Gardening with
Wildlife in Mind

Managing Lawns

• Maintaining formal lawns consumes vast amounts of energy – reduce their size and replace parts with wildflower meadows.
• Try turning part of your lawn into a wildflower habitat.
• Hay crops grown on lawns provide nectar and pollen for many insects.
• Hay crops on lawns offer seeds for birds, especially if the hay is cut and left to dry. Sparrows, bullfinches and even corn buntings may come in to feed.
• Hay crops on lawns provide cover during the summer for amphibians - but cut the lawn carefully to avoid fatalities.
• Lawn meadows can be a refuge for declining wild flowers.
• Lawn meadows make good spider habitat.
• Allow an old flower-rich lawn to grow a hay crop between May and July for a show of wild flowers.
• Sow new lawns with a wildflower mix, scattering the seed sparingly to avoid grasses out-competing the wild flowers.
• Mow new wildflower lawns in the first year and then let them grow longer for a few months each summer in subsequent years.
• Don’t let yellow rattle seed for too long or you will kill the grass rather than reduce its growth rate!
• Cut a hay meadow after it has stopped flowering and revert to mowing it regularly.
• Use yellow rattle to control the growth of your grass and give wild flowers a chance.
• When you let a lawn grow long, start with a narrow strip furthest from your house, and mow 1' or so less each time. This gives a gradual rise in lawn height which is more pleasing to the eye than a sudden transition from short to long grass.
• Allow a clover rich lawn to have a flowery break for a week or two longer. The bees will thank you!
• Lawns facing the sun can attract solitary bees - allow them to nest undisturbed.
• Add fritillaries to your meadow - cheap to buy and easy to grow from seed in a pot.
• If badgers cross your lawn, decking can be used to cover up the signs, whilst leaving their paths undisturbed.
• Red clover, knapweed, bird’s foot trefoil, vetches and yellow rattle are excellent food plants for long-tongued bumblebees: grow them in your lawn.
• Bird’s foot trefoil and harebells make a stunning combination on a summer flowering lawn.
• You can make a lawn richer in flowers by adding pot-grown plants.
• Collect wildflower seed and grow it up in pots for your adding to your lawn.
• Yellow rattle is a grass parasite and must be sown direct into a lawn. Place seed in loose soil, such as worm-casts, in the summer and firm it down. Let nature do the rest.
• Let the flowers bloom – delay cutting part of your lawn until midsummer.
• When maintaining your lawn as a meadow, mow a margin around so the long grass doesn't collapse into the flower beds.
• If you have a big lawn or meadow, mow a path through it so you can watch the wildlife without trampling.
• Mow any areas you want as paths frequently, to prevent long grass developing and animals sheltering there which may then be harmed by lawnmowers.
• Set the lawnmower a little higher in summer: longer grass loses less water and will not go as brown in dry weather.