No More No-Mow May

As you may remember, we've been doing "No-Mow May" this year, which means we haven't mowed the lawn all month. (It's for the benefit of emerging insects.) This is how things were looking yesterday when I came home from work.

Here's another shot from a lower angle. As you can see, the grass was about a foot high in places.

The daisies grew much longer stems, and we've also had at least six ragwort plants appear. I found some fox-and-cubs (I thought it had all died) and yet another teasel. Not mowing definitely led me to notice more plants in the lawn.

BUT...

...things were feeling just a bit too chaotic out there. I felt claustrophobic, unable to walk anywhere but on my single path through the grass. So yesterday evening, I ended May a few days early and mowed.

You've got to admit, it looks better.

As a legacy of "No-Mow May," however, we've decided to leave a corner of the garden unmowed all summer. Three of the ragwort plants are in this zone, as well as daisies and creeping buttercup, and it backs up to "Borageland," our wildflower area. We're also no longer mowing around the bird bath and bird feeders.

All told, we've devoted massive amounts of our garden to insects and wildlife. The rear area behind the bench and shed is full of trees, shrubs and borage (alkanet) that we don't touch at all. That's where the foxes tend to hide out. (In fact I saw a fox trot across the lawn as I wrote this post.)

And the sides, although planted, are full of ground cover that we don't do much to maintain -- so they're basically wild too. Even the flowerbeds in the center and by the back door are not very carefully tended and contain lots of wildflowers like asters and dandelions. I think we're doing our part for the birds and bugs.

Speaking of wild plants, look how big this burdock has grown! Insane!

Anyway, at least now Mrs. Kravitz can't complain about me to the council. Or, I suppose she could, but I think she'd have less of a case.