No Mow May is a movement by Plantlife encouraging people to not mow their lawns in May and let the grass and wildflowers grow to encourage insects and wildlife to your gardens. According to their website:
“We’ve lost approximately 97% of flower-rich meadows since the 1930’s and with them gone are vital food needed by pollinators, like bees and butterflies.“
Although we have not officially taken part before, in our previous garden we had an area set aside as a wildflower meadow which was only strimmed/mowed once a year in the autumn. It was really interesting to see the changes in the wildflowers every year, and the insects which made use of them.
Our new garden, is still very much a work in progress and while we are working on creating wildflower areas, we thought we would try No Mow May on a section of our garden. The photo below shows the area which we are leaving uncut for the month.
As you can see, there are lots of Dandelions and Daisies and on a quick, first look you would think not much else. Not everyone likes Dandelions, they do seed and spread easily, however their early flowers are an important source of food for our pollinators like bees, moths, hoverflies and butterflies.
But a closer inspection has revealed some real beauties which we are delighted to have in our garden.
We are absolutely thrilled to have Cuckooflower (also known as Lady’s Smock) in our garden, and there are several plants! Other plants that we have found so far are Mouse-ear Chickweed and what we think will be a type of Speedwell.
The flower photos above were taken on Friday 3rd May and we will be updating this post throughout the month. You can also check out our Facebook page for updates.