I wonder how many of you participated in Plantlife’s ‘No Mow May’ this year? Each spring, the charity encourages people to create a mini-meadow by allowing their lawns to grow rather than constantly mowing them.

 

I have been taking part for several years and have extended it to include ‘Let in Bloom June’ and even on into July and August. However, I do have a mowing regime whereby I cut some sections of the lawn once a month to encourage a different variety of wild flowers. The secret is not to cut it too short and by doing this, my lawn this year was full of red and white clover, primrose, bird’s foot trefoil and selfheal whereas the ‘wilder’ areas had cowslips, knapweed and oxeye daisies.

 

During the hot weather in early July, my lawn was buzzing with bees and I counted 8 species of butterflies on the flowers. Even better was seeing linnets and bullfinches feeding on the seeds of various plants, the first time I’d seen either of these two birds in my garden for over 10 years.......