Let grass grow
Difficulty rating
Materials
No materials needed.
This should be possible as part of usual school maintenance.
Indicative Costs
Free - in a school it could be possible to save money by not needing to mow some areas of the amenity grassland. A strimmer may be required for the first cut of grass that has been allowed to grow longer.
Method
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Choose areas that aren’t often used and don't need to be kept short for sports or recreation.
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You can change your mowing frequency for at least part of your grounds to help wildlife during the month of May, or all year round.
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Choose an area to cut less frequently and cut it once every four weeks to encourage production of flowers and nectar.
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Leaving areas of your grass uncut will allow species that need to grow taller in order to flower to flourish. For example, ox-eye daisies, red clover and knapweed.
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Don't use weedkiller as this will kill the flowers growing in your grounds, as well as contaminating the soil around it.
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You can mow paths through the long grass too, to make the area more accessible.
Benefits
The UK has lost nearly 97% of flower rich meadows since the 1970’s. These habitats provide vital food needed by pollinators, like bees and butterflies. A healthy lawn with some long grass and wildflowers benefits wildlife, tackles pollution and can even lock away carbon below ground. Longer lawns offer birds the perfect foraging spots especially when there are plenty of wildflowers in amongst the grass. Areas of longer grass and wildflowers provide habitat for invertebrates which are food sources for other wildlife like bats and hedgehogs. Plantlife research found that mowing your grass less frequently can provide enough nectar sugar for ten times the amount of bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and other pollinators.
Maintenance
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The long grass can be returned to lawn whenever you like, by strimming and then reinstating a regular mowing routine.
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In the long term, Plantlife recommends cutting sections of the lawn at different frequencies, to allow short-growing flowers to flourish alongside longer ones.
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Mowing twice a year will maintain a meadow.
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Mowing once every 4-6 weeks will maintain a shorter, re-flowering lawn where flowers like Bugle, Self-heal, Red Clover and Lady’s Bedstraw can thrive.