Let your grass grow long and boost sightings of butterflies
Good news for lazy gardeners: one labour-saving tweak could almost double the number of butterflies in your garden, according to a new scientific study – let the grass grow long.
In recent years nature lovers have been extolling the benefits of relaxed lawn maintenance with the growing popularity of the #NoMowMay campaign. Now an analysis of six years of butterfly sightings across 600 British gardens has provided evidence that wilder lawns boost numbers.
The benefits of leaving areas of grass long were most pronounced in gardens within intensively farmed landscapes, with up to 93% more butterflies found and a greater range of species. Gardens with long grass in urban areas showed an 18% boost.
“We wanted to be able to give tried and tested gardening advice that will benefit butterflies, as we know lots of people want to help,” said Dr Richard Fox, the head of science at Butterfly Conservation and a co-author of the study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. “This study proves, for the first time, that allowing a patch of grass to grow long will attract more butterflies into your garden,” he said.
The study found another butterfly bonus for gardens was flowering ivy, which can flourish on walls in urban gardens. This increased numbers of the holly blue – its caterpillars feed on ivy and holly – and the red admiral and comma, which use its flowers as a nectar source in autumn.
According to the study, long grass in gardens attracts more butterfly species whose caterpillars feed on grasses. These include meadow browns, gatekeepers, speckled woods, ringlets and small skippers. Fox said this suggested the boost in population was not simply because long grass provided more nectar from wildflowers within it, such as dandelions or knapweed, but because butterflies were seeking or actually breeding in rewilded lawns.
Fox said: “What people are doing with long grass in gardens is creating potential or actual breeding habitat. In order to make an impact on the biodiversity crisis we need to be creating places where butterflies and other wildlife can breed … If you have a patch of long grass you may have grasshoppers, beetles and ant hills as well – there will be all these spin-offs.”
He added: “If you take part in #NoMowMay our message is, don’t just mow your grass in June.”