At Woodies, we are keen love God's creation and our People + Planet group is key in helping us to reduce our impact on the environment as a church. Our monthly EcoChallenges help everyone in church to take part from home.
May 2021: EcoChallege - “No Mow May”
Let’s be honest, trying to live in a greener way can sometimes feel like a real challenge! However, every now and then it can actually save us some work and this month’s EcoChallenge is a great example of this. Simply, if you have a lawn, all you need to do is leave your lawnmower in the shed throughout May so that flowers present in your lawn have a chance to bloom – as someone who finds mowing the lawn a real chore this is music to my ears! The point of this is to give hard-pressed pollinating insects (for example bees or butterflies) a boost by giving them more opportunities to forage for nectar on your lawn
At the end of the month you have a chance to do a bit of citizen science by counting the number of flowers present in a random square metre of your lawn.
What if this blogpost has come too late for you and you have already mowed the lawn this month? No fear, you can always take part in #LetItBloomJune or #KneeHighJuly.
Plantlife, the organisation behind the NoMowMay campaign, have found that the optimum way to manage your lawn for pollinators is a ‘Mohican’ approach. Mowing about every four weeks is the best way to promote the growth flowers that like shorter lengths of grass, such as daisies and white clover. At the same time leaving some areas unmown for longer can allow a richer variety of flowers to flourish in your lawn.
If you would like to sign up to the campaign and take part in the flower count at the end of the month visit this site: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/no-mow-may
And this article gives a great summary of the Mohican approach to cutting your lawn:
https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/bees-wildlife-how-to-gardening-tips-mohican-grass-cut-423589
If you’d be interested in finding out more about the Woodlands People + Planet group, or have some feedback about the challenges, connect with us: