These pictures illustrate how you can turn your lawn into a wildflower meadow by stopping mowing for a few weeks in the summer. Follow this link for the full feature article: The flowery hiccup.
This is the lawn in my front garden on 19th May 2003, ten days after I stopped mowing to see what would develop. Follow this link for the full feature article: The flowery hiccup.
Three weeks after it was last cut, the lawn has grown as expected and there is a good flowering of buttercups, both creeping Ranunculus repens and meadow Ranunculus acris. Follow this link for the full feature article: The flowery hiccup.
Another shot of the 'meadow' three weeks in. Here you can see that mowing did not cease completely: I maintained a path through the area. This allowed us to access the area without damaging the plants and also added a 'managed' look. Follow this link for the full feature article: The flowery hiccup.
This close up shot shows creeping buttercup Ranunculus repens, meadow buttercup Ranunculus acris and fox-and-cubs Hieracium aurantiacum all flowering well in the 'meadow'. Follow this link for the full feature article: The flowery hiccup.
By now the grass has reached what turned out to be its maximum height: in fact it is remarkably short, signalling low soil fertility. There is a reasonably good mix of species with not too many 'coarse' grasses. Follow this link for the full feature article: The flowery hiccup.
This picture shows the lawn straight after it was returned to the 'normal' mowing regime. Follow this link for the full feature article: The flowery hiccup.
