The temptation for many of us in spring is to get on with jobs in the garden - including getting that lawn into the classic British stripe. But have you considered that what might look wonderful to your eyes is in fact a desert for our struggling native wildlife?
In the UK, we have lost nearly 7.5 million acres of flower-rich meadow and pasture since the 1930s, and now only 1% of our countryside provides flowers for pollinators. However, there are 15 million gardens in the UK and our lawns have the potential to be a major wildflower nectar source - a staggering 200 species are known to grow on lawns. In fact, incredibly simple changes in mowing can result in enough nectar from common flowers such as daisies, dandelions, buttercups and clover for ten times more bees and other pollinators. More bees and other insects also means more food for creatures further up the food chain - so by encouraging those at the bottom, we benefit many more.
In collaboration with the charity Plantlife, we’ve created a campaign called Hurst Garden Rethink where we urge people in Hurstpierpoint & Sayers Common to reduce their mowing this year to allow wildflowers to flourish.
Our campaign will culminate in ‘NoMowMay’ where we simply ask that you leave your mower in the shed for the month of May, then record what flowers you have on a sample of your lawn at the end of the month. If you record your results on the Plantlife website, you can also get your personal nectar score which shows how many bees your garden can nourish. It’s a great thing to get the whole family involved in.
As we gear up to ‘NoMowMay’ we’d also like you to think about other ways you can benefit wildlife in your garden - from simple things such as not using chemicals (including slug pellets) to more fun activities such as building a small pond, constructing bug hotels and creating hedgehog corridors.
We hope to work with schools and community groups to encourage take up of our campaign - if you’d like to get involved, please contact us at hurstrethink@gmail.com. You can find more details on our website, hurstrethink.org.