Grass To Be Left Uncut in Wandsworth Parks During No Mow May

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Aim is to encourage biodiversity in local green spaces

A meadow has been created in Wandsworth Park. Picture: @WandsworthPark

Wandsworth Council’s lawnmowers are being left in the shed this May to give wildflowers and other pollinators the chance to bloom.

This is part of a national No Mow May campaign run by the charity Plantlife.

Subject to agreement with local residents, Enable Leisure and Culture, which manages the borough’s parks and open spaces, will allow selected communal lawns to grow.

On the second bank holiday weekend of May residents will be encouraged to visit these spaces in line with Government Covid-19 guidance and take part in the Every Flower Counts survey, as part of the No Mow campaign.

The survey will allow people to discover a variety of spring plants that are hidden on these sites and Plantlife will provide a spring “nectar score” for each site if people submit results.

In Putney and Roehampton local wildlife group SW15 Hedgehogs will be helping with the flower counting. If any other local groups would like to help they should contact biodiversity@enablelc.org.

The council’s also encouraging people to take part in Mo Mow May at home. Local gardeners are urged to leave the lawnmower or strimmer in the shed for a month to see what blossoms and which pollinators visit.

This is the first in a series of actions to deliver improvements for pollinators as part of the Wandsworth biodiversity strategy. As well as bees, the strategy also has measures to support the lifecycles of other pollinators, including butterflies and moths, hoverflies and some soldierflies.

Grasslands in the following areas will contribute to No Mow May:

Battersea Park
Christchurch Gardens
Falcon Park
King Georges Park
Lower Putney Common Cemetery
Putney Vale Cemetery
Morden Cemetery
St Marys Cemetery, Battersea Rise
Tooting Common
Wandsworth Common
Wandsworth Park

The results from Wandsworth will help produce specific new wildlife gardening advice later this year.

For more information on the Wandsworth biodiversity strategy click here.

To sign up to the Every Flower Counts survey to submit records and to receive a nectar score click here.

For more information on SW Hedgehogs visit @SW15Hedgehogs on twitter.

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April 30, 2021