Even your lawn can be an important part of your wildlife garden.
Our neatly cut lawns constitute most of our total garden area and unfortunately, due to gardening traditions and the quest for neatness, our average lush, green lawn lacks biodiversity. Some of our smaller invertebrates find these vast, trimmed areas difficult to navigate and dispersal around the garden can be hampered. Try integrating varying grass heights when mowing; even leave patches to grow completely wild and see the garden flourish. Let a small area of the garden lawn flower, daisies and dandelions will regenerate quickly and give species of hoverflies, bees and moths a nectar source throughout the summer. Your lawn doesn’t have to turn into a hay meadow to attract wildlife and even relatively short-cut lawns can harbour a broad range of wildlife, if left to flower.
Why not try a few of our recommended, smaller flowering plants, that can benefit insects and still look well-kept? One of our favourites is chamomile, and you could try buying a few chamomile plugs from the garden centre to plant in your lawn. It spreads relatively quickly, has small daisy-like flowers and smells lovely when you tread on it in bare feet!
Our lawn favourites
Chamomile, Daisy, Dandelion, Buttercup, Oxeye daisy, Red clover, Kidney vetch, Dropwort, Primrose, Meadow sweet, Lady’s bedstraw, Meadow cranes bill, Horseshoe vetch, Cat’s ear, Field scabious, Fritillary Cowslip, Crocus, Meadow Saffron