If you’re a gardener who takes part in PlantLife’s No Mow May, you’ll be pleased to hear that a new study confirms you’re doing the right thing for pollinators. Morgan Morrison and colleagues studied how reducing mowing frequency improved insect populations. They found that moving from a cut every couple of weeks to once every six or twelve weeks more than doubled the abundance of pollinators, suggesting that PlantLife’s suggestion to follow No Mow May with Let Bloom June and Knee-high July is a big boost to the environment.
The team recruited sites in England’s prison and court network to mow lawns on varying schedules, from Nelson House, Middlesbrough in the north to Bodmin Magistrate Court in Cornwall. From the methods, it sounds like there might have been a bit of struggle with bureaucracy.
Initially, 45 sites showed interest in completing the study. However, data was not received from 40 sites due to lack of staffing, security issues, contractors mowing experimental patches, and the completion of only a subset of the study.
Each site that was able to contribute had four separate patches to watch. All the patches were cut in the week commencing June 5, 2023. Then one patch was cut every four weeks, another every six, and another every twelve weeks. The final patch was cut every two weeks, as usual to act as a control sample. Prison staff and offenders conducted weekly surveys, counting pollinators like bumblebees, honeybees, butterflies, and beetles, and also identifying plants with the aid of an information pack.
The researchers found that patches mown every six or twelve weeks had on average, 171% and 179% more pollinators, respectively, than control patches mown every two weeks. Areas left unmown for twelve weeks showed twice as many different types of flowering plants compared to frequently mowed areas. Morrison and colleagues found that flowers like selfheal, daisies, dandelions, buttercups, and white clover were the most common finds, providing important food sources for pollinators.
Previous research has shown that urban areas can be surprisingly important for wildlife conservation, so there might not be surprise at this kind of result. However, what this research does is quantify how much reduced mowing helps pollinators. Being able to go to meetings with percentage points is more convincing than having a good feeling about something. Morrison and colleagues suggest future research could look to see if there’s an increased effect if reduced mowing were continued for several years. They also suggest looking at the effect of rotational mowing so that not all patches are cut at once, meaning that all the flowers don’t disappear in one instant either.
Morrison, M.A., Bright, A. & Brown, M.J.F. 2025. Reduced mowing frequencies increase pollinator abundance in urban lawns in the UK. Conservation Evidence Journal, 22, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.52201/CEJ22/YGEL5296
Cross-posted to Bluesky, Mastodon & Threads.
Cover image: Canva.
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