One cannot discuss No Mow May without looking at the overall grassland management the borough undertakes.
Over the past decade, Ealing Council’s Parks Department has made significant changes in our mowing regimes which have improved the biodiversity of the borough.
The borough is responsible for cutting just over 300 hectares of grass. One hundred hectares have been dedicated as conservation meadows, which means these areas are cut and the arisings collected once per year to remove nutrients. This helps increase the range of plant species that can grow within the meadow because it reduces the competition, they would otherwise have with dominant grass species which thrive in nutrient-rich soils.
Two changes we have made within these meadow areas are to leave long margins on a rotational basis and increase the cutting height. This allows the thatch to increase, which provides excellent habitat for small mammals such as Field Voles which have increased significantly due to these changes. This in turn provides food for apex predators such as owls and birds of prey. We have seen a significant increase in species such as Little Owls, Kestrels, Red Kites, Buzzards and the return of nesting Barn Owls in the borough.
Along with leaving margins we have successfully received grant money and used Section 106 funds to buy and sow Yellow Rattle and native wildflower mixes into our conservation meadows. Yellow Rattle is a plant that parasitises on the dominant grass species within a meadow, and over time will spread throughout the meadow allowing areas for the wildflowers to flourish. This benefits pollinators and other insects by providing a wide and varied source of food in keeping with the pollinator strategy in the Biodiversity Action Plan.
Within the borough’s parks, we have left areas of long grass totalling close to 30 hectares which were once closely mowed green deserts. These areas now provide habitats for a variety of invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians, particularly when incorporated around ponds and scrapes.
Our colleagues in the Housing Department have also allowed us to leave some long grass areas on bigger estates but have also funded the sowing of annual flower areas which provide a rich food source in areas that were once closely mown.
On the borough’s highway verges the Parks Team have also introduced combinations of annual and native seed mixes where possible. We have also changed our mowers from the cylinder type (which cut very close to ground level) to rotary mowers which cut higher. Along with this, we raised the minimum cutting height of grass from 30mm to 50mm. This means we now see far more daisies and dandelions within the grass sward, and we have even begun to find orchids as well.
Unfortunately, while we create areas in parks that we leave long throughout the year or in May particularly, we cannot stop cutting highways and housing sites altogether. This means you may see cut areas in May, but if you look carefully, you will see that generally it will only be the highest dandelion flowers that are affected and within a week you will see even more flowers blooming than before. As it takes our grass crews 4-5 weeks to get through their rounds, rest assured that at least half the borough’s grass areas will remain uncut in May at any given time.
Brad Decker, Contract Monitoring Officer, Ealing Council
