Continental Landscapes is proud to be supporting Wandsworth Council and their management contractor Enable in taking part in the national No Mow campaign run by the charity Plantlife.

At several parks and open green spaces across the borough, the lawnmowers will be stopped so wildflowers can bloom. The aims is to encourage pollinators and support the council’s biodiversity strategy.

Enable Leisure and Culture working with Continental Landscapes, which look after the parks and open spaces in the borough, will allow selected communal lawns to grow, subject to local agreement with the residents in that area.

On the second bank holiday weekend of May residents will be encouraged to visit these spaces in line with Government Covid-19 guidance and take part in the Every Flower Counts survey, as part of the No Mow campaign.

The survey will allow people to discover a variety of spring plants that are hidden on these sites and Plantlife will provide a spring “nectar score” for each site if people submit results. In Putney and Roehampton local wildlife group SW15 Hedgehogs will be helping with the flower counting. If any other local groups would like to help please contact biodiversity@enablelc.org

The council’s also encouraging people to take part in Mo Mow May at home. Local gardeners are urged to leave the lawnmower or strimmer in the shed for a month to see what blossoms and which pollinators visit.

This is the first in a series of actions to deliver improvements for pollinators as part of the Wandsworth biodiversity strategy. As well as bees, the strategy also has measures to support the lifecycles of other pollinators, including butterflies and moths, hoverflies and some soldierflies.

Grasslands in the following areas will contribute to No Mow May:

  • Battersea Park
  • Christchurch Gardens
  • Falcon Park
  • King Georges Park
  • Lower Putney Common Cemetery
  • Putney Vale Cemetery
  • Morden Cemetery
  • St Marys Cemetery, Battersea Rise
  • Tooting Common
  • Wandsworth Common
  • Wandsworth Park

The results from Wandsworth will help produce specific new wildlife gardening advice later this year.

For more information on the Wandsworth biodiversity strategy visit: https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/campaigns/climate-change/together-on-nature

To sign up to the Every Flower Counts survey to submit records and to receive a nectar score visit: plantlife.org.uk/everyflowercounts