Keep off the grass!

Now, I am all for neatly mown lawns in the right place - Tom Quad at Christ Church for instance. But I live in a small village, surrounded by fields of sheep.

We have asked for permission to leave our verge unmown for an experimental period to see which wild flowers reappear. The reaction has been interesting. But we are trying to save our part of the planet - small though it is.

Permission has been granted due to our position on the outer edge of the village and because the tidy village competition has a new wildlife aspect and points are given for initiatives. We are hoping our verge will look splendid by midsummer and that it will encourage others to ask to do the same.

Our actions could have wider implications though because most mowing machines use valuable fossil fuel whether they are electric or motor-driven. In fact verge mowing is costly whether the parish, town or county are paying. There are roads and junctions that obviously need the short haircut' treatment for road safety reasons. But we get our steep banks mowed on a very straight road. As a result wild flowers are disappearing.

The mowing problem is twofold. Obviously a regular mow affects plant vigour and self-seeding when they are continually trying to grow upwards and being thwarted. But the grass clippings, which are never collected, affect fertility. They rot into the ground and increase nitrogen and this encourages coarser grasses. They in turn smother wild flowers and finer grasses.

Car exhausts add to the problem of over-enrichment. They emit nitrogen. The result is lots of cow parsley and tall grasses.

I have been anti-verge mowing, unless it is for safety reasons, for years. The catalyst was a summer trip along a lane where blue geraniums (Geranium pratense), field scabious (Knautia arvensis) and common knapweed (Centaurea nigra) were alive with butterflies - especially Marbled Whites.

The spangled blue carpet stopped suddenly a mile from the next village, to be replaced by mown turf littered with dead grass. It was heartbreaking. I felt like Eve leaving the Garden of Eden.

The spangled blue flowers resumed once again, a mile the other side. Thankfully that village is now restoring its verges to their former pre-mowing splendour.

I am hoping that wild flowers and old grasses hidden in my verge's seed bank will make a reappearance. I may even get an orchid. The verge will be mowed occasionally and weeded. Even if no wild flowers appear in the first year, the long grass will still shelter amphibians and help brown butterflies.

New mowing regimes, initially introduced by the National Trust for cost-cutting reasons, have seen butterfly numbers increase. Anglesey Abbey, in Cambridgeshire, have allowed their meadows to grow and they have been rewarded with clouds of butterflies in July. The brown butterflies (gate keepers, marbled whites and meadow browns) lay their eggs on grasses. But other species have also been attracted by the green-winged orchids, ladies' bedstraw, cowslip and lesser and greater knapweed. As a result Angelsey Abbey is now one of the National Trust's Top Ten Butterfly Gardens.

In the garden setting you could create an area of long grass for yourself by allowing some of your lawn to grow. It will look attractive as long as you cut a smart path through it, or surround it with mown grass. On a breezy summer day the sward flows and moves attractively.

If you're ambitious you could create your own meadow. The late-summer meadow pictured has been planted up by Patrick Daniell who has an open garden in Itchen Abbas near Winchester. Patrick mows early in the year but removes all the clippings- just like they did in the old hay meadows.

Having long grass is pure eccentricity to some. But I want to be able to show my grandchildren wild flowers in the real, not in a book. So if you have a wildflower spectacle near you, protect it and get in touch with your local authority, or wildlife trust so that they know about it too. Because times are a changing!

Think before you mow!

It's started already. The first truly spring day and I heard the drone of several lawnmowers starting out on their quest to keep lawns, verges and paths a millimetre high. Within a few days the village mowing man was out and freshly mown grass lay everywhere. He will reappear every week until late October. Now I'm a fan of neatly mown lawns in the right place, on Christchurch's Tom Quad for instance. But I live in small village surrounded by fields of sheep.

We've asked for permission to leave our verge unmown for an experimental period to see which wild flowers reappear. The reaction has been interesting. But we are trying to save our part of the planet - small though it is. Permission has been granted due to our position on the outer edge of the village and because the Tidy Village competition has a new wildlife aspect and points are given for initiatives. We are hoping our verge will look splendid by midsummer and that it will encourage others to ask.

Our actions could have wider implications though because most mowing machines use valuable fossil fuel whether they are electric or motor driven. In fact verge mowing is costly whether the parish, town or county are paying. There are roads and junctions that obviously need the short haircut' treatment for road safety reasons. But we get our steep banks mowed on a very straight road. As a result wild flowers are disappearing.

The mowing problem is twofold. Obviously a regular mow effects plant vigour and self seeding when they are continually trying to grow upwards and being thwarted. But the grass clippings, which are never collected, affect fertility. They rot into the ground and increase nitrogen and this encourages coarser grasses. They in turn smother wild flowers and finer grasses. Car exhausts add to the problem of over enrichment. They emit nitrogen. The result is lots of cow parsley and tall grasses.

I have been anti verge mowing, unless it's for safety reasons, for years. The catalyst was a summer trip along a lane where blue geraniums (Geranium pratense), field scabious (Knautia arvensis) and common knapweed (Centaurea nigra) were alive with butterflies - especially Marbled Whites. Suddenly the spangled blue carpet stopped a mile away from the next village, to be replaced by mown turf littered with dead grass. It was heartbreaking. I felt like like Eve leaving the Garden of Eden. The spangled blue flowers resumed once again, a mile the other side. Thankfully that village is now restoring its verges to their former pre-mowing splendour.

I am hoping that wild flowers and old grasses hidden in my verge's seed bank will make a reappearance. I may even get an orchid. The verge will be mowed occasionally and weeded. Even if no wild flowers appear in the first year, the long grass will still shelter amphibians and help brown butterflies.

New mowing regimes, initially introduced by the National Trust for cost-cutting reasons, have seen butterfly numbers increase. Anglesey Abbey, in Cambridgeshire, have allowed their meadows to grow and they have been rewarded with clouds of butterflies in July. The brown butterflies (gate keepers, marbled whites and meadow browns) lay their eggs on grasses. But other species have also been attracted by the green-winged orchids, ladies' bedstraw, cowslip and lesser and greater knapweed. As a result Angelsey Abbey is now one of the National Trust's Top Ten Butterfly Gardens.

In the garden setting you could create an area of long grass for yourself by allowing some of your lawn to grow. It will look attractive as long as you cut a smart path through it, or surround it with mown grass. On a breezy summer day the sward flows and moves attractively.

If you're ambitious you could create your own meadow. The late-summer meadow pictured has been planted up by Patrick Daniell who has an open garden in Itchen Abbas near Winchester. Patrick mows early in the year but removes all the clippings- just like they did in the old hay meadows.

Having long grass is pure eccentricity to some. But I want to be able to show my grandchildren wild flowers in the real, not in a book. So if you have a wildflower spectacle near you, protect it and get in touch with your local authority, or wildlife trust so that they know about it too. Because times are a changing!