Come and be part of a global voice for wild plants and fungi
Help wildlife, connect with nature and take part in No Mow May – straight from your garden by letting the wildflowers grow (in May and beyond!)
There are many different ways you can go the extra mile for Plantlife – from organising a bake sale, running the London Marathon or planning your own plant-themed event.
Our corporate partners benefit from 35 years of experience in nature restoration so they can achieve real impact.
Become a Plantlife member today and together we will rebuild a world rich in plants and fungi
Read in: EnglishCymraeg
It’s estimated that there are 23 million gardens in the UK – that’s a lot of land with which we can be gardening for wildlife!
Bees, birds and butterflies are not only beautiful in their own right, but are useful for the gardener, from pest control to pollination. Bees help pollinate flowers and food. Frogs eat slugs. Birds and ladybirds help keep aphids at bay.
If you want to create a home for wildlife in your garden, here’s a couple of nature-friendly gardening jobs to inspire you. If you create the right space, nature will come.
Wild plants are great for wildlife. This is because our native plants and animals have been around longer than species that have been introduced to this country. They’ve evolved together and are more likely to support and sustain each other.
Not got a lawn? Small bushes and trees, and many wildflower plants can be grown in pots!
Simply leaving patches of lawn to grow longer will allow flowers to bloom for bees and butterflies and provide shelter for small mammals such as wood mice, voles and shrews.
Be part of Plantlife’s No Mow May movement and leave the lawn mower in the shed this summer – if you want to take it a step further, we recommend leaving some areas for much longer between mows. Different lengths of grass left in your garden for the whole year will welcome and provide a home for much more wildlife. Shorter grass welcomes clovers and daisies, and grass that has been left to grow all year is a paradise for butterflies and other wildlife.
One of the best ways to bring wildlife into the garden is to build a pond. It doesn’t have to be big – a container such as a washing bowl or old sink will do. But it needs to have at least one sloping side or ramp so that creatures can easily get in and out.
Put your pond somewhere partially sunny and wait for it to fill with rainwater for best results. Bring it to life with native plant species such as Marsh Marigold Caltha palustris, Water Avens Geum rivale and Bogbean Menyanthes trifoliata.
In summer and during heat waves this water source will be a vital lifeline for thirsty birds, as well as a space for flies such as dragonflies and hoverflies to reproduce.
Leave the untidy corners and wild areas – it might be tempting to start tidying up the garden before the growing season starts, but these areas of leaf litter, twigs and longer grass along fences or hedges are perfect spots for insects, reptiles and amphibians to have been sheltering over winter. If you start to tidy it up too early you could be disturbing a slumbering creature that isn’t ready to spring into action until the weather starts warming up.
This also goes for the remnants of last years plants in your borders or pots. Sometimes these dead stems and leaves are perfect for insects to hide in whilst it’s cold and damp. Therefore leave these up all winter if you can and only ‘tidy’ up when the spring days are warm enough.
Maybe this will be your first year doing No Mow May, in which case you might want to spend a bit of time planning where you want to leave long all summer long, where you maybe want to mow monthly and where you want to have short or paths for walking around. You could draw up some designs even for creating wild and wonderful shapes. Or you could simply devote your entire lawn or green space to the way of the meadow!
Plantlife’s No Mow May is here – let’s give power to the flowers!
It’s is one of the easiest ways to connect with wildlife and the perfect way to start supporting nature in your garden (in May and beyond!).
Plantlife’s No Mow May is one of the easiest ways to help and connect with wildlife, and the perfect way to start supporting nature in your garden (in May and beyond!).
It’s not just wildflowers which benefit from not mowing our lawns this May. Pollinators and other wildlife bring our gardens to life!
Whether it’s your back garden, local park, community field or lawn, wildflower meadows are amazing spaces with so much to offer. Why not have a go!
If you want to see a kaleidoscope of colour and life across the country this summer, then make sure you join Plantlife’s No Mow May movement!
As well as bringing back the blooms to our lawns, there are many ways you can get involved, even if you don’t have a garden.
Here are 6 ways you can spread the No Mow May love to your community and beyond, to make this year more vibrant than ever!
Creating a meadow is a really simple way to bring the local community together, whilst doing something positive for nature. So, what are community meadows? They are areas, predominantly of grassland, that are owned and managed by the community, such as parks, road verges, school grounds, village greens, church land or fields.
You don’t need to be an expert to start one – we’ve shared our tips for how to begin, what to plant, how to manage your green space year-round and how to engage the community.
Take a look at out guide
You may not have your own lawn or green space, but your neighbour or community might! If the 23 million garden owners of the UK joined forces for nature, it could transform the fortunes for our wild plants and the much-loved wildlife that depend on them.
Why not share our No Mow May resources with your neighbours and community? We’ve got posters, signs, pictures and social media cards which are a fantastic conversation starter – it could even be the start of a No Mow May street!
As well as a place to grow our curiosity, our educational spaces can be home to playing fields, verges and gardens which are ready to burst with life each spring. If your school isn’t taking part already, consider having a chat with staff to see if a space can be left for nature this year. As well as being a bonus for wildlife, why not use this as a fun learning opportunity to discover how many species you can spot?
Whether it’s parish, town or district council, reaching out to your local decision makers to promote wildlife-friendly management can make a big difference. Local support can really help to bring about change, whether that’s through a volunteer group or social media page. Check out our Good Meadows Guide for some convincing talking points or the Flowers on Roadside Verges Facebook group for some inspiration.
Our councils manage some of our most widely-used green spaces, no matter where you live. Ask your local councillor about your councils plans to provide a home for wildflowers and wildlife in May and beyond, and share their good work on social media.
If you have outdoor space but no lawn, don’t write off No Mow May just yet! Encourage wildlife to your garden with a pot or window box – what happens if you leave one with bare soil, perhaps local wild plants seed will find their way in. There are also native seed mixes you can sprinkle into pots which pollinators like bees and butterflies will go wild for!
Often the cornerstone of our communities, our places of worship can be a sanctuary for people and wildlife alike. See if your local church, mosque or other place of worship has a green space they can pledge for nature this No Mow May. Churchyards for example, are often excellent places for wildflower and wildlife that enjoy the undisturbed grasslands.
No Mow May is the perfect starting point to get your greenspace on track for a wild summer. You’ve taken the first step – now learn more about how to manage your wild lawn all year round!
Not as many wildflowers in your lawn as you expected this year? Here are some tips from Plantlife’s wildflower experts to help you create a blooming bonanza!
We will keep you updated by email about our work, news, campaigning, appeals and ways to get involved. We will never share your details and you can opt out at any time. Read our Privacy Notice.
