No Mow May extended to No Mow- Let it Grow in June and July, and our lawnmowers stood idle and gathering dust. Verges around the county supported beautiful swathes of flowers and buzzing, bouncing insects. Just in case you haven’t fully appreciated how exciting not mowing can be, I’d like to showcase a few examples.

In my own garden, which has been a garden since Victorian times, I left patches of unmown grass, and others were cut on a cycle so there were different lengths of grass available through summer. Selfheal, germander speedwell, lady’s smock, ground ivy, red and white clover, mouse-ear, ribwort plantain, daisies, dandelions and buttercups all made good showings and were enjoyed by bees, hoverflies and butterflies. No rarities emerged, but the overall effect was lovely, and never descended into a panic-inducing messy wilderness.

Kelda, living in Shrewsbury in a house built in1950, saw lesser trefoil, a lovely, almost-white speedwell with dark blue rays, selfheal, forget-me-nots, lady’s smock, white clover, selfheal, wavy bittercress and hawkbits popping up in the unmown grass, and enjoyed photographing the insects they attracted, including thick-legged flower beetles, and cinnabar moth caterpillars.

Sue, in a property built on improved agricultural grassland in 2019, found herself hosting buttercups, white clover, mouse-ear, hawkbits, selfheal, forget-me-not, dovesfoot cranesbill, lesser trefoil, yellow sorrel and ragwort, as well as an unexpected wild carrot plant. Sue has sown wildflower seed at the front of the house for the last three years, making a colourful and insect-friendly edge between a small lawn and the pavement, so we didn’t include anything which has seeded from these deliberately introduced plants in the list. The contrast between Sue’s flower-filled grass and the surrounding well-mowed lawns speaks for itself.

The prize for unexpected emergences, however, goes to Clare. I haven’t visited her patch, but we enjoyed a long conversation about it and she shared some photos with me. Clare lives by Dothill Nature Reserve, in a house built in 1969 on part of Dothill Park as was. Her photographs, sent to me for identification, show hedge bedstraw, and a totally exotic-looking broad-leaved helleborine! She also reports grasshoppers in her garden for the first time, and she, too, had cinnabar moth caterpillars.

So, from a very unscientific survey, which only really came up from a few conversations in the course of my work running events for the Trust and is far too small to produce any meaningful statistics, it seems clear that gardens can offer a whole lot more to nature if we just stop cutting those wretched lawns. The age of the property, and how long the lawn has been lawn does seem to make a difference, as does what was there before the house and garden were built. Being next-door to a nature reserve is probably a good thing (in many ways!) but a no-mow garden in the middle of Shrewsbury can produce as much diversity as one surrounded by agricultural land. Statistics are over-rated anyway, and should be used as a drunk uses a lamp-post; for support rather than illumination. All my friends reported a great increase in insects – Kelda got so excited about them she built a moth trap, which attracted a remarkable variety of moths. Lots more pollinators, lots more food for bats and caterpillars for the birds, as well as plenty to provide next year’s delights. I can’t compete with a broad-leaved helleborine yet, but next year will be another season of no-mow-and-see-what-happens – far more exciting than trudging along behind a smelly, noisy lawnmower!