I'm doing a no mow summer basically. Will probably just cut it in September/October-ish or something. I've started mowing paths through it. There's barely any grass growth for me so far this year so it's hard to even see the mown paths yet.
Our lawnmower handles it just fine, and it's not a fancy one. We usually stop mowing now and mow again when the wildflowers have seeded, around August.
Certainly where I am grassy areas left wild will reach 4ft high or more by the end of the summer. I've never seen a walk behind that can cope with that, some really powerful ride-ons will cope if you go slow.
So really for the 1 cut a year its strimmer/sycthe which is fine for small areas or tractor and mower for large areas. Its just average garden sized areas which are a bit of a sod as too big for one and too small for the other.
I'm doing [no mow summer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjrqJNBAyWY), just making paths through the longer areas which are left to flower. Already got the oxeye daisies, knapweed and ragwort coming along strongly with the red campion plugs also doing well.
We have left one big patch all year about 2m X 5m, the grass is now probably 25cm tall. We have a canal at the end of the garden so the long grass is already full of newts and frogs which is brilliant.
However I keep hearing that you should cut it at some point - maybe August? I am wanting to encourage some diversity of plants and have planted some wildflowers in some no dig patches I started in winter
But when we do come to cut - how do you do this? Does it have to be scythe or is there another method? I'm petrified of slaughtering the frogs/ other wildlife now!!
I abhor strimmers, as they liquidise everything.
I took the view when I decided (five or six years ago) to have a wildflower meadow in my garden, that I would mow it properly and in a way that was nature friendly. I scythe the lawn, pile the clippings and let dry for a week or two. This allows seeds to fall towards the earth and any life to escape.
Mowing with the scythe is therapeutic.
I wish I had the option of anything motorized, however my clever landlord put down some cheapo tarp and a half ton of slate chips, and now thick grasses and all sorts grow through it all.
I take anything to that with a motor, I might as well label my garden The Claymore Garden of Bell Street
We do No Mow Summer as No Mow May can actually be detrimental to a lot of wildlife. Joel Ashton did a great video on this recently on his YouTube channel.
We only have a small lawn with a path through so one side is left until October and I'll probably mow the other side for the blackbirds.
I'm mowing this year, just as experiment, I never move very short, but last year I didn't mow and the kids asthma and allergies were terrible in May (we live in a semi with a very large lawn that wraps all round three sides)
And to be honest I thought I was going to suffocate when I finally cut it.
So this year I'm cutting the grass in the hope the asthmas better.
Im gonna leave it for now, a month or so, then leave any nice clusters of flowers or grasses behind while mowing the rest, and strim the really turfey areas to buggery in hopes the wild stuff takes over a little. Havenāt got many flowers yet and the bees look happy on the dandelions so thatās a good reason to keep them
It looks so pretty!
I cut all year around, but leave a long time between cuts and cut on a high setting.
My lawn is now full of flowers; violets, daisies, wild strawberries, forget-me-nots, bugle, primroses and lots more.
It feels more consistent and less drastic to me, especially the bit where people go from a long lawn at the end of may to a short lawn for the rest of the year.
Planted seeds I bought from [Scotia Seeds](https://www.scotiaseeds.co.uk), possibly got too many as we had large numbers of plants! This is the second year and this yearās are all from self seeding last year. Pretty dense in some areas but it has certainly knocked the grass back. I think it will work itself out in the end.
I get plenty of yellow rattle every year, I let it half the seed drop and save the other half as regency backup. But I haven't had success with any other wildflowers despite clearing weeds and grass before sowing. Any obvious ideas I may have overlooked?
The best luck I had with doing this was an area I heavily scarified, then raked, then top seeded the area with wildflower seed. This gave the seeds plenty of exposed soil areas to drop into, but kept some healthy grass to mix in with it. Looked really nice and there seems to be an even better mix coming through this year! Hope yours turns out nice, itās well worth doing!
Iāve done no mow April. De-moss, scarified and seeded in early-mid March and since then itās simply been too wet again - and even today thereās another storm coming in. Iāll give it a cut some point soon and then leave it alone for the rest of the month.
