With aesthetics and morals being scrutinized, the traditional mowing system was abandoned

Last modified on Monday, March 15, 2021 at 13.37 EDT

They were once a status symbol of the rich, and later the pride and joy of the suburbs. But the striped, tightly manicured lawns are becoming an endangered species.

This week, Monty Don called on the predominantly male Britons to be "obsessed with" clean lawns, saying that mowing powered by fossil fuels is noisy, "this is the most harmful thing done to wild animals." Things".

As gardeners turn lawns into wildflower meadows, or adopt the increasingly popular #NoMowMay promise from Plantlife, an ecological conservation charity, stately houses, parks, and sports fields are abandoning traditional mowing systems and allowing wildflowers to flourish.

Even the quadrilaterals of Oxford Cambridge University, regarded by traditionalists as having the best lawns in the world, are stepping into rewilding. Last year, King's College, Cambridge University turned the lawn next to the church into a piece of grass.

The lawn is planted by the wealthiest people who can afford to hire people with sickles. In the 1830s, the first cylinder mower was pulled by a pony wearing soft leather boots to protect the grass. But the arrival of the suburbs, and the advent of gasoline-powered lawn mowers in 1902, caused the cult of perfect lawns to become a national obsession.

Now, the aesthetics and even morals of striped lawns have been challenged. American writer Michael Pollan declared: "The lawn is the product of nature's elimination of death and sex."

Trevor Dines of Plantlife said Don’s comments were “music in our ears” and the organization urged people to suspend mowing in May and let daisies, bird's feet clover and dandelions bloom on the grass. .

Participants in the charity "Count per Flower" survey have discovered 207 flowering plants on the lawn, including bee orchids, meadow saxifrage, and ophthalmic plants. Plantlife calculated that the nectar provided by one square meter of lawn with flowers is enough to sustain an average of 3.8 bees per day.

Dines said that Plantlife has been overwhelmed by local authorities and other institutions, such as hospital trust funds, seeking to maximize the production of flowers and nectar in parks and green spaces.

"It's a win-win for everyone," Dines said. "You are reducing gasoline costs, carbon dioxide emissions, and the time required to complete work, which is a huge benefit for wildlife."

The blockade last spring caused the stately home lawn to go wild inadvertently. The gardener’s vacation meant that the National Trust had to conduct wild experiments in some of its 250 formal gardens and parks.

Olive groves in Overbeck, Devon are usually harvested once a week, but are not harvested between May and September to form wildflower meadows. Chris Groves, the chief gardener, said: "It looks much better than mowed grass, so this is how we intend to manage it in the future."

The Royal Horticultural Society recommends that gardeners brown the lawn instead of watering it in summer, and consider planting drought-tolerant wildflower meadows on traditional grasslands. In the gardens in Wesley, Surrey, the 50-acre botanical garden and conifer lawn are now managed as grass, rather than being felled.

A garden designer, Alex Collins, said that "tidy" lawns are a trend that has been passed down from generation to generation. "I have met some people-men-who are fascinated by the'weed and feed' on the lawn. They are often Monty Tang's age, but this may disappear in a generation," she said.

Her clients still want grass — for dogs, children, or recliners — but they are keen on wildflower and clover lawns, a nod to the Elizabethan preference for chamomile or thyme scented lawns. "I often hear my clients say'we want a garden that is friendly to wildlife'," she said. "There must be a movement towards things like wild flowers and turf."

But the spotless lawn retained its champion. The National Trust maintains "exquisite lawns" in gardens such as Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, Polesden Lacey in Surrey, and Bicklin Hall in Norfolk, which they consider to be the "spirit of the place." a part of. David Hedges-Gower, the founder of the Lawn Society, believes that the wildflower meadow at King’s College “looks like a muddy field for four or five months of the year”.

Hedges-Gower worries that well-tended lawns are victims of a movement between the popular trend of wildflower meadows and the less popular sprawl of artificial turf. He initiated a petition to ban plastic grass. "The lawn should be considered an environmental necessity," he said. "Take the grass away from our planet and we won't be here."

Hedges-Gower believes that Don’s criticism of tidy lawns is based on the stereotyped view derived from the shaved lawns of the previous era. It is possible to have clean and environmentally friendly native lawns.

"British lawns can last a long time," he said. “We have battery-powered cylinder lawn mowers, you can see the stripes there, we have organic fertilizers and native grasses that don’t need watering. [TV show] The world of gardeners needs to go out of the 1970s and start talking about modern lawn care. "

Even Plantlife points out the benefits of long and short grasses: its research shows that mowing the lawn once a month maximizes the abundance of flowers, and the combination of short and long grasses can optimize biodiversity and flowering period.

Nick Fraser, the chief gardener of Nunington Hall, the North Yorkshire National Trust, uses trimmed grass to frame the wildflower area to ensure that "it does not appear to be overlooked or unmanaged." He also created a tapestry lawn with a square daisy, self-healing and bird's foot clover.

"When we first started planting wildflower meadows, people often asked:'Is your lawn mower broken?' No one says that now," he said.

Fraser said that ten years ago, curtains would twitch on untidy suburban lawns. "In 10 years, people will mumble on the manicured lawns, thinking: This is not very friendly to wild animals."

This article was revised on March 15, 2021. Due to an editing error, Cliveden’s National Trust property is located in Buckinghamshire, not Berkshire as described in the earlier version.