Setting Up a No-Mow Zone.

Luke Morton
Plantlife Moderator





"Never ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself" said Eleanor Roosevelt and with that advice in mind, I have decided to take Plantlife's Say No to the Mow challenge by making a No-Mow Zone in my own back garden.

For those who have not heard of it, Say No to the Mow is a bit like a botanical Movember: both involve allowing a hirsute patch to flourish where normally you'd keep it cropped short. But instead of the hair on your upper lip, Plantlife is asking you to spare a small "No-Mow Zone" of lawn from your mower's blades this summer. Then as it begins to flourish, you can download a free ID sheet featuring fourteen key wild flowers and enter which ones you spot online. The results will form a blooming great map of the UK, showing what’s in flower and when.

But first things first: Where should I put my No-Mow Zone? Plantlife botanist (and passionate gardener) Dr Trevor Dines suggested choosing a spot away from the beds.

The grass here has not been mowed since last autumn. As a rule of thumb, the longer its been since you last mowed your patch the more likely you'll get wildflowers. March is a key cut-off month as plants are beginning to sprout for the spring, so any mowing that occurs later could stop some in their tracks.

Now I need to mark it out. Here's what I'll need:

There's no limit to the size or shape of your No-Mow Zone. You could make it the entire lawn or spell out your name. We say the ideal size for a No-Mow Zone is 2m squared, but as I've only a small garden I'm opting for 1m x 1m. Using the tape measure I place a peg at each corner:

With the pegs in place I then apply some string to keep that hungry mower at bay...

A finishing touch: my No-Mow Zone security guard. Would you mess with a gnome like this?

And there it is! Ready to flourish.

Next stop downloading my free ID sheet and adding what pops up to the online map which of the wildflowers pop up.

Joining me and my gnome in Saying No to Mow? We'd love to hear how you're getting on. Share your stories, sightings and photos with us on Twitter adding #saynomow.

• Find out more about Say No to the Mow

Making a Haven for Butterflies and Bees

Ali Murfitt
Events Officer





When you think of wildflowers, what do you see? All too often people think of the countryside - meadows, bluebell woods or country lanes - but there's plenty of places in our towns and cities that can (or could) play host to them too. And where you get wildflowers, you get pollinators too: butterflies, bees and hoverflies. So when the Co-operative asked Plantlife to help it provide a "wildlife makeover" of seven unloved patches of urban land as part of their Plan Bee campaign, it wasn't hard to say "yes please!"

Hundreds of people nominated a patch of unloved, overgrown land in their local area to be turned into a "pollinator patch". The seven winners were then chosen by Co-operative members from across the UK. One of these was at Galston in East Ayshire and in October 2013 headed off to get started. Our mission: to help create a wildflower haven for bees, butterflies and the local community.

© Andrew Macdonald

The land in question surrounds Barrmill Hall, a communal building used by the people of Galston to provide daily activities for children, their parents and carers. When we arrived we were greeted by the very enthusiastic ladies of Galston Babies and Toddlers group and work soon got underway.

The main task was preparing the ground for wildflower seed sowing. In nature, plants generally shed their seeds on earth that hasn't been prepared, but a bit of a rake over increases their chances of germinating successfully by getting them into the ground as opposed to on top of dry or rocky soil. Everyone got stuck in, there were rakes a plenty and lots of muddy boots by the end.


Meanwhile there was apple planting to get on with...

© Andrew Macdonald

We dug fairly deep holes and put in plenty of compost to give them a good start. One was a crab apple, who’s sweet scented flowers bloom in late spring and are loved by bees. Its apples though sour to us are eaten by a variety of mammals and also by birds like the blackbird and thrush. We also planted a Galloway Pippin, a local variety which bears large yellow apples.

© Andrew Macdonald

We weren't just planting apples either. Creating a wildlife haven was thirsty work and the apple juice pressed as we worked by John (and helpers) from Scottish Orchards definitely helped.

