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Staff Reporter, 18 Apr
Leave bare ground
It can be tempting to try and seed over or plant up bare patches, but a
few areas without any planting gives space for insects such as mining
bees to burrow down and build their nesting tunnels.
No need to feed
Feeding your established lawn isn’t necessary to get a luscious-looking
space, and is also an intensive use of money and resources that might
not pay off. For short patches of grass, such as paths through the
lawn, you could save yourself time and leave grass clippings to add
some nutrients.
Longer areas need clippings collected at the end of the season, but the
longer roots of tall species will give these grasses better access to
nutrients and water deep in the soil.
Love your earthworms
Gardeners can collect the fine soil from worm casts to add to potting
media, or leave these patches of earth for new plants to establish
within the lawn.
The worms under your turf can help to aerate the soil, recycle
nutrients and are food for blackbirds, hedgehogs and many other
animals.
The grass isn’t always greener
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A post shared by The School of Evolutionary Herbalism
(@evolutionary_herbalism)
If you want a green area in the garden then you might be better off
looking somewhere other than grasses, particularly as our summers are
more prone to drought with the changing climate.
Yarrow and plantain will stay green during drought periods while also
providing food for pollinators, so are ideal for welcoming more
wildlife into the garden and keeping green shades through the summer.
Embrace a mossy harvest
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Removing moss can involve a lot of hard work, but there are ways to
make the most of your moss. Lots of birds incorporate moss into their
nests, so leave any removed material out for them to collect.
Lawn moss also makes a good base for seasonal wreaths, so you could
recycle it into crafting material.
But leaving the moss will add damper micro-habitats into your lawn –
perfect for a diversity of microfauna like rotifers, free-living
nematodes and tardigrades (known as water bears) that contribute to
nutrient cycling and thus healthy soils and plants.
Welcome fungi
The little brown mushrooms on your lawn won’t be doing any harm to the
garden, and lots are especially beautiful when the light passes through
their translucent gills. Many species will even be beneficial,
recycling decaying matter back into the soil.
Experience nature
Just being outside in nature can help restore us after a period of
stress, and what better way to experience this than walking barefoot on
the grass?
Prevent floods
Any lawn is better than nothing – compared to a garden of hard
surfaces, one covered by a lawn and plants will help prevent flash
flooding locally, reduce air and noise pollution and have a cooling
effect. The wilder you let your lawn grow, the bigger the benefit to
nature and planet.