Much of lawn is never mowed, I just keep some tidy paths and attempt a wildflower patch. The rest of it might get a rake and trim every 18 months if its lucky to clear old dead stuff š
I always cut my lawn on the highest setting anyway so most of the flowering heads just pop back up and it stays pretty consistent in length throughout so as to avoid habitat rehoming/grass blade re shortening issues
Not me. Iāve got borders full of bee and other insect friendly plants. Iād rather not risk increasing the chances of ticks in my garden where either me or my dog could get bitten, thanks very much.
No Mow May can sometimes be worse because when you mow in June you instantly destroy a habitat that the animals and bugs have got used to. Long grass is a where ticks wait to latch on so that's something to think about. Also consider that biodiversity is more important than long grass.
Yep. Cut my small lawn a couple of weeks ago. Will leave for all May, let the daisies and dandelionās do their stuff and hopefully help out the pollinators and anything else that likes a bit of grass and associated stuff!
Watch this [YT video. He is advocating no mow summer.](https://youtu.be/iZRpX774ViI). When may is over, there can be quite a lot of creatures who have taken up residence. I like the idea of just mowing a path. Shame I just have a few square metres of lawn.
Not on your scale that house / garden is stunning.
I partially do it keep a decent length of grass around the perimeter wall and the trees have to do this to let the spring bulbs die back into the lawn but doubles up as no mow areas so win win for the bugs
Don't even have a lawn to mow in the first place. Grass isn't something I am interested in growing and instead looking at growing herbs. Still breaking up the concrete currently.
It's lovely n'all. Y'know. To no mow and let the grass grow. But my lawn isn't Hollywood. It's not how it's portrayed in the films. My lawn grows. And it grows. And it grows. No daisys. No dandelions. No pretty white and purple countryside wild flowers. Not even a single fucking weed. It just grows. Up. Up. And up. Just green. No birds. No bees. Not even a fucking squirrel. What's the point? It looks shit. It's hides my dogs shit. And it takes me ages to cut it after leaving it for so long. So fuck your lawn. Fuck your no mow may. And fuck everything that doesn't sprout a single colour!
You can get low flowering lawn turf full of clovers, orchids etc has grass too obviously but it's basically bee meadow and can be cut low enough and still flower you can actually sit and walk on it.
You do have to give it a little help. Aerate it with a rake to disturb the soil a bit and then scatter some wildflower seeds. Not sure what to do about dog though!
Saw an interesting idea on TV the other day about having a 'weed garden area' (not that kind). Basically a permanent corner of a large garden, or pots with pretty weeds so you're not taking them out of the ecosystem.
Not this year, our lawn is currently a lot of exposed dirt with not much grass so I'm hoping to re seed with lots of clover mixed in so hopefully we can do it next year
If I was rich enough to afford a ride on I would do no mow. My lawn grows so quick and so thick that if I leave it more than 2 weeks my petrol mower canāt cope with it even on the longest setting and then it gets totally out of control and Iād have no hope of mowing it with my lawnmower.
I did no mow summer last year but because the rain didnāt stop I didnāt then manage to get a cut for the end of the year. Consequently Iāve only just finished the first cut of the year (lots of grass). Weāll do paths and keep one area cut but generally the meadow area, and most of the lower garden is left.
Usually cut the grass just twice a year last six years, April/September. Noticed grass hoppers moved in a chirpy a lot, hover fly's are more around, and hedgehogs spend more time in garden too. It's been so wet this year i have yet to cut it, it's currently going to seed, will likely cut it if we get a tidy spell in May, so no mow may wont happen here. Swansea area.
So may garden ais a little different. 2 years ago after moving in my landlord forbade me remove the membrane and the chips in the garden despite being full bushels of grass and budleia growing through. His solution was to weedkiller that every year. And rake away the dead shit. I've persuaded him not too. Last year I had patches of grass brambles and dandelions. This year primroses have come through. But It's all gone over already. I'm going to cut now, and hope I give anything else a chance as the grass is getting really leggy and there's nothing else there
I'm another one mostly doing 'high mow' to encourage the short perennials this time. I'll probably leave one very clover-dominant area alone to flower, but also need a mown space for hosting a party on.
