native plants, whether they're 'invasive' or not, provide very little function to the ecosystem We've seen this even with cultivars of native plants as shown in the studies done by the Mt. Cuba Center.
The pollinators evolved with a single plant that they rely on for some part of their life cycle. If that plant cannot be found nearby, the pollinators die.
That's not to say that some pollinators who are "generalists" can't do well. The European honey bee, for example, gets by no matter what you stick in front of it. And it can build hives most anywhere.
Our concern, though, is for the 95% of pollinators which are Specialist insects and require a certain plant sometime in their lives. In the US, the Monarch Butterfly is often cited as an example of this symbiosis since it needs the Ascliepias genus for it's larvae to nibble on.
The problem isn't that there are no Asclepius anymore, but that the patches of them have been so fragmented by both development and the planting of non-native plants, that the Monarch's don't have the energy to get from one patch to the next.
The Monarch is only the most known example of this, but most insects are specialists in that same vein.
Yes, the building of roads and houses destroys habitat, but that problem is compounded by all the gardens being fileld with non-native plants that the local food web hasn't evolved to live with.
It's a contentious subject, for sure. 😁
Are snakes and mosquitos an issue with No Mow May?
no
Certainly not mosquitoes as they breed more when there is more water available and No Mow May doesn't increase the water sources. Snakes may vary according to where you live.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden There are copperheads in my area. They seem to stay in the woods surrounding my property, but I'm wondering if I let my grass grow tall whether it will invite them into my yard and be a risk when we then do eventually mow in June. Maybe mowing from the middle of the yard out like you said would be the answer for this concern.
@@FireflyOnTheMoon Do you live in a rural area with poisonous snakes? I'm in 7b Virginia, U.S.
If we don’t get some proper rain here in north central Alberta soon, we won’t have anything to mow anyway! Our area has already had several grass fires and forest fires are becoming an issue in the province. With no rain I don’t have slugs but the ants are taking over the yard!! 🐜🐜🐜 🇨🇦
Oh, dear, if it isn't one thing it's another. We over here are absolutely overwhelmed with slugs at the moment because March was so wet!
I unintentionally did No Mow April and all these flowers and bugs have moved in. Can I mow it now and restart it for May or should I leave it be for another month?
You can do either. You might want to experiment with leaving some areas long, then mowing others shorter. If you leave an area for two months, your lawn mower might struggle to cut it, but if it's a small area, you could use shears. But, really, it's up to you - you can't do anything 'wrong'.
In the past years April has been a very cold month in the uk. May is the only period to renew rhe lawn after winter and before the summer. No mow May is jus not practical in the uk
I've found it works very well in the two years I've done it. Lawns grow at temperatures above 5C and the UK average temperature for April 2023 was 6.7C. April 2022 was a warm April - 10C-13C around the UK. And the winter overall (Dec 2023, Jan, Feb, March 2024) was the fifth warmest on record with an average UK temperature of 5.29C, which means that, with the exception of frosts and cold areas, grass never really stopped growing. Figures from UK Met Office.
If you renovate a lawn it's better to wait for April or may with temperatures above 10. 5 degrees is too cold for seeding. I would never do no mown may anyway. Thanks for the videos
I read that ticks travel more on mice than deers.
I've just had a quick look at that and ticks on mice is certainly a factor.
Mamm this is ok is you have a large garden most don't
Oh WONDERFUL! A new FASHION for people to follow!
Save the newts!
Save the frogs!
Now, what's the NEXT new fashion some intellectual has dreamed up to control my life?
If you're in a part of the US where lawns grow really well without much care, you might need a commercial grade mower in June if you don't mow in May. There's the potential to mow over a nest of bunnies. Your house might also look vacant, which is an invitation for someone to take your air conditioner or break into your house. I'd rather see people here in my region just go back to having clover in their lawns.
Plantlife (the charity that organise it) have signs that people can buy explaining that they're mowing the lawn long, which would help people realise it was deliberate not just an empty house. You're right that very thick, long grass would need a heavy-duty lawn mower or scythe rather than something like a Flymo. We were fine mowing our lawn after 7 weeks with a standard size petrol mower, so you'd probably be OK after a month in most places, but yes, it is a factor. And agree with you about having clover in the lawns.
Sadly this is my experience in the US, our lawn would be 8-10 inches had we not mowed twice already, and it's not even May yet. Without a professional to clear the grass in June, I don't recommend it for the US.
I have an HOA we have laws against no mow May, June, July and January even March sorry
Yes, it's HOAs I was referring to when I said that some people live in areas where there are regulations about how high your lawn grass can grow. I wonder if some of those regulations will soften in time?
It's a no from me with this one, in my area, it was a complete fail.
try again
Well, as Fergus Garrett said at Great Dixter - some wildlife need longer grass and some need short grass and access to the soil, so if we're all different, even that will help. Great Dixter is superbly biodiverse and it has several areas of mown lawn.
Tall grass conserves moisture, short grass does not. The environment is more important than our sense of aesthetics.
