No mow may

I did no mow May, the grass is fairly lush now and better than before (no moss any more) but there is a fair amount of clover instead ?, however the bees were happy, so all in all a good experience.

Lawn grass grows in competition with many wild flowers. The weeds that you speak of are the wild flowers( plants) that manage to grow alongside lawn grass.
Wild flower meadows are stripped of their grass before wild seeds are planted.

I always wanted to leave my lawn to grow long, but never quite had the courage. Too late now, since I moved to a retirement flat and no longer have a lawn to grow. It would have been so interesting to see what flowers were there.

I have such happy memories of meadows full of flowers and unusual grasses when I was a child. What is a lawn in comparison?

Many of the roadside verges round here have been left unmowed. There are sheets of clover and bird’s foot trefoil. Lovely.

I have a wild garden. Not every inch is wild. I mow parts and leave other parts mowed around to show that it's intentional. Not that anyone other than a postperson or two sees it except us as we're a bit off road.

About seven years ago I started a list of wild plant species in the garden. I'm still finding new ones. The current count is 218. There are cultivated plants too but fewer of those because roe and red deer come through and eat them, especially in the spring.

It has been fascinating and continues to be thrilling. There are several wildflowers still to bloom, including wild angelica, whorled caraway, knapweed, devil's-bit scabious. What's in flower at the moment includes greater bird's-foot trefoil, meadow buttercups, creeping buttercups, red clover, white clover, lesser stitchwort, mouse-ear chickweed, bog stitchwort, selfheal, sharp-flowered rush, soft rush, compact rush, slender sedge, slender st.john's-wort, perforate st.john's-wort, yellow sedge, monkey flower, meadowsweet, etc, etc, etc.

I tried a no-mow area last year and couldn't cope with the 'wildness' of it. It detracted from my borders and everything just looked a mess and I'm not a neat freak by any means.

As a compromise this year I have planted up three big pots with a wildflower seed mix and now have mini meadows in pots besides my bench where I can watch the bees and other pollinators when they call. I keep my lawn tidy. I suppose if someone had room they could make a wild flower border. Think it's the best of both worlds if you can't stand the unkempt look.

I ended up with no mow May because of the weather, the grass was about 9 inches high by the end and it took me over three hours to cut, 15 full grass collectors heavy with damp grass and a day on my back to recover. Never again.

I do actually have an area of grass that I have only cut once a year for the last 25 years. I will stick with that, but no more.

Ethelwashere1 Your result was par for the course. My 25 year old patch does not look remotely like the carefully cultivated and nurtured 'wild flower meadows' you see in magazines and on TV. To get and maintain a wild flower garden like that is hard work.

After 25 years I have a few crocus in spring, followed by dandelions in the spring, followed cow parsley, that seeds all over the garden, those big coarse road side daisies, ragwort, also goosegrass and bind weed. I confess to pulling up all the nettle that was taking over at one point.

Beautiful wld flower meadow it is not.

I converted a rose bed along the front of my house directly behind the low hedge into a wild flower garden many years ago. In the back garden I put in a little wildlife pond and round it I allowed the grass to grow with a mown strip leading to the cold frame and compost heap. The pond has been a success. Every year apart from one we get lots of baby frogs and the birds and insects love it but the unmown grass became an eyesore despite me planting plugs of different wildflowers. I gave up and cut the grass which has now reverted back to lawn. The back of the pond is densely planted giving an ideal refuge for baby frogs.
The strip in the front garden was seeded and plugs of different wildflowers added as I grew them from seed, begged them from neighbours who were happy for me to remove what they considered weeds such as buttercups, daisies, clover etc. and rescued from wasteland which was going to be built upon. I collected seed of plants such as pink campion, cranesbill and vipers bugloss and grew them on in plugs so as to give them a fighting chance. Several garden flowers worked their way in and I left them.
All in all it is a lot of work to maintain. There are many points during every season except winter when it looks great but times when it just looks like a garden that has got out of hand.
I have lately thought of changing it back to something more easily maintained as I am not getting any younger but the hum of insects makes me want to continue providing a haven for them.

This is mine, small wildlife pond, small area of lawn and the wild bit at the back and I love it…

A hotel we stayed at recently had a beautiful garden but also a large meadow area. I wish I'd photographed it. It was gorgeous. The heads of the wild flowers looked like they were floating in the air above the grasses.

Thank you all for your comments. I think next year I will plant a few pots with wild seeds. My neighbour has done this and it looks great. Of course some will self seed into the grass as well.