Bring your lawn to life this summer
Experiment to create a new-look green space – and at the same time help wildlife
Gardeners are being asked to reimagine their lawns this summer with a Bring Your Lawn To Life initiative from The Wildlife Trusts and the RHS. The charities are encouraging gardeners to experiment with a new look lawn in 2023 – for the benefit of wildlife and also the wider environment.
They are inviting people to raise the blade on their mower and cut their grass less regularly, and embrace daisies, dandelions, clovers and other naturally flowering plants.
The RHS offers this advice...
Leave bare ground
It can be tempting to try and seed over or plant up bare patches, but a few areas without any planting gives space for insects such as mining bees to burrow down and build their nesting tunnels.
No need to feed
Feeding your established lawn isn’t necessary to get a luscious-looking space, and is also an intensive use of money and resources that might not pay off.
Love your earthworms
Gardeners can collect the fine soil from worm casts to add to potting media, or leave these patches of earth for new plants to establish within the lawn.
The worms under your turf can help to aerate the soil, recycle nutrients and are food for blackbirds, hedgehogs and many other animals.
The grass isn’t always greener
If you want a green area in the garden then you might be better off looking somewhere other than grasses, particularly as our summers are more prone to drought with the changing climate.
Yarrow and plantain will stay green during drought periods while also providing food for pollinators.
Embrace a mossy harvest
Removing moss can involve a lot of hard work, but there are ways to make the most of your moss. Lots of birds incorporate moss into their nests, so leave any removed material out for them to collect.
Lawn moss also makes a good base for seasonal wreaths.
Welcome fungi
The little brown mushrooms on your lawn won't be doing any harm to the garden, and lots are especially beautiful when the light passes through their translucent gills. Many species will even be beneficial, recycling decaying matter back into the soil.
Experience nature
Just being outside in nature can help restore us after a period of stress, and what better way to experience this than walking barefoot on the grass?
Prevent floods
Compared to a garden of hard surfaces, one covered by a lawn and plants will help prevent flash flooding locally, reduce air and noise pollution and have a cooling effect.