Hi my local council no longer cuts the grass though summer. They say its to help bees ? Personally i think its to save money. I cant say ive seen a bee on the grass all summer?
Loads in my garden on the flowers. Plus annoying grass seed taking hold.
In an attempt to make it more attractive me and next door have been scattering wild flower seeds but no joy on any coming up.
We used to big boxes with no luck.
Other than maybe digging a patch any ideas on what we could try
Hi Graham,
You’re right that bees don’t feed on grasses, but there’s quite a few butterflies and moths that do feed on several grass species. There’s also lots of other insects (and others species like reptiles and mammals) that hang out in longer grass, so it’s going to do some good.
If your local council wanted to encourage more wildflowers, they should cut and remove the arisings in late autumn, and possibly again in Spring. This gives the wildflowers a chance to compete against aggressive grass species. There’s some useful info here on this topic: Managing Grassland & Green Space - Plantlife
Wildflowers in the garden is an interesting challenge. To do it ‘properly’ you create the right conditions for local native wildflowers (both annuals and perennials) to move into your lawn, basically turning it into a meadow in a similar way to the advice for councils I linked to above.
This can take a long time and your lawn may be untidy for most of the year. At the other end of the scale is sowing annuals to create a ‘Pictoral Meadow’ which is usually sown in bare earth and can provide an impressive looking display in the Summer, and some of those annuals may self-seed for the next year. In between those two extremes - you could try making ‘scrapes’ in your grass where you scratch away the turf to expose soil and sow your seeds there. You can also add perennials if you want to move to a permanent meadow.
One other thing you could try is sowing seeds in plugs or trays, or buy them and then plant those in your garden.
I hope that helps?
Paul
Hi Graham,
Absolutely agree with Paul’s comments. It’s worth noting that some seeds can take between two and ten years to get going!
The nutrients that lay in the top layer of our soil aren’t good for flowers as they tend to prefer the poorer soil so as Paul said, taking off the top layer and then putting some seeds in gives them a better chance to give you a lovely display next year. Now is a good time to do this. There are some good tips here: https://www.hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-gardening
It’s great you’re doing this with your neighbour too- The Wildlife Trust are encouraging local people to all do something for nature. Have a look here: https://nextdoornaturehub.org.uk/
Hope this helps 
Excellent tips thanks we will definitely take them up