Grow a wildlife-friendly lawn
Take a break from mowing your lawn and create a busy wildlife habitat.
Letting your lawn grow a little wild in some places will save you time, attract pollinators and other wildlife and bring new sights and smells to your garden. It will also make your lawn more resilient to heavy rain and droughts.
© Vera Buhl via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
You will need
to avoid mowing completely or let patches at the edges and around trees grow long
to avoid using fertilisers, pesticides and weed killers on your lawn
to consider adding wildflowers, such as oxeye daisy or yarrow, and different native grass species to attract more wildlife
How this can help
By leaving the mower in the shed, plants already present in your lawn will have the chance to grow and bloom. Some might traditionally be thought of as weeds due to their ability to spread easily, but they are useful resources for pollinators and other animals.
Longer grass will also provide shelter and egg-laying opportunities for insects.
The invertebrates that call your garden home are an important part of birds' diets – you may spot blackbirds hopping across your lawn in search of earthworms, for example. An abundance of insects and longer grass may also attract other animals, such as hedgehogs, lizards and frogs.
Further reading
Discover how to grow a wildlife-friendly lawn
