We've allowed our grass to grow during the summer months for the last few years and I've been disappointed with how few wild flowers have self seeded on the whole. I've yet to see a daisy or self heal etc. Also, we end up with long stalky grass dotted all over, which is very unpleasant to walk on barefoot and so it eventually gets mown as a consequence. Not sure what we can do about this?
Re allowing lawn edges to merge with perennial beds. Beware couch grass! We've sometimes allowed our grass edges to grow long in places and they've grown into the beds. We've found this can lead to couch grass coming up, which is so difficult to get rid of....
I think the main thing is that meadow and lawn can't be merged because a meadow will generally, after being cut, look patchy and have lots of rough bits in. Which is why I've fallen on this middle ground of longer cuts infrequently to allow for wildflowers without it becoming aa meadow. I then have the meadow areas in a separate section.
The other issue you will have is that an area of lawn will likely not have a seed bed within it, so you'll have to introduce these yourself using seeds or plug plants (I would use a mix of both). While really trying to reduce the vigour of the grasses until they are established. I would start with yellow rattle seeds, once these are established the grass will be kept in check allowing wildflowers to take over.
Essentially I don't think meadow and usable lawn should be combined - both are important but are two different things.
Couch grass and borders yes, a familiar foe! lol :) I think in the main garden I'm going to concentrate on thug plants that can live alongside it, that way I won't need to worry about either. But like everything, we'll see... :)
This is exactly how our lawn looks. The reason was mostly because the area is big (5000sqm) and we can't keep up with mowing it too often. So the bulk of it gets mowed once a month and some small areas once every 2-3 weeks. Dandelions and clover are really happy, and so are the bees in the area :)
I like your ideas and will try to talk my wife into letting me raise the lawn mower blade on selected portions of our already quite small lawn. However, creeping buttercup is proving to be a terrible bully. It not only takes over the lawn but pushes aggressively into my native perennial beds. I only wish clover and dandelions could compete.
Yes it is a tough plant, we have it too. My take is that it’s quite easy to get out of the beds and tougher than grass in the lawn so I’ll just have to live with it. I don’t want to use weedkillers and it does lift out quite easily with a hand fork.
Here in the southern US it really should be No Mow March, because by the time May rolls around things are quite tall if you let it go that long. There's a lot of pushback for No Mow May or any iteration of it here, though I am seeing some alternatives being Low Mow Summer, which just means mowing every 3ish weeks or so. It's been interesting to see how this UK campaign ended up in the US and how we're all adapting it!
Yes, it's been a good campaign to raise awareness and get people thinking with some adaptation now for different situations as you say. It's been interesting watching US attitudes to lawns change in recent years, e.g. in California where lawns don't really make sense due to the irrigation and the fact there are so many beautiful wild plants to grow instead.
I think you're absolutely right about the difference between meadow and lawn and I've been thinking of introducing plug plants in a discrete area near our pond.
I'd love to have the space to create a separate meadow, but to be honest, the garden we have takes up enough of our time as it is.
Yes, I think it's a problem that the messaging has got confused saying lawns can be meadow when it doesn't really work like that practically. It's one or the other, but of course, people can have both in different areas. You could focus on a particular area with your planting to establish some plants to then use for spreading seeds in future years. I've started doing that in the highest corner of our meadow with the hope of them spreading down hill.
Hi John, no “ornamental” means both. The area was already planted with many different daffodils. To that I’ve added a few cultivars of daffodils I know are best for wildlife. For the rest of the year I’m only adding local wildflowers to this area. Including only species daffodils here wouldn’t have made any difference to wildlife as daffodils aren’t local wildflowers, and they aren’t any better for wildlife than the cultivars I use.
We've allowed our grass to grow during the summer months for the last few years and I've been disappointed with how few wild flowers have self seeded on the whole. I've yet to see a daisy or self heal etc. Also, we end up with long stalky grass dotted all over, which is very unpleasant to walk on barefoot and so it eventually gets mown as a consequence. Not sure what we can do about this?
