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Say no to the mow!

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  • Say no to the mow!

    Earlier in the year my lawn went brown and crispy in the heat. Then it rained biblically and this lot appeared:

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    I couldn't bring myself to mow it because there were so many bees on the clover. The longer I leave it the more I like it.

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    In addition to the bees I'm starting to see grasshoppers, butterflies, hoverflies and all sorts. I do like the look of a freshly mown lawn, but I get far more joy from seeing the life in this lot.

    I don't think I'm ever mowing again. I might do the edges to keep it from invading the borders, and maybe cut a path through where I walk most often, but apart from that I think I'm done.

    Anyone else?

    MBE
    Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
    By singing-'Oh how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade,
    While better men than we go out and start their working lives
    At grubbing weeds from gravel paths with broken dinner-knives. ~ Rudyard Kipling

  • #2
    I let my lawn grow too, it's mainly white clover these days with daisies, dandelions and selfheal. This year I got some birdsfoot trefoil, crimson clover and vetch seeds to use as green manures but will also throw some around the lawn and wild areas hoping they'll take.
    I mow a path through my lawn, even then I have to be so slow because of all the bees feasting on there. Once the main flush of clover has finished, last week for me, I give it a tight mow and then let it start over again. I also let the bottom part of my garden and all the edges go completely untouched with just a selective cut back of pernicious weeds. My garden is full of wildlife and insects and I love it
    Nestled somewhere in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Good soil, strong winds and 4 Giant Puffballs! https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...lies/smile.gif
    Always aim for the best result possible not the best possible result
    https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ilies/wink.gif
    Forever indebted to Potstubsdustbins https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...lies/smile.gif

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    • #3
      I have wild bits, but cut a lot of the grass, my neighbour sometimes doesn't cut her lawn all year, so we have both environments, a lot of birds like to feed on a freshly cut bit of grass.

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      • #4
        This year I have let my lawn grown much long, and then mow it down but not as short as I used to cut it. Like you, mrbadexample, I saw the bees on the clover and other plants that popped up so leave mine much longer between cuts for that reason. I still do mow the lot but I figure it's much better for pollentating insects that I used to be so it's a compromise in my back garden
        Shortie

        "There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

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        • #5
          Cutting later in the evening ensures many of the bees etc. have headed home, but there are always insects in the grass somewhere. A cylinder mower is potentially less harmful to the insect life compared to all that swirling air mass in a rotary affair. But if you let the grass grow longer from time to time you'll need a sythe or a rotary grass cutter! Cylinder mowers only cope with shorter well maintained lawns. So many of those insects are beneficial to the garden even if they are just food for birds.

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