I am going to mow. I don't want ticks in my lawn
As the video explains, there's currently no evidence to suggest that longer lawn grass encourages ticks, unless you have very wet weather. Deer and woodland are the two biggest factors for ticks. That's current research. Future research may come up with different conclusions.
I love how she said not to mow the outside into the middle. Yet the guy mowing her garden does just that 😂
Yes, that's why I put up a caption to say 'we got this wrong!' He'll do it differently this year.
2 advertisements a couple of minutes into the video.
Bit disappointing
We don't have any control over what ads are placed or when they're aired. It's usually linked by algorithm to the viewer's past viewing history.
This seems to be an ill thought out idea. For many well established lawns this is going to be an environmental disaster. A lawn that has been organically managed, kept short but never over mown for a period of years, will be rich in plants etc that require short grass. Allowing grass to grow tall will devastate these species. Carefully study your lawn over a summer and you may well be amazed at how many very short plants are thriving in it (daisies for example in this context are large plants). A square yard may well have over a dozen species. The lawn may have dozens more over a year. Do watch for the numerous birds that forage for invertebrates and seeds in your short lawn they will not be able to do this in long grass. New lawns will be species deficient (plant, animal and fungi) but doing this "no-mow-may" will reduce the likelihood of acquiring new ones. For me utility lawns for play etc are fine and about a million times (a billion if you like) better than the horrendous green plastic fakes. Utility lawns will be mainly grass but by definition they can not be left unmoved. I suspect most lawns are for aesthetic purpose. I say moss is good, down with the stripy lawn and d@@th to the plastic fake lawn. I have seen the self-raising-flowers (weeds) grow in the plastic and the only realistic way to get rid is to poison, that I can think of. To my way of thinking if you want something that looks like grass, then have grass. But I say mow, selectivly by pass some plants temporarily (I let some of the Fox-and-Cubs have at least one seeding per year even though they are tall) but don't over-mow.
I'm lucky in that I do have at the northend of my garden three whitebeams and two sycamores in about 80 square yards. Another white beam and a similar area of mowed grass are the otherside of my fence (I annexed part of our enclosed communal garden to do the wildlife stuff) So far this spring 25 species have flowered and I will have achieved 50 this year (the goal is a hundred self sustaining species in 5 years, so far two years) this complements the woodland and woodland margine inside my garden. This does not happen naturally, starting with just five species to get the rest in takes time, effort, money and most importantly educating people to see self-raising-flowers and not weeds. The trick I used was to get as much colour in as possible using bulbs though that is not the goal. I like species others like pretty species. If the landlord gets back in it will be mowed to the grown and raked completly free of any leaf litter and thus most of it will be bare earth, dead but tidy.
Try it and see what happens. It will not "devastate" anything. Watch the video
@@FireflyOnTheMoon You don't know what I'm talking about do you? Try growing bushes where your grass is and see what happens to the grass. Big plants shade out smaller plants. What has taken years to develope can be killed off very quickly.
I think there's a difference between an 'organically managed lawn kept short but never over mown' (which is a very small proportion of lawns) and the average standard lawn that's usually mown once a week (and may be fertilised or treated with weed or moss killers). If someone is managing their lawn knowledgeably for particular species, then they are unlikely to want or need to do No Mow May. The initiative is aimed at helping people to relax about their lawn care and consider new possibilities. There are benefits and disadvantages to every action we take, but on the whole the benefits of allowing standard lawns to grow a little longer probably outweigh any disadvantages.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Remember I'm talking about the SMALL stuff. Do you really know if your claim about advantage is true? Can you really say how many species of plants are in your own lawn, or were before your TALL grass in May policy began? Do you know if you lost much? The lawn that inspired my comment is mowed 18 times a year over 7 months rain or shine and that's it (for decades). It is managed in no way at all. It's a communal area of grass in an enclosed area for pensioners (thus lightly used) nothing special except the range of small plants and the life that depends upon them. There is likely to be a lot more lawns than you imagine like it. In fact there are probably at least a dozen different types of small lawn in terms of management. I'm thinking of a terrace of eight houses and every small lawn is different. They range from the weedless billiard smooth to literally a patch of wild grass which ain't seen a mower in the five years I've been walking past it.
I simply think people don't know what is there. I remember about 30 years ago a local councillor at a public meeting advocating a piece of "brownfield" ground should be develop he told us that it only had a few trees on it: it had amongst many other things 5 species of orchid and sundews. I've just looked on Google Maps it has not been developed but the woodland has expanded to cover the whole area. I doubt there are any orchids or sundews now because the TALL stuff has done it's job. I'm talking about Garston Coking/Gasworks site Banks Road on the edge of Liverpool. It probably exists still because of toxic materials in the ground. There is nothing unique about "brownfield" being environmental gems either: if they are old enough it's common, curiosity has made me climb walls and fences to tresspass over many decades. Nearby they created the "Coastal Reserve" on the edge of the old Liverpool Airport, the price was three species of orchid eliminated by their works. They meant well but they did not look properly. I guess they "probably" guessed too.