No Mow May is not just laziness

It may be the wrong time of year for this subject but I recently read that councils adopting the 'No Mow May' policy have received complaints. I have adopted it for our rear garden for a few years now. Have you? Did it work for you?

No mow May was ‘invented’ by Plant Life’ to promote biodiversity

https://www.plantlife.org.uk/campaigns/nomowmay/

 

The idea of no mow May is to increase biodiversity by not mowing your lawn during the month of May which is an important time for insects and wild flowers. Not cutting your lawn allows wild flowers to grow and set seed. Wild flowers are an important source of food for insects.

Granted, at least in my case, I have adopted no mow May partly from laziness. However, it really is effective in increasing diversity. I noticed new wild flower species in the lawn when I started it.

 

Studies show No mow May really does bring benefits in particular for butterflies.

https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/boost-garden-butterfly-numbers-by-up-to-93-with-one-simple-step-new-study-reveals

Also, apparently some butterfly species like flowering ivy in particular – so if you have ivy in your garden you might like to allow it a bit more room. Sadly, though, I know from personal experience ivy does tend to take over if given the chance.

 

No mow May is popular among gardeners

https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/gardeners-back-less-frequent-lawn-mowing-poll-finds-as-no-mow-may-begins

When it was first introduced, nearly half of gardeners said they would go for it and others intended to reduce their mowing frequency.

Some local councils have tried it for public spaces …

https://new.newcastle.gov.uk/news/2025/council-helping-environment-no-mow-may

 

…but they tend to get complaints because long grass looks untidy or greenery overlaps pavements

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c897lxy4dy4o (Council reviews No Mow May scheme after criticism)

 

Beauty is preferred over sustainabiity.

https://www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/latest-news/2025/11/public-prefer-pretty-looking-wild-spaces-over-perfectly-mown-lawns/

There is strong public support for rewilding and other environmentally friendly land management practices, provided these spaces are pretty and look neat. 

 

One way