WILDFLOWER LAWNS

I try to reject all junk mail but if you cancel one, others just keeps turning up. A flyer was delivered to me the other day, a special offer for a brand of 'complete' lawn care. It said that the product would 'solve' all my lawn care problems, eradicate moss, and weeds, giving me green and lush grass the envy of all my neighbours (not that I have any).

But, do you know what?. I like my lawn the way it is, full of daisies, dandelions and speedwell and later in the year, buttercups. I like the areas with higher grasses scattered with swaying stems of ox-eye daisies, horehound and meadowsweet. I want a lawn that still fulfills it's promise to nature, to provide nectar and pollen for the insects, provide seeds for the birds and protection for mice and beetles and frogs.

I want to be able to hear bees buzzing, see butterflies and moths flitting and fluttering and hear birds chirping as they hop amid the grass searching for food for their young. Their chicks need to eat insects and caterpillars but these poisoned wastelands, made possible by the very product on the leaflet, harbour none.

I understand the necessity for a mown sward if you have children, but does it need to have the very life of it extinguished. What is wrong with a short grassland that contains moss and wildflowers. With thousands of gardens being doused with 'product', wildlife and biodiversity is being lost from the garden environment as well as the disaster that is still classified as countryside.

Before you reach for that bottle or packet or bag of 'product' because you want a perfect lawn or pefect vegetables or cosmetically perfect fruit, be careful what you wish for.........the side effects may be greater than you can imagine..