01-05-2023

What is No Mow May? How to Take Part

No Mow May is Plantlife’s annual campaign to encourage people not to mow their lawns throughout the month of May. This includes gardeners, land managers, councils, and visitor attractions.

This is to boost nectar availability for bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, and other pollinators. May is a crucial month for flowering plants to start growing and for pollinators.

But Plantlife isn’t advocating never mowing your grass again. Across the year, a layered approach to your garden is encouraged, boosting diversity. Mowing can also help with the growth and strength of grass over time.

So when May is over, you can hire lawnmowers and garden strimmers from Speedy. Whether you choose to just mow a path or section of your lawn for access, or cut it all, is up to you.

 

Why take part in No Mow May?

Lawns are a great source of nectar, shelter, and moisture for bugs and wildlife. While a mowed lawn looks lovely, leaving patches of lawn untouched can encourage a whole host of life to your garden.

Some rarer flowers require long grass to properly grow, so leaving your lawn to grow can encourage further floral diversity and nectar.

At the end of the month, participants are encouraged to identify the flowers which have grown in the grass and record them using Plantlife's Every Flower Counts system.

If you feel a bit dejected because only dandelions grew in your garden this year, don’t be—they produce 9% of the lawn's pollen and 37% of its nectar sugar!

 

What flowers could I see during No Mow May?

Shorter-growing species such as dandelions, buttercups, daisies, and white clover are all popular in our gardens because we mow our lawns regularly. But many wildflowers need to grow taller to flower.

So, leaving some grass to grow long could see:

  • Ox-eye daisies
  • Red clover
  • Knapweed
  • Wild strawberry
  • Wild garlic

In fact, No Mow May 2022 participants recorded over 250 varieties of wildflowers!

 

No Mow May alternatives

No Mow May isn’t for everyone. Whether you have children and pets who use the lawn, and it needs to be kept short and neat, or you don’t like the sight of dandelions and other weeds, there are alternatives.

It is still really important to encourage wildlife in our gardens. Raised beds filled with wildflowers are a great idea, and they pretty much manage themselves so require no upkeep.

Borders are also great—just use a turf cutter or spade to remove a section or edge of your grass, and a rotavator to churn up the soil. Sow some wildflower seeds and they should start to grow within weeks.

(Bonus: it also means you have slightly less grass to cut).

Leaving a small section of lawn uncut can still have a huge impact, and you can fence it off with a low barrier to stop pets and children from entering the area.

If you do leave your garden to grow a bit wilder but want to get rid of weeds such as dandelion, avoid using a weedkiller. Instead, remove them by hand.

 

 

READY FOR MORE GARDENING TIPS?

Thank you for reading our Speedy Hire blog, we hope you found this guide on No Mow May insightful and helpful.

Remember that we have lawnmowers available to hire when you need them, as well as a whole host of other landscape gardening tools. There’s no reason why you can’t have the garden of your dreams!

Please visit our Skills and Projects page for more gardening inspiration.

Open a Speedy account online or in-store for all your tool hire needs.

 

For more tips subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Find ideas on Instagram

 

Speedy in your pocket
Get a Speedy Account