We have areas where we have introduced a reduced mow schedule.
Regular Mow Areas
Some areas which such as the grass area in front of church or the social area outside the Narthex, will get mown regularly throughout the summer. This includes areas where people may walk eg around graves, or sit such as the social area.
Reduced Mow Areas
We have the following areas which are reduced mow. By letting the grass grow longer, this will enable plants and grasses to flower, and be used to feed pollinators, before turning to seed before being mown. The mowing schedule will impact the sort of things that thrive in this environment. We will continue to monitor, and may influence our future mowing schedules.
In order to separate the now mow areas from the normal mow areas, we are trying a variety of edges to deliniate the areas. In 2023, we did not deliniate the areas, and until the grass started to grow, the long grass looked untidy. This year (2024) we are building some low edges. As our edges are being made from free materials, we are experiementing to see what works.
Spring & Summer Meadow
Summer meadows have lots of flowers in May to July – plants such as bird’s foot trefoil, knapweed, hawkweeds, selfheal and buttercup. Generally you would mow a summer meadow sometime in the spring between February and April, and then not until the flowering season is over, so July or August. We have two areas which are marked out as summer meadow.
Spring meadows are a bit like the summer meadow, but the flowers might be flowering bulbs or flowers such as from the primula family including cowslips. Because we have bulbs, the first cut is delayed till later in the summer, after the plants have flowered. We have a small area of spring meadow under the tree in the graveyard. We have planted daffodils in this area, and it is home to a few cowslips, as well as other spring flowers.
Tussocky Grass
We are aiming tussocky grass, at the back of the graveyard and alongside the driveway between the car park and the Rectory. This will give some long grass to provide cover for small animals and invertibrates.
Tussocky grass gets a cut every year (or every other year) in the aumtum. By cutting in the autumn, it gives the grass time to grow a little before the winter starts. Because the grass is long, we will need to scythe the long grass rather than mow. This has the advantage of making it easier for anything living in the long grass to escape.
Shown below are three different areas, picture taken in February. Come back later in the year, to see what happens over the summer!
We are surveying each area. Does our schedule increase the types of flowers? Do we get more insects? Do we need to adjust our schedule based on what grows?
The picture below was from one of the summer meadow areas in July, with self-heal, birds foot trefoil, clover. It was lovely to watch the butterflies with flashes of blue, brown, white and red as they enjoyed the flowers in the garden.
References: Caring for God's Acre - Grassland Management