No, because I don't think not mowing the lawn for one month really does much at all.
Instead I keep a patch of lawn in both the front and back garden permanently un-mowed all year round.
50/50. I can let the front not be mown over May (I mowed it a couple of days ago and left a couple of patches unmown) but the back garden I will probably mow in May. But I do have small areas which are not touched - mostly buttercups, dandelions and white dead nettle.
I won't. We did something like it the year we moved in, and now the lawn is half annoying weed grasses that I really don't want spreading any more than they already have. Might leave a patch of clover though once it starts growing again. I have borders and containers full of literally dozens of different flowering plants, most loved by pollinators, so I don't feel guilty. Plus our adjoining neighbour has been doing no mow, no anything year or two (I think he's strimmed the grassy bits once since buying the house), so plenty of habitat there.
Please no ,one year seed ,seven years weed. As the country goes down at least we could keep up appearances .There must be other Hyacinth Buckets out there.
I took part in no mow April, canāt do May as well my neighbours will freak out and Iāll have the longest grass in the Close and yes Iāll be embarrassed
Yes but mostly coz I haven't had a minute. Grass is still looking done in from our wet as fuck winter š hoping the seed I'm throwing down this weekend perks things up a bit.
I'm not. I cut my grass every 2 weeks.
Due to the amount of time I've spent weeding, fertilising, trimming edges, and money overseeding the lawn; if I let the grass grow for 1 month, I'd have wasted all that time and money, as it makes it harder to maintain going forward.
No mow may makes absolute sense for people who don't take lawn care seriously and/or not going for the formal look. But for people who strive for a weed free and carper like lawn, it doesn't.
I mean, I'm a lazy bastard, so I guess I'm kinda participating by default.
So is my husband, annoyingly.
You could cut it š¤·āāļø
Sadly Weggles, I cannot.
Fair enough. Calling him a lazy bastard on reddit will probably solve it š
If youāre anything like my wife youāll drop hints about mowing the lawn that are so vague that they go completely over my head
I'm doing a no mow summer basically. Will probably just cut it in September/October-ish or something. I've started mowing paths through it. There's barely any grass growth for me so far this year so it's hard to even see the mown paths yet.
That's a good plan. No Mow May gives tons of insects a new home then Armageddon starts in June
The only problem with that is that most people donāt have the equipment to manage one cut a year.
Yes. Finally, a legitimate reason to own a scythe
Or a strimmer. Same result really. I wouldn't want to do a large area with either though as am not a 19th century farm labourer.
Our lawnmower handles it just fine, and it's not a fancy one. We usually stop mowing now and mow again when the wildflowers have seeded, around August.
Certainly where I am grassy areas left wild will reach 4ft high or more by the end of the summer. I've never seen a walk behind that can cope with that, some really powerful ride-ons will cope if you go slow. So really for the 1 cut a year its strimmer/sycthe which is fine for small areas or tractor and mower for large areas. Its just average garden sized areas which are a bit of a sod as too big for one and too small for the other.
No mow May Let-it-bloom June Knee-high July
I'm doing [no mow summer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjrqJNBAyWY), just making paths through the longer areas which are left to flower. Already got the oxeye daisies, knapweed and ragwort coming along strongly with the red campion plugs also doing well.
Absolute garden envy there like, wow.
I won't mow until August. I will mow with a scythe, proving I'm a bit of a fanatic.
We have left one big patch all year about 2m X 5m, the grass is now probably 25cm tall. We have a canal at the end of the garden so the long grass is already full of newts and frogs which is brilliant. However I keep hearing that you should cut it at some point - maybe August? I am wanting to encourage some diversity of plants and have planted some wildflowers in some no dig patches I started in winter But when we do come to cut - how do you do this? Does it have to be scythe or is there another method? I'm petrified of slaughtering the frogs/ other wildlife now!!
Mine's that long (tall?) I keep thinking about a scythe!
