No Mow May: Why we need to put the lawnmower away

‘No Mow May’ is a national effort to make space for nature in gardens across the country, a campaign encouraging us all to simply put the mower away during the month of May

Wild flowers growing in a a hay meadow in the High Weald of Sussex

May is when many wildflowers begin to blossom. One of my favourite wildflowers at this time of year is the delicate pale pink cuckoo flower, also known as lady’s smock or mayflower. It likes wet meadows, waysides, and damp corners of semi-natural grassland, flourishing just when the cuckoos are calling out over fields and valleys. Cuckoo flowers are also the larval food plant of beautiful orange-tip butterflies, and many other insects dine on the nectar and pollen they provide.

Each and every wildflower is adapted to the habitat where it grows, some plant species are quite particular and others are more generalist. But all have their role in the ecosystem in which they grow and provide rich resources for insects such as beetles, butterflies, ladybirds, moths, bumblebees, and solitary bees, which pollinate wild plants and crops, and provide food for shrews, hedgehogs, and nesting birds, among others.