One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ....... part 137 ….. No Mow in May

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

Now as a lazy gardener I have embraced No Mow in May.

Putting aside the sound ecological reasons there is that wonderful sense of liberation which comes with not having to get out the lawn mower, the rake and the broom, and begin that boring and back breaking chore of cutting the grass.

Added to which there is always the stern reproach from  Tina of where I have missed bits, left lumps of green stuff and not made the edges match the razor surface of the middle of the lawn.

So I fall back on that survey by Plantlife.org.uk who tell me that, “Research undertaken by citizen scientists across the UK who have taken part in Plantlife’s No Mow May survey - the largest-ever survey of the humble lawn - reveal not only the astonishing diversity of wild flowers growing on Britain’s lawns, but that incredibly simple changes in mowing can result in enough nectar for ten times more bees and other pollinators.

Over 200 species were found flowering on lawns including rarities such as meadow saxifrage, knotted clover and eyebright, The top three most abundant lawn flowers are daisy, white clover and selfheal. 

Over half a million flowers have been counted, including 191,200 daisies.  First ever National Nectar Score for our lawns: all lawn flowers in the survey combined produced a colossal 23kg of nectar sugar per day, enough to support 2.1 million - or around 60,000 hives - of honeybees. 

‘Mohican’ lawn cut suits all: Highest production of flowers and nectar were on lawns cut every four weeks, whilst longer, unmown grass had a wider range of flowers.

Plantlife found that 80% of lawns supported the equivalent of around 400 bees a day from the nectar sugar produced by flowers such as dandelion, white clover and selfheal. But 20% of lawns (dubbed “superlawns”) were found to be supporting 10 times as many – up to 4000 bees a day”.***

All of which seems good to me, save that I still have that slow nagging feeling that the tall wavy grass is nothing more than a badge of my laziness.

And it fits well with that deep rooted belief that dandelions are not good.

Those beautiful balls of seeds are nothing more than a pernicious and cunning plan to spread the dandelion across our garden and beyond, while the bright yellow flower calls out to everyone that this chap is not only negligent but slow to dust, hoover and date check the food in the larder.

But then I like the colour yellow and the leaves make a perfect salad, and blowing the seeds remains a fun thing to do with our grandchild.

So No Mow in May has two weeks to go, and that’s good for me.

That said I suspect that Joe and Mary Ann Scott would have given short shrift to my approach to looking after the environment, but then they buried their dead pets in the garden.

And I have to confess that on a bad day mindful of the Friends of Beech Road who pass the house on their way to the bars and cafes, I caved in and cut the front lawn ..... no one is perfect.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Our No Mow in May garden, 2022 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Story of a House, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

**No Mow in May, https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/news/no-mow-may-how-to-get-ten-times-more-bees-on-your-lockdown-lawn