Leaving a piece of lawn uncut is very simple and beneficial for biodiversity. This marks a desire to give more space to nature in the garden. It also means bringing about a real change of perspective on the frequency and impacts of mowing. Find out in this article why leave the mower in the closet!
1. Benefits of Uncut Areas
- By practicing differentiated mowing, keeping more height and plant varieties, you will be surprised to see how plant and animal diversity gradually reinvests your green spaces. Aside from accepting to see the weeds flourish, You have nothing to do to develop biodiversity in your home!
- The tall grass prairie is the home to many insects. It is also in the unmowed area that you can observe the life of small animals called auxiliary insects. These friends of the vegetable garden help the gardener to fight undesirables (aphids…).
- Unmowed grass is a natural water reservoir which maintains moisture from dew in plants and soil. Indeed, the tall grasses capture the dew which flows along the stem to reach the roots. Therefore, this self-sufficient cycle helps reduce watering and keep the garden cool.
- Tall grass areas are a source of ecological wealth, which promotes biodiversity. As the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) indicates, the wild areas of the garden allow different species to develop: grasses, daisies, clovers, dandelions, poppies, and wild orchids. The lawn is on the contrary a mono-grass lawn (a single family of plants).
- The CO2 remains contained in plantswhile mowing releases it.
- Tall grasses protect the soil from the sun’s rays and UV rays. This is a real godsend for small animals.
- A dense meadow limits soil erosion. Conversely, grass, whose roots are more superficial, exposes the soil more to bad weather and therefore to erosion.
- Leaving a corner of the plot natural allows you to free up time and money devoted to mowing and the energy consumption of the mower (electric or fossil). You also avoid pollution caused by noise and odors released by thermal mowers.
2. Disadvantages of too frequent cuts
- Too frequent mowing does not allow the flowers to bloom, which leads to a loss of food for certain pollinating insects which are becoming rarer.
- Over-mow the lawn disrupts the entire ecological cyclebecause predators (birds, etc.) no longer find enough insects to feed on.
If the mower passes, it is beneficial to leave the cut grass on the ground and not pick it all up. Indeed, this allows birds to provide themselves with dry twigs to make their nests. In addition, the grass clippings turn into natural fertilizer that nourishes the soil.