No mow may/Wild areas

[The Family Cyclist]

This should possibly be in rant thread but my local town councils left some areas grass long as part of no know may and longer. On one green near a school they've mowed paths round so you can walk round and it looks so much nicer then a crew cut grass area would

My word the complaints on the idiot Facebook groups. One person's encouraging others to complain to council, blaming it on labour local council (who only got elected at recent locals) and apparently its all a conspiracy to save money and nothing to do with wildlife

As far as I can tell the only legitimate argument is dogs crapping in long grass can be hard to find, and it can but I have a dog and just deal with it

[mrcharly-YHT]

I'm of two minds about this.

If you just leave a standard lawn area without cutting, it will grow very long grass. That will go rank in winter.

For a proper 'no mow meadow', there needs to be some seeding of wildflowers. Ideally, it would get cut (scything best) and raked off at the end of the year.

[The Family Cyclist]

They're never going to actually create a proper meadow especially as lots of these areas were farmland 15 to 20 years ago so soils probably too rich but at the moment lots of weed/wild flowers depending on perspective which I imagine will get strimmed/mowed in late summer

[Cudzoziemiec]

Surely the point about dog shit in long grass being hard to see does not relate to the dog owner seeing it.

[The Family Cyclist]

Surely the point about dog shit in long grass being hard to see does not relate to the dog owner seeing it.

No it can be harder to pick up when it's caught in grass, I can normally drag our hound to somewhere more suitable but that's cos he's always on lead as has no recall and a strong desire to chase things

[Cudzoziemiec]

Not quite the point I was making! I don't doubt it can be harder for the dog owner to spot it, but it's then someone else who fails to spot it.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Anyway, getting back to the wider point, I'm quite impressed that your no mow areas are actually not being mowed. That's not the case everywhere!

[The Family Cyclist]

There have been people asking for lawnmowers to donit themselves. From the noise of mowers every weekend no mow may hasn't been widely practiced in gardens around my way

[Hot Flatus]

My lawns were fucked last autumn, mostly from kids skidding on them from their rope swings in the tree. Huge bare patches, weeds etc.

Mowed it last week and it has (almost/) completely sorted itself out. Must be all that rain in spring

[phantasmagoriana]

The flats I live in are unintentionally taking part in this because the soon-to-be-ex gardening company CBA (and hasn't for quite a lot longer than just May!). It's a jungle out there.

[citoyen]

I worked on a big report on this subject last year. It was aimed at the London boroughs and mostly comprised case studies from across London showing other boroughs what could be achieved and how to go about it. It was a very interesting project, very informative.

I would share it with you but annoyingly, after three months work, it never got published - mainly for political reasons.

Among the main findings of the report was the importance of engagement and education. It’s no good councils undertaking these schemes if they don’t get local residents onside by explaining exactly what they’re doing and why, and even getting the locals involved in a practical way.

It sounds like this aspect is very much what is missing in your local scenario, TFC.

[The Family Cyclist]

Bugger posted a reply and it did the you've tried to post twice in 5 seconds thing

Basically said yes education would help but there is the aspect you can't teach stupid

Personally I've seen loads about no mow may or being wildlife friend but I'm an eco conscious fairly middle class person so both my choice of reading/media and that pushed by the evil algorithms would be about such things

One person's definitely political as pro Conservative and blaming the Labour Council

There are however those who for what ever reason prefer the grass mowed to the ground and neat and orderly and disagree with what they see as untidy

[citoyen]

Basically said yes education would help but there is the aspect you can't teach stupid

That seems unduly pessimistic to me.

One person's definitely political as pro Conservative and blaming the Labour Council

This just reinforces the need to supplement these schemes with educational campaigns. Nature abhors a vacuum. If you don't fill the void, someone else will.

There are however those who for what ever reason prefer the grass mowed to the ground and neat and orderly and disagree with what they see as untidy

This is another aspect that was extensively covered in the report. There are ways to manage perceptions - as you already mentioned, mowing a strip round the edge of the area, for example.

I took the dog for a walk round the local university campus yesterday evening. It has several large open areas they're rewilding, or "leaving to nature" as the signs put it. They've been doing this for a couple of years now and so the rewilded areas are well established in the new maintenance regime. I have to say these areas look a lot more attractive and neater than the areas they are still mowing regularly - there's one in particular where they have failed to remove the clippings after mowing so it actually looks a real mess. 

[Kim]

Bugger posted a reply and it did the you've tried to post twice in 5 seconds thing

YMMV, but I find when that happens I can press the 'back' button in the browser, then copy the contents of the form to the clipboard in order to rescue the post.

[The Family Cyclist]

Maybe was overly pessimistic. Was pretty grumpy but the Facebook group its on isn't renowned for sense

[fd3]

There is lots of stupid on the internet.
In fact, there's stupid on every topic I post on for some reason ...

[The Family Cyclist]

One of the complainers has posted a load of pictures of nettles as a protest...I think they need a hobby/help

[Regulator]

As a council we did 'No Mow May' last year (excepting the recreation ground, which had to be cut for the various sports that are played on it) and the only complaints we really got were in relation to the cemetery.  This year, we've restricted 'NMM' in the cemetery to one part of it.

Generally people are supportive in my experience.

We've done it on our road this year, in the public spaces.  I shall be mowing them this weekend though, as the month is almost at an end and some of the signage is getting obscured.

[citoyen]

One of the complainers has posted a load of pictures of nettles as a protest...I think they need a hobby/help

I have some sympathy with the complainant. If you have nettles, that's a sign the scheme isn't being well managed - the soil is probably too rich. In these cases, it's common to remove the topsoil. This makes it harder for fast-growing nettles, brambles and grasses to dominate and gives the native wildflowers a chance to get established.

There's more to no-mow schemes than simply not mowing.

[The Family Cyclist]

The nettles have been there for years, well obviously get cutdown/die back each year

The grounds flood plain so incredibly good soil. The longer grass areas are further from the river is where the "no mow" has taken or should that be hasn't taken place

Although there is one odd part of the flood plain which is long grass, normally pretty boggy and gets some awesome flowers and some I think orchids

[Bledlow]

There's a very small pond on our allotment. There have been little frogs in it recently: three once, one or two other times. One today, but two a couple of days ago. I first spotted them when cutting grass on an overgrown path by the pond.

So I stopped, & abandoned my plan to weed round the raspberries on the other side of the pond, & the supposedly decorative tree (I'd cut it down & plant a fruit tree, but someone else has a say), & just past the raspberries is a bramble patch on a strip which somehow escaped being allocated to an allotment. The frogs have a small wild patch.

[Mrs Pingu]

Up at the end of the garden behind all the shrubs (where there used to be a row of leylandii) etc I've a compost heap, and I've planted some pyracantha and some blackthorn to atone for chopping those trees down. I planted some thistles there and when the teasels have grown up I'm going to plant them there too. I'm kind of (but not quite) leaving the rest of it to it's own devices down there. I've got some piles of granite and some leaf piles and a little mini beast shelter that the spiders seem to like.

Now, there is some dock coming up (fine) but there's also a huge clump of what Plantnet tells me is perennial rye grass. Is this of any benefit to anything (that might be hiding in there for instance) or should I be hacking it back?

[Cudzoziemiec]

If you've got teasels, you'll need sheep!

[campagman]

the assistant in the chemist told me that NMM has resulted in the current high pollen levels as everybody has suddenly started mowing their lawns.

[Mrs Pingu]

That sounds like BS to me.