Why letting the grass grow is worth a rethink

A closely cropped lawn is a pleasant thing, and nobody is suggesting you give yours up entirely. But a lawn cut short every week is close to a desert as far as wildlife is concerned. There is no shelter in it, nothing to feed on and no seed heads to overwinter in. Meanwhile the mower burns fuel, makes noise and swallows a good few hours every month between March and October.

Reducing how often you mow, and cutting only the parts of the lawn you actually use, is one of the simplest conservation acts available to any householder. You do not need to rewild the whole garden. You just need to let the grass grow taller in a few places and keep the paths tidy.

Start with a patch, not the whole lawn

Begin with something manageable: a metre-wide strip along a fence, a corner behind the shed, or a rectangle in the middle of the lawn. Two or three square metres is plenty to see results in the first summer. Mark it with a couple of canes so nobody mows it by mistake.

Choose a spot that gets some sun. Wildflowers generally want at least half a day of direct light, so a shaded patch under a tree will mostly produce long, floppy grass rather than colour. If your lawn has been fed and treated for years, the soil will be rich and the grass will dominate at first. That is normal.

• Leave the edges of the garden, fence lines and hedge bases rough; these make ideal corridors for insects and small mammals.
• Keep the patch away from the clothes line, the football goal and the route to the bin store.
• If neighbours are close, tell them what you are doing. A short explanation prevents a lot of tutting.

Mow paths only

Once the patch is marked out, mow the routes around it and leave the rest alone. Set the mower to its highest setting, usually around 50 to 60mm, and go over the paths every two to three weeks rather than weekly. That is enough to keep the garden looking deliberate and walkable.

If your meadow area is large, a strimmer with a nylon line is often quicker than a mower for the first cut of the season, because long grass clogs a rotary mower and stalls it. Cut the paths wider than you think: 60 to 80cm is comfortable. Rounded corners look better than sharp angles, and gentle curves make the whole thing look designed rather than neglected.

Lift the blade rather than cutting to the same height every time. Scalping long grass down to 20mm in one pass shocks the plants and leaves bare soil for weeds. If you are bringing a path back to lawn height after winter, do it in two cuts a fortnight apart.

Timing the cut: once is often enough

The main meadow area needs one cut a year in most small gardens, with a second later if it looks tired. The traditional window is late July to early August, after most wildflowers have set seed. A September cut is also fine and often better for insects, though the grass may be rank and the hay harder to handle.

If you are cutting a meadow patch for the first time:

• Cut in late summer, when flowers have finished and seed has dropped.
• Leave the cuttings on the ground for two or three days so seed can fall through.
• Rake them off and compost or use them as mulch. Left in place, they smother the plants beneath.
• Avoid cutting between November and March. Tussocks and hollow stems are where insects overwinter.
• Walk the patch before you start. Hedgehogs, frogs, slow worms and ground-nesting birds use long grass, so cut from the centre outwards.

Clear the clippings and nature does the rest

Removing the hay is the most useful thing you can do after cutting. Years of mowing and feeding create fertile soil, and wildflowers do best on poorer ground. Every time you cart clippings away you take nutrients with you, and over three or four seasons the coarser grasses thin out and finer plants find room.

What arrives depends on your soil and what grows nearby. Expect oxeye daisy and black knapweed on heavier ground, birds-foot trefoil and red clover on lighter patches, with selfheal, yarrow, plantain and buttercups filling in. Yellow rattle, which feeds partly on grass roots, helps where grass domination is stubborn and can be sown in autumn. In damp corners you may get cuckooflower and ragged robin. The seed bank in the soil and the wind will do a surprising amount of the work.

What you will see, and what to watch for

Within a summer you should notice more bumblebees, hoverflies and solitary bees working the flowers. Longer grass supports meadow browns and ringlets, and if you are lucky, common blue or small copper butterflies. Seed heads feed goldfinches through autumn and winter, while tussocky grass shelters the beetles and spiders that feed bats and birds.

A few practical points. Keep pathways passable so the garden still feels safe and usable, especially with young children or visitors who need firm footing. Be tick-aware if you live near rough grazing or woodland, and check yourself after sitting in long grass. If your garden is small and neighbours are close, keep the front border mown and let the back go longer; the compromise usually keeps everyone happy.

You will also save fuel and time. Cutting a small lawn fortnightly instead of weekly across a season is several hours back, less petrol, less noise and fewer trips to the tip with grass. That is a decent bargain for the wildlife your longer grass will bring.