Support nature in Wiltshire by not mowing your lawn
Be part of Plantlife's No Mow May campaign in doing so
If you’re tired of mowing the lawn, you don’t need to this May – and it will help the local environment.
The No Mow May campaign, run by Salisbury-based organisation Plantlife, aims to give insects and plants an early boost to their seasons by allowing natural areas to grow wild.
Plantlife CEO Ian Dunn says it is a critical time of year for nature: “It's so important in May, because it's still relatively cold, there's not very much food around for insects, for birds and butterflies and the kind of flowers you get on your lawn are really good for those insects.
“So, it gives the wildlife around us an early start to the season,” he added.
By simply not mowing lawns or natural spaces across the county, we can make a huge impact in benefitting the environment.
Ian explained the impact we could have by not cutting the grass: “On the 23 million lawns around the UK, that if we were to not cut them throughout May, and this does assume that people are using a petrol mower, it would save more carbon emissions than the entire HGV lorry fleet in the UK.”
"If we foster greater biodiversity, we can increase the amount of carbon captured and locked away underground by lawns.
“We also know is that the more diverse so the more types of plants we have on our lawns, the more carbon we capture under our lawns,” Ian said, adding: “That's probably equivalent to about 20 million tons of carbon.”
Even people without lawns can get involved. Ian said: “Having pot plants on little bits of doorsteps or on windowsills having window boxes all helps, and particularly if you're using native British flowers.
“But there are, there are many other ways we can engage. We can work with local community groups. We can speak to our counsellors, our local representatives. We can ask them to change the way they choose to manage the Council land or the road verges,” he added.
If we are to continue to appreciate nature and enjoy what it has to offer, Ian says we must all take action:
“We have the pledge of 30 by 30, which is to protect 30% of land and oceans by 2030, and that’s going to require all of us to be active.
“To be active can be to join a protest march, or talking to your volunteer, working with community groups or joining conservation groups.”