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Mow Less

Research has shown that people who mow their lawns once a fortnight over summer have more bees than those who mow every week. A study showed that lawns that were trimmed every two weeks had a third more bees than weekly cut grass; the difference is largely thanks to an increase in the number of flowers in longer grass. Interestingly, although gardens that only had their lawns cut every three weeks had more flowers, they didn’t have a higher number of bees – researchers think that grass that is too long made it more difficult for the bees to reach the flowers. That said, patches of long grass in spring are essential as nesting sites for solitary bees and bumblebees.