Reducing mowing in your garden can positively impact biodiversity by letting native flowers bloom for the pollinators
Have you heard about No Mow May? Professor Jane Stout from Trinity College Dublin, expert on pollinator and pollination ecology, and deputy Chair of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan talked to Sarah McInerney and Cormac Ó hEadhra on RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime about why it's important for biodiversity and wildlife not to mow your lawn (This piece includes excerpts from the conversation which have been edited for length and clarity - you can hear the discussion in full above).
"'No Mow May' is all about putting the lawn mower away and leaving the grass to grow, and in amongst the grass, those plants that are native wildflowers can actually bloom and this can provide food resource for bees and other pollinating insects. So the idea is to to just let that native plant diversity that's already there flower and support the native wildlife," explains Stout. "You can you can become a conservation hero by doing absolutely nothing."
If you're worried about what your neighbours might think when they see your "scraggly" lawn, one thing you can do is still mow around the edges so that it's clear your lawn is still being looked after, says Stout. The other thing you can do is put up a sign to explain to people what you're doing.
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"It's an initiative that's been really spreading across from Britain into Ireland over the last three or four years and it's become really popular. What we're asking people to do is not mow the lawns through the month of May. It's not don't mow at all, it's just: leave the grass and the flowers for the month of May, just to give the wildlife a bit of a chance," says Stout.
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The other upside is that your lawn will be full of lovely flowers. "Most of our lawns and most of our gardens would have things like clovers and self-heals and daisies and these will come through. I think they look fabulous, as well. Some people like their lawn to look completely green, I like it with a smattering of colour. And these things will come through and start to support bees and other pollinating insects. But also then, when those flowers go to seed, the seed supports other wildlife in the garden."
Should you still pull a 'big, dirty, tall' weed growing in the long grass?
"If you don't like the look of it, you can pull it. I mean, this is the thing, these are our gardens. They're first to enjoy and look at, so if it's something that you don't like, you can pull it out. But within a month you shouldn't get anything too wild."
