Gardening expert explains benefits of not mowing your lawn

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Garden designer Darren Rudge joined Mercy Muroki and Darren McCaffrey on GB News this morning. Mr Rudge, who has spent over 30 years in the horticultural industry, discussed Plantlife’s “no-mow” initiative and encouraged Britons to keep their gardens more “wild”. Plantlife is a British conservation charity working nationally and internationally to save threatened wild flowers, plants and fungi.

The charity’s campaign asked gardeners to leave their lawnmowers in their sheds on May 1 and allow your lawn flowers to bloom.

The gardening pro explained further: “Plantlife this year had no-mow May so don’t mow your lawn in May.

“Certainly leave the lawn longer than you normally would do.

“Only if it’s just two or three inches. The amount of diversity you actually get within the lawn itself raises by 60 percent.

“So bees and butterflies tend to be fairly early and the odd weed or two basically gives them that nectar just to push them onwards.

“Do leave your lawn a little bit on the wild side.”

Mr Rudge said as gardeners and horticulturalists, Britons have been trained to be really tidy.

However, leaving a “little bit of a mess” could increase your garden’s diversity.

DON’T MISS
DEAL OF THE DAY: Lay-Z-Spa Inflatable Hot Tub discounted by over 40% [INSIGHT]
Kate Middleton spotted wearing patriotic outfit for Euro 2020 Final [UPDATE]
Gardening expert shares natural method for ‘controlling pests’ [ANALYSIS]

“There’s loads of simple ways you can actually do that within your garden space,” he added.

Co-host Darren McCaffrey asked whether cutting your lawn further down the line could effectively “lead the bees down the garden path”.

He said: “You’re telling them it’s safe, they make a home, get comfortable but if you are going to mow your lawn at any point, it’s going to destroy that habitat.”

But the lawn expert said gardeners can simply leave parts of their lawn long for pollinators.

Looking for a new home, or just fancy a look? Add your postcode below or visit InYourArea

He explained: “You can leave an area of lawn long if you wanted to do that and keep an area of the lawn short.

“You don’t have to leave it all on the longer side.

“If you cut later in the season, obviously the bees have done their job once the season is over and done with.

“Really, it’s thinking about when do we get the majority of our flowers, when are bees and things like that buzzing around the place.

“That’s when the plants themselves need to be available for them to drink that lovely nectar.”

Plantlife also encourage councils to leave parks and road verges “to go wild”.

They also encouraged farmers to keep their meadows long.

Their website claims: “A three acre meadow can be home to nine million flowers producing enough nectar to support half a million bees every day.”

Source: Read Full Article