Relax and help wildlife thrive with No Mow May
When there’s a hashtag involved, it’s sometimes a trend worth paying attention to and when it comes to No Mow May or #nomowmay, it’s what you don’t do, rather than what you do that matters.
As it sounds, the initiative – started in 2019 by charity Plantlife – is about putting the lawnmower away for the month of May to give those early flowering grasses and plants a chance to pollinate.
Coincidentally, World Bee Day is also celebrated in May and the two are very much linked.
In recent years, the UK has lost 97 per cent of its wild meadows and since 1900, it has lost 13 species of indigenous bees.
The bad news is this trend is continuing; 35 further species are now considered under threat of extinction, yet the devastating news is that there aren’t any laws that protect them – despite them being so at risk and crucial to safeguarding our food supplies.
Between 1980 and 2013, every square kilometre in the UK lost an average of 11 species of hoverfly and bee.
So until legislation comes into force to ban the pesticides that are killing them, the least we can all do for one month of the year, is leave at least a section of our gardens to grow and help our buzzing, winged friends.
It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s also in the economic interests of this country and farming in particular.
As well as making honey, there’s something else bees do incredibly well and that’s pollinate our crops.
If we didn’t have any bees in this country, it would cost UK farmers £1.8 billion a year to pollinate crops – something the bees do for free.
If you have some more time on your hands while you’re not mowing too, it might be worth thinking about investing in some plants that are good for bees and will encourage them into your garden.
Lavender, pussy willow, apple and crab apple, hawthorn, ivy and honeysuckle are all fantastic bee magnets.
Bees need nectar and by stopping the frequency with which we mow our grass, we can change the availability for them and make things a little easier.
Research into No Mow May found stopping for a month results in around a tenfold increase in the amount of nectar available to bees and other pollinators.
The average square-metre patch of lawn surveyed after a month of not mowing can produce enough nectar to support almost four honey bees per day.
So, no matter how big or small your patch of green – or even if your local park looks a little unkempt throughout May – leaving the lawnmower alone for a month will give you a well earned break and help the humble bee and UK economy.