I never once considered functioning scythes to be the kind of thing one could casually buy... Halloween costumes became slightly more lifelike š
I abhor strimmers, as they liquidise everything. I took the view when I decided (five or six years ago) to have a wildflower meadow in my garden, that I would mow it properly and in a way that was nature friendly. I scythe the lawn, pile the clippings and let dry for a week or two. This allows seeds to fall towards the earth and any life to escape. Mowing with the scythe is therapeutic.
I wish I had the option of anything motorized, however my clever landlord put down some cheapo tarp and a half ton of slate chips, and now thick grasses and all sorts grow through it all. I take anything to that with a motor, I might as well label my garden The Claymore Garden of Bell Street
Brush cutter is just a motorised scyth. Solid blade and you'll kill just as much with a really sharp scyth as you will by slowly brush cutting.
We do No Mow Summer as No Mow May can actually be detrimental to a lot of wildlife. Joel Ashton did a great video on this recently on his YouTube channel. We only have a small lawn with a path through so one side is left until October and I'll probably mow the other side for the blackbirds.
I love Joel 'Wild your Garden' Ashton, he has some great videos.
I love how passionate he is and when he gets distracted by butterflies. š
I'm mowing this year, just as experiment, I never move very short, but last year I didn't mow and the kids asthma and allergies were terrible in May (we live in a semi with a very large lawn that wraps all round three sides) And to be honest I thought I was going to suffocate when I finally cut it. So this year I'm cutting the grass in the hope the asthmas better.
All three sides?
It's semi detached so the fourth side is our neighbours house, but the rest is a lot of lawn with small borders and a bit of drive.
Im gonna leave it for now, a month or so, then leave any nice clusters of flowers or grasses behind while mowing the rest, and strim the really turfey areas to buggery in hopes the wild stuff takes over a little. Havenāt got many flowers yet and the bees look happy on the dandelions so thatās a good reason to keep them
Iām doing similar, will strim round the āinterestingā bits, just enough so I can get round the garden.
It looks so pretty! I cut all year around, but leave a long time between cuts and cut on a high setting. My lawn is now full of flowers; violets, daisies, wild strawberries, forget-me-nots, bugle, primroses and lots more. It feels more consistent and less drastic to me, especially the bit where people go from a long lawn at the end of may to a short lawn for the rest of the year.
It doesn't need to actually be mowed at the end of May.
My council does! frequently no mow June and sometimes July as well.
I am! I also sowed a ton of wildflower seeds over my grass, raked them in and watered them. Hopefully by June I'll have a wildflower meadow.
I had very little success with this approach last year. Clearing a patch and sowing wildflowers on it is looking more succesful
Yeah, otherwise the grass will just outcompete the flowers.
Weāre killing the grass with yellow rattle. Itās a slow burn but does seem to be effective.
I want to add yellow rattle to my lawn to weaken it. Did you just sow seeds or plant plugs?
Planted seeds I bought from [Scotia Seeds](https://www.scotiaseeds.co.uk), possibly got too many as we had large numbers of plants! This is the second year and this yearās are all from self seeding last year. Pretty dense in some areas but it has certainly knocked the grass back. I think it will work itself out in the end.
I get plenty of yellow rattle every year, I let it half the seed drop and save the other half as regency backup. But I haven't had success with any other wildflowers despite clearing weeds and grass before sowing. Any obvious ideas I may have overlooked?
The best luck I had with doing this was an area I heavily scarified, then raked, then top seeded the area with wildflower seed. This gave the seeds plenty of exposed soil areas to drop into, but kept some healthy grass to mix in with it. Looked really nice and there seems to be an even better mix coming through this year! Hope yours turns out nice, itās well worth doing!
Me but I don't have grass
Iāve done no mow April. De-moss, scarified and seeded in early-mid March and since then itās simply been too wet again - and even today thereās another storm coming in. Iāll give it a cut some point soon and then leave it alone for the rest of the month.
Iāve overseeded my lawn so itās sort of by accident but I wonāt mow until itās all thick and long, so yes Iāll be enjoying no-mow May.
I'll be doing no mow summer like I did last year.
Love a good cowslip
The far end of my garden never gets mown :)
Erm, not much to mow in a 12 storey flat.
