No Mow May Transforms Green Spaces into Wildflower Meadows

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Prizes on offer for best photos of flourishing parks and gardens

Margravine uncut during No Mow May

No Mow May is back in full swing in Hammersmith & Fulham, transforming areas of our parks and green spaces into lush bee-friendly wildflower meadows.

British conservation charity Plantlife, which aims to save threatened wild flowers, fungi and plants, launched No Mow May in 2019 and it has now grown to become an annual event, with landowners, gardeners and councils throughout the country taking part, including London boroughs.

Local residents of H&F are being urged to take part by leaving lawns to flourish. The campaign’s research has revealed that mowing your lawn less frequently can provide enough nectar sugar for ten times the number of bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and other pollinators.

Last year's results showed that gardeners who took part reported up to 250 species of plants, including wild garlic, wild strawberry, declining orchids and the rare meadow flower snakeshead fritillary, flowering within the grasses.

An area next to St. Paul's Church is left to run wild

“A mowed lawn means fewer flowers for bees and butterflies to visit, and no food plants or habitat for spiders and other insects to live,” said Francois Jordaan, Tenants and Residents Association Secretary for the Bayonne Estate in Fulham.

“Parks and especially semi-wild areas can make a significant difference in their survival. And they also benefit us humans: in air quality, in educational value, and simply the beauty of nature.”

H&F Council is also encouraging local nature enthusiasts to record the results of No Mow May by taking part in its photo competition.

Send in your snaps of the untamed areas in your garden or local area and the top four will win a £50 gift certificate to spend in the W6 Garden Centre in Hammersmith’s Ravenscourt Park.

Submit your pictures to press.office@lbhf.gov.uk by Tuesday 31 May.

Find out more about No Mow May and Plantlife.

 

 

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May 20, 2022