The grass-cutting mistakes driving wildlife away from your garden

Butterfly populations are down 80%, and garden bird numbers are ‘declining seriously’ across the UK, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). So it’s likely you’ve noticed changes to the amount of wildlife that usually visits your garden.

Yet there could be two simple adjustments you could make to the way you cut your grass that could make all the difference to the number of critters you want to provide a habitat for.

“Lawns, while central to many garden designs, are often overlooked as important ecosystems in favour of the plants in beds that border them,” says Helen Bostock, Senior Wildlife Specialist at the RHS. “But they’re home to a huge amount of wildlife and help mitigate the impact of climate change.”

The two major grass-cutting mistakes made by many gardeners are:

• Cutting the grass too short
• Mowing the lawn too often

The ‘Bring Your Lawn to Life’ campaign suggests that gardeners raise the blade on their mower. Cutting the grass too short not only impacts the amount of wildlife that would otherwise benefit from its length, but it can also affect the depth of your grass roots (the longer the grass, the deeper and healthier the root).

The initiative is also asking gardeners to reduce the frequency of mowing to once every three to four weeks. This allows flowers such as dandelion and speedwell to bloom, which helps pollinators.

A manicured lawn stirs feelings of pride in many gardeners around the country. And rightly so – lawns can take a lot of work and dedication to maintain year after year.

But not all gardeners agree that a cropped lawn is the best approach. Monty Don once told the Radio Times magazine: “Cutting grass… is about the most injurious thing you can do to wildlife. 

“Letting grass grow – which is, after all, a pretty passive thing to do – is probably the single most effective thing you can do in any garden of any size to encourage particularly insect life, but also small mammals, invertebrates, reptiles.”

The Wildlife Trusts and RHS say that lawns left to grow long are shown to help mitigate flooding by better soaking up rainwater. They also capture pollutants and, through their cooling properties, counter the ‘heat-island effect’ in urban areas. This occurs when warm air becomes trapped at lower levels, as well as the temperature generally being warmer due to human activities.

Longer grass is also better at resisting browning during dry spells than short grass, owing to its longer roots. These benefits continue into the height of summer and provide all-important habitat for a whole host of insects including ants, bees and butterflies.

If your longer lawn still feels a bit bare, or you’re short on dandelions, then why not add some wildflower seeds into the mix?

You may have not had much luck scattering wildflower seeds or seed ‘bombs’ in the past, and that’s because it helps to sow the seeds in a greenhouse, cold frame or windowsill in early spring. This way, they have a better chance at establishing themselves before planting out into your lawn.

The campaign suggests other ways gardeners can adjust their lawn care to attract more wildlife to their garden and support the natural environment:

• Keep some areas short as pathways, sunbathing spots, and foraging areas for worm-eating birds. For the rest, let the grass grow a little longer, offering shelter to grasshoppers and other insects. In turn, these creatures are food for frogs, birds, and bats.

• Allow parts of your lawn to grow long for the whole summer so that caterpillars can feed and transform into butterflies and moths.
• Turn a blind eye to the odd bare patch within a lawn as these provide sites for ground nesting bees.
• If you do want a luscious green carpet, consider growing hardy yarrow within your lawn or, where there is limited footfall, experiment with a tapestry lawn and grow herbs and flowers such as chamomile and creeping thyme.