The “Plantlife” charity calls on everyone not to mow lawns in May – “No Mow May”. This is important because it helps bees & other pollinators and also meadow flowers, all in alarming decline. Since the 1930s over 97% (7.5 million acres) of the UK’s meadows and flower-rich grasslands has been destroyed. May is the month when grassland flowers are at their peak.

Plantlife conducts an annual “Every Flower Counts” survey in the final week of May, quantifying nectar sugar produced on lawns. In 2019 the survey showed an average uncut English lawn produced 12 grams/day, enough to support 1,088 honey bees. The data gathered helps understanding of the distribution of flowering wild plants and of pollinators.

If you’ve been taking part in “No Mow May”, please round it off with “Every Flower Counts”; if you have kept on mowing, maybe you could find a patch of unmown grass somewhere to do the survey. It doesn’t take much time, and is easy. There’s more information at https://www.plantlife.org.uk/everyflowercounts/ , an animation about what to do, and the place to enter your survey results. Later, you’ll get a “nectar score” from your own flower count, showing how many bees that patch feeds.