Susie's Garden
We sing the praises of grass lawns this week – but not the manicured type! Yes, lawns can be wildlife havens, too…
Ilove my lawn! Yes, it needs mowing every week, but it’s a delight to watch blackbirds and robins searching for worms and beetles. It’s not pristine but it supports lots of wildlife and without the insects I wouldn’t be able to watch hedgehogs pottering about at night looking for food.
A striped bowling green of a lawn looks lovely but is certainly a lot of work. Take a more relaxed attitude and think of it more as a “mown green space”. This is what Prince Charles calls his “lawns” at Highgrove because they include many wildflowers and wild herbs.
It’s how I also think of my lawn. In addition I leave two-foot wide bands of long grass as “wildlife corridors” around the outside.
To make meadow edges, let the grass grow and put in plug plants of ox-eye daisies and other wildflowers. Take out docks, nettles or other dominant plants and cut it in late July once the flowers have dropped their seeds.
Since I’ve been using a self-starting lawnmower I haven’t had to wrestle with a pull cord which makes life so much easier. The Cobra Instart MX515SPBI mower has a Briggs and Stratton engine, is self-propelled and has a push button start. I just have to remember to charge the battery!
We cut in different directions each week, setting the blades higher if it’s very dry. All the clippings go into the compost heap but they do need mixing with annual weeds and “brown” material such as cardboard. Grass clippings on their own form a smelly, slimy mess so don’t let any one material dominate the compost heap.
Another use for grass clippings is as a mulch for raspberries. It helps to prevent raspberry beetle and keeps moisture in. Just don’t do this if you have treated the lawn with weedkiller.
So let’s keep our lawns for their wildlife habitat and their many other uses!