Re allowing lawn edges to merge with perennial beds. Beware couch grass! We've sometimes allowed our grass edges to grow long in places and they've grown into the beds. We've found this can lead to couch grass coming up, which is so difficult to get rid of....
Hi Judith,
I think the main thing is that meadow and lawn can't be merged because a meadow will generally, after being cut, look patchy and have lots of rough bits in. Which is why I've fallen on this middle ground of longer cuts infrequently to allow for wildflowers without it becoming aa meadow. I then have the meadow areas in a separate section.
The other issue you will have is that an area of lawn will likely not have a seed bed within it, so you'll have to introduce these yourself using seeds or plug plants (I would use a mix of both). While really trying to reduce the vigour of the grasses until they are established. I would start with yellow rattle seeds, once these are established the grass will be kept in check allowing wildflowers to take over.
Essentially I don't think meadow and usable lawn should be combined - both are important but are two different things.
Couch grass and borders yes, a familiar foe! lol :) I think in the main garden I'm going to concentrate on thug plants that can live alongside it, that way I won't need to worry about either. But like everything, we'll see... :)
Jack
This is exactly how our lawn looks. The reason was mostly because the area is big (5000sqm) and we can't keep up with mowing it too often. So the bulk of it gets mowed once a month and some small areas once every 2-3 weeks. Dandelions and clover are really happy, and so are the bees in the area :)
Wow your lawn is massive, you could make it a meadow!
I like your ideas and will try to talk my wife into letting me raise the lawn mower blade on selected portions of our already quite small lawn. However, creeping buttercup is proving to be a terrible bully. It not only takes over the lawn but pushes aggressively into my native perennial beds. I only wish clover and dandelions could compete.
Yes it is a tough plant, we have it too. My take is that it’s quite easy to get out of the beds and tougher than grass in the lawn so I’ll just have to live with it. I don’t want to use weedkillers and it does lift out quite easily with a hand fork.
I have what looks like a dandelion lawn at the moment (amongst other things growing in it) and I love it 🙂 thank you for your inspiration and advice.
Sounds wonderful- much more colourful 😊
Here in the southern US it really should be No Mow March, because by the time May rolls around things are quite tall if you let it go that long. There's a lot of pushback for No Mow May or any iteration of it here, though I am seeing some alternatives being Low Mow Summer, which just means mowing every 3ish weeks or so. It's been interesting to see how this UK campaign ended up in the US and how we're all adapting it!
Yes, it's been a good campaign to raise awareness and get people thinking with some adaptation now for different situations as you say. It's been interesting watching US attitudes to lawns change in recent years, e.g. in California where lawns don't really make sense due to the irrigation and the fact there are so many beautiful wild plants to grow instead.
I think you're absolutely right about the difference between meadow and lawn and I've been thinking of introducing plug plants in a discrete area near our pond.
I'd love to have the space to create a separate meadow, but to be honest, the garden we have takes up enough of our time as it is.
Yes, I think it's a problem that the messaging has got confused saying lawns can be meadow when it doesn't really work like that practically. It's one or the other, but of course, people can have both in different areas. You could focus on a particular area with your planting to establish some plants to then use for spreading seeds in future years. I've started doing that in the highest corner of our meadow with the hope of them spreading down hill.
I do hope "ornamental daffodils" does mean species daffodils and not cultivars.
Hi John, no “ornamental” means both. The area was already planted with many different daffodils. To that I’ve added a few cultivars of daffodils I know are best for wildlife. For the rest of the year I’m only adding local wildflowers to this area. Including only species daffodils here wouldn’t have made any difference to wildlife as daffodils aren’t local wildflowers, and they aren’t any better for wildlife than the cultivars I use.
Jack
Thanks Rose, yes they’re a great addition, thanks for sharing