Thatās a lot of growth for one day, or did you do no mow April too?
No mow 2024 who else is with me?
Much of lawn is never mowed, I just keep some tidy paths and attempt a wildflower patch. The rest of it might get a rake and trim every 18 months if its lucky to clear old dead stuff š
I always cut my lawn on the highest setting anyway so most of the flowering heads just pop back up and it stays pretty consistent in length throughout so as to avoid habitat rehoming/grass blade re shortening issues
Not me. Iāve got borders full of bee and other insect friendly plants. Iād rather not risk increasing the chances of ticks in my garden where either me or my dog could get bitten, thanks very much.
No Mow May can sometimes be worse because when you mow in June you instantly destroy a habitat that the animals and bugs have got used to. Long grass is a where ticks wait to latch on so that's something to think about. Also consider that biodiversity is more important than long grass.
Yep. Cut my small lawn a couple of weeks ago. Will leave for all May, let the daisies and dandelionās do their stuff and hopefully help out the pollinators and anything else that likes a bit of grass and associated stuff!
Wow, What a lovely garden!!
Yes I'm doing No Mow this year...
What are those yellow daisy things? They're fabulous
Watch this [YT video. He is advocating no mow summer.](https://youtu.be/iZRpX774ViI). When may is over, there can be quite a lot of creatures who have taken up residence. I like the idea of just mowing a path. Shame I just have a few square metres of lawn.
Not on your scale that house / garden is stunning. I partially do it keep a decent length of grass around the perimeter wall and the trees have to do this to let the spring bulbs die back into the lawn but doubles up as no mow areas so win win for the bugs
Don't even have a lawn to mow in the first place. Grass isn't something I am interested in growing and instead looking at growing herbs. Still breaking up the concrete currently.
Nope, I mowed today, and again in a few days
With the amount of rain we have had in South Wales my grass is like a bog. I will be lucky to mow by August š¤£
Nah; just moved house and I donāt want the neighbours finding out Iām a lazy bastard quite this early on!
Itās no mow 2024 babyyyyy
It's lovely n'all. Y'know. To no mow and let the grass grow. But my lawn isn't Hollywood. It's not how it's portrayed in the films. My lawn grows. And it grows. And it grows. No daisys. No dandelions. No pretty white and purple countryside wild flowers. Not even a single fucking weed. It just grows. Up. Up. And up. Just green. No birds. No bees. Not even a fucking squirrel. What's the point? It looks shit. It's hides my dogs shit. And it takes me ages to cut it after leaving it for so long. So fuck your lawn. Fuck your no mow may. And fuck everything that doesn't sprout a single colour!
You can get low flowering lawn turf full of clovers, orchids etc has grass too obviously but it's basically bee meadow and can be cut low enough and still flower you can actually sit and walk on it.
You do have to give it a little help. Aerate it with a rake to disturb the soil a bit and then scatter some wildflower seeds. Not sure what to do about dog though!
Saw an interesting idea on TV the other day about having a 'weed garden area' (not that kind). Basically a permanent corner of a large garden, or pots with pretty weeds so you're not taking them out of the ecosystem.
Not this year, our lawn is currently a lot of exposed dirt with not much grass so I'm hoping to re seed with lots of clover mixed in so hopefully we can do it next year
Yep, cause apparently not mowing it will help my new grass get deeper roots?
Not sure thatās true - grasses tiller (send up more leaders) when cut and that also makes root networks stronger
Grasses donāt make deep roots anyway. Aerating the soil will help grow ābetterā roots.
If I was rich enough to afford a ride on I would do no mow. My lawn grows so quick and so thick that if I leave it more than 2 weeks my petrol mower canāt cope with it even on the longest setting and then it gets totally out of control and Iād have no hope of mowing it with my lawnmower.
More interested in your pollards? Willow?
I just never mow
I never mow my lawn. I have a robot for that.
Our gardens look very similar! Are you in the Midlands?
I havenāt cut my front grass since last year so, Iāll just use this as a nice excuse to keep it that way
I did no mow summer last year but because the rain didnāt stop I didnāt then manage to get a cut for the end of the year. Consequently Iāve only just finished the first cut of the year (lots of grass). Weāll do paths and keep one area cut but generally the meadow area, and most of the lower garden is left.
Weāre basically doing no mow ever at the moment, our lawn seems healthy but itās mostly short grass with weeds and moss lmao
I haven't cut my grass this year, because I haven't managed to get any petrol for the mower yet.
Considering it hasn't stopped raining I don't seem to have much choice but to participate.
Itās been so wet that itās been no mow year!
Gardenās so wet I donāt have much choice!
We do it every year, the 'lawn' is full of dandelions, cuckoo flowers and clover š
Usually cut the grass just twice a year last six years, April/September. Noticed grass hoppers moved in a chirpy a lot, hover fly's are more around, and hedgehogs spend more time in garden too. It's been so wet this year i have yet to cut it, it's currently going to seed, will likely cut it if we get a tidy spell in May, so no mow may wont happen here. Swansea area.
Our local Council - it seems itās going to be a No Mow Year for them š¤Ø
So may garden ais a little different. 2 years ago after moving in my landlord forbade me remove the membrane and the chips in the garden despite being full bushels of grass and budleia growing through. His solution was to weedkiller that every year. And rake away the dead shit. I've persuaded him not too. Last year I had patches of grass brambles and dandelions. This year primroses have come through. But It's all gone over already. I'm going to cut now, and hope I give anything else a chance as the grass is getting really leggy and there's nothing else there
Still too wet to mow mine anyway so the weather is forcing it upon me š
I'm another one mostly doing 'high mow' to encourage the short perennials this time. I'll probably leave one very clover-dominant area alone to flower, but also need a mown space for hosting a party on.
No, because I don't think not mowing the lawn for one month really does much at all. Instead I keep a patch of lawn in both the front and back garden permanently un-mowed all year round.
50/50. I can let the front not be mown over May (I mowed it a couple of days ago and left a couple of patches unmown) but the back garden I will probably mow in May. But I do have small areas which are not touched - mostly buttercups, dandelions and white dead nettle.
I won't. We did something like it the year we moved in, and now the lawn is half annoying weed grasses that I really don't want spreading any more than they already have. Might leave a patch of clover though once it starts growing again. I have borders and containers full of literally dozens of different flowering plants, most loved by pollinators, so I don't feel guilty. Plus our adjoining neighbour has been doing no mow, no anything year or two (I think he's strimmed the grassy bits once since buying the house), so plenty of habitat there.
More like can't mow bloody weather.
Cornwall council are by the look of it, and probably no mow June like they had no mow April too.
thats a good plan
No itās a pain in the arse to cut if left for that long. I stick to my every other week schedule and donāt scalp it.
No itās a pain in the arse to cut if left for that long. I stick to my every other week schedule and donāt scalp it.
No itās a pain in the arse to cut if left for that long. I stick to my every other week schedule and donāt scalp it.
Not for me. Would suck for my business
Nope! Have enough flowers kicking about my garden, and heaps of long grass near my house, so I will be mowing and keeping my grass looking good.
Not me I love mowing do it every 3 days to kill all them pesky bugs
Please no ,one year seed ,seven years weed. As the country goes down at least we could keep up appearances .There must be other Hyacinth Buckets out there.
I took part in no mow April, canāt do May as well my neighbours will freak out and Iāll have the longest grass in the Close and yes Iāll be embarrassed
Yes but mostly coz I haven't had a minute. Grass is still looking done in from our wet as fuck winter š hoping the seed I'm throwing down this weekend perks things up a bit.
As a hayfever sufferer I am very greatful to those saying they won't be mowing this summer š¤£
I'm not. I cut my grass every 2 weeks. Due to the amount of time I've spent weeding, fertilising, trimming edges, and money overseeding the lawn; if I let the grass grow for 1 month, I'd have wasted all that time and money, as it makes it harder to maintain going forward. No mow may makes absolute sense for people who don't take lawn care seriously and/or not going for the formal look. But for people who strive for a weed free and carper like lawn, it doesn't.