It was also great to have Paul from the charity Buglife who came along to give a hand building bee boxes (see photo on the right). These should provide homes for a variety of solitary bees.

The last order of the day was to sow the wildflower seed. All the seed we sowed came from Scotia Seed and is native to Scotland. Some wildflowers are more likely to germinate if you sow them in the autumn as they need a period of cold before they will sprout.

© Andrew Macdonald

With the winter now over, we can’t wait to go back and discover the fresh new shoots of wild flowers. I'm really looking forward to seeing plants such as the delicate yellow flowers of ladies bedstraw, the pink-coloured red campion and - later in the year - the blues of field scabious brightening up that patch of ground and providing food and shelter for pollinators.

We hope that the  our work at Barrmill Hall will not only have a positive impact on the local environment, it will help the local community, providing children with opportunities to explore wildlife and discover the natural world.

Our next work day is on the 16th May, where we will be sowing more seed, planting plug plants, creating a herb bed, and installing more homes for pollinators. Perhaps you'd like to help us? Or aid another pollinator patch in the UK? Plan Bee has buzzing schedule of work days and activities this spring. Find out more on their events page.

Making Wildflowers Count this Spring

Sue Southway
Volunteer and Survey Coordinator





The first day of spring is officially upon us. March 20th is the vernal equinox when the hours of darkness are the same as those of daylight. Time for us all to look forward to longer evenings, warmer temperatures. Spring is definitely in the air.

Blackthorn

Where I live in the south west corner of Hampshire there are already early signs: lesser celandines are brightening up the roadsides, blackthorn is blossoming in the hedgerows and pussy willow - with the amount of pollen it produces - is making me sneeze!  The bumble bees are busy seeking any nectar they can find and Brimstone and Peacock butterflies are in flight.

Personally I am looking forward to going for walks, and to paying a visit to my Wildflowers Count survey square in the New Forest.


It is no coincidence that Plantlife chooses the spring equinox to launch their annual wild flower survey - the only of its kind in the UK. What better way to get to know an area, its habitats and the plants that grow in them? And now its about to become bigger and better.

One of our surveyors in Scotland

We’ve joined up with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and The Botanical Society of the Britain and Ireland (BSBI) in a joint effort to provide more robust data that will feed directly into Government monitoring. Our familiar list of 99 species is about to be expanded to 400 (with suitably extended ID leaflet to boot).

2014 is a transition year ahead of the fully-fledged roll out next year. Anyone wanting to more information or to register to take part in the Wildflowers Count can find out more here. We’ll keep you up to date with changes as they happen.

Blooming marvellous

Luke Morton

Plantlife Moderator

It might not officially be the first day yet but (whisper it quietly) spring has arrived! Or at least that seems to be the case going by the plethora of gorgeous wildflower photos you've been tweeting us over the last few weeks. Indeed, our wildflowers do appear to be blooming earlier this year and for that you can thank the mild winter. For while we've had the wettest winter on record, much of the UK has barely felt a frost. Celandines, primroses, violets and wild daffodils have all been appearing ahead of schedule. Here's a couple of photos from our Bloomwatch board:

Primroses flowering in Mull posted by @glengormcastle:

Butterbur with a visiting bee, posted by @floodenheim - better known as Peter Q D Flood, drummer with Folk band Bellowhead.

Please keep them coming!

So what will be blooming on this blog over the next few weeks? Well...

• Sue our Wildflowers Count Coordinator will be celebrating the first day of spring.
• Ali from our Scotland team will be buzzing about Plan Bee: our work with the Co-operative to bring wildflowers to urban spaces. 
• At end of the month a ban on five non-native, invasive plants comes into effect - Nicola, our Head of Conservation will explain why this is something we (successfully) campaigned for followed by Dr Trevor Dines' thoughts on how and why we distinguish the bad plants from the good.

In the meantime, if you have a lawn don't forget to Say No to the Mow. See you soon!