Loving Your Lawn

 Wandering across my lawn, I can see such variety in the plants forming the green beneath my feet.  Not just grasses, but the wildflowers: daisies, dandelions, clover, speedwell and violets.  And others yet to flower, such as black medick, self-heal, bird’s foot trefoil, plantain, buttercup, mouse-ear hawkweed and yarrow. 

We think of our lawns as somewhere to play or sit, but a tightly clipped lawn isn’t particularly wildlife friendly, and it takes time and energy to keep it looking just so.  If you already have a lawn in your garden, a few easy changes can encourage more variety, which will make your lawn more weather-resistant, transform it into a haven for pollinators and help support a whole range of creatures.

What changes can you make?

The first step is to put away the weedkillers and fertilisers.  They’re designed to rid your lawn of anything that isn’t a grass, and make your grass grow more [needing more mowing!] and look greener.  They can also contaminate the soil in and around your lawn; some weedkillers are known to stay active in the soil for up to a year. 

Raise the cutting level on your mower to its highest setting.  The extra height will still leave you with a tidy lawn, but it gives low-lying plants a chance to grow and makes your lawn greener and more resilient in dry weather.

Change your mowing schedule.  Instead of mowing every 1-2 weeks, extend that to every 3-4 weeks, or even every 6 weeks.  Many of the wildflowers will have time to flower and produce nectar in that longer period.

The best part of these changes to your regime is that it all requires less effort on your part.  You’re left with an attractive lawn that will be more colourful at certain times of the year, and the bees, butterflies and moths, hoverflies and other pollinators will be grateful for the extra food source.

To make the most of your lovely lawn, mix up the mowing routine; to start with, select one area and see what works for you.  An ideal garden would have areas of medium short grass with wildflowers growing, some areas of really short grass [maybe paths mown through the slightly longer areas], and some areas where the grass and taller wildflowers can provide a different habitat

But who benefits?

This slightly longer grass, on an extended mowing schedule, will hold the moisture in the soil and provide shelter for grasshoppers, beetles and a whole host of other beneficial invertebrates, including larvae and worms.  Birds, bats, mammals and frogs will all benefit from this extra bounty in their feeding territories, and the wildflowers will provide nectar for all the pollinators attracted to the feast.  Something like 90% of flowering plants and 75% of food production relies on these pollinators, so we need to help them all we can.

Really short grass on paths or around the edges of the longer grass can highlight the rest of your lawn.  Green woodpeckers will appreciate these areas for easy access to ants, and wild bees, three quarters of whom nest in the ground, love these areas.  Miner bees pollinate fruit trees and early flowering plants when few other insects are active, making them critical for orchards and wildflowers alike.

If you decide to go for an area of longer grass, think about areas of low use, perhaps hidden by a shed or trees.  You may need to reduce the vigour of the grass and top up with seeds or plant plugs to improve variety.  Yellow rattle, whose seeds are best sown in autumn, is a semi-parasitic wildflower that suppresses grasses and so supports biodiversity; its name comes from the distinctive rattling sound of the seeds in their dry capsules.  Traditional wildflower seed mixes are widely sold, but it’s a good idea to source seeds locally, as they are more likely to grow in the local conditions.  Not only invertebrates and birds will benefit from these areas, but hedgehogs and other small mammals will find them ideal for foraging and shelter.

Whatever you decide to do, it will all help link up habitats that are environmentally friendly and build towards wildlife corridors in the countryside.   And if you decide that this is something you can do for nature, don’t forget to get in touch with Forncett Nature Matters so we can add you to our map of people gardening for wildlife!

 

Sources: Discover Wildlife, Gardeners World, RHS, RSPB, Wildlife Trusts

May 2026