As the weather warms up the grass begins to grow again and we are back to regular mowing.
There are alternatives to keeping the lawn as very short cut grass which are more friendly to wildlife.
If grass is cut less often then other plants in the lawn get a chance to flower creating an attractive flowering meadow for pollinator insects. It is not necessary to plant wildflower mixes as there are plenty of local native plants already in the soil like clover, bird’s foot trefoil and self heal.
If your grass is very lush or strong it will dominate and it may take time for the other plants to establish. Reducing the fertility of your soil will encourage the wildflowers and weaken the grass. You do this by not adding any fertiliser or lawn feed and always taking the grass cuttings off the lawn.
There are two ways of managing a wildflower meadow.
One way is to grow a long wildflower meadow.
You make one cut in the early Spring to tidy up the lawn after the winter and then you allow it to grow all Summer and cut it just once again in the Autumn after the flowers have gone to seed. This will look lovely in the early summer as all the grasses flower but will look untidy and tired later on. It is hard to cut with a lawnmower when it has grown very long and will need to be strimmed at the end of the summer and all the cuttings raked up a few days later when the seed has fallen off.
The other way to manage the grass is as a short flowering meadow.
Give a first cut in April and then cut every 4-6 weeks after that depending on how vigorous your grass is (More often if your grass is strong). This gives the perennial flowering plants time to flower between each cut. Cut the grass on the highest setting on the lawnmower so that the plants don’t have to recover so much after each cut.
It is worth trying a mixture of all the methods. Cut the grass very short where you sit out or the children play. Leave the rest of the lawn, or areas of it, to flower by cutting every 4-6 weeks and allow a couple of metres at the edge of the lawn to grow all summer and just strim it in the Autumn. This combination gives the widest variety of habitats for wildlife and will encourage biodiversity in your garden.