The royal family has long supported greener gardening practises, with King Charles pioneering sustainable gardening ideas for almost 40 years. This spring, see Duchess Sophie join the King on his quest to adopt a gentler approach to gardening with her suggestion of rewriting the rules of ‘No Mow May’.
“What happens to the insects after May?’ Just confining it to May doesn’t make any sense to me,” says the Duchess rather pointedly.
During the exclusive interview, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, speaks passionately about her feelings towards the ‘No Mow May’ trend and how she personally prefers to extend the practice well into the summer months.
“When we get to this time of the year, we start to talk about No Mow May,” she explains. “I always say: ‘Well, what happens to the insects after May?’ Just confining it to May doesn’t make any sense to me. Our temperature fluctuates, so [the insects’ eggs] don’t necessarily hatch. They continue to lay their eggs and then they hatch, but they continue doing that throughout the summer. So [at home], we have No Mow May, June, July…”
Cultivating a wildlife-friendly space by leaving areas of your lawn unmown is an easy but brilliant way to support all the unsung heroes of the ecosystem, from bees and butterflies to the bird species that eat slugs, including blackbirds, magpies, thrushes and robins.
(Image credit: Future)
Why we will be extending ‘No Mow May’
Interviewed by gardening legend Alan Titchmarsh, who also shares her organic gardening beliefs, Sophie talks about designing her first garden for the upcoming Royal Windsor Flower Show. Despite it being a one-day event, Duchess Sophie has designed her garden with the hope that it will have a lasting impact on how gardeners maintain their plots.
Her sustainable garden design features what the Duchess calls “wilder areas”, planted with “lots of grasses and movement”. By showcasing her respect for insect life and wildlife preservation, she hopes to inspire a more organic approach to gardening.
We feel certain enough to say that her garden design will also feature plenty of plants for pollinators to provide a plentiful source of food for the insects living in the longer grasses.
Our w&h resident gardener, Orpheus Alexander, agrees with Duchess Sophie’s approach to extend the no-mow policy for the greater good. Here he shares how he does “No Mow May – but better” to be able to use the lawn throughout the summer still…
“I mow a simple circle and leave the edges to grow wild. It keeps the space useable, but still gives pollinators and wildlife somewhere to live and feed,” Orpheus explains.
“The important bit is what happens next. If you let it grow, avoid cutting it back hard in June, because by then things have moved in. I keep these edges longer right through the season, often until winter.”
In the spirit of helping the garden grow naturally, we’re also big fans of rainwater harvesting to provide a sustainable alternative to watering garden plants. We’re hugely in favour of making small tweaks to maintain a kinder approach when tending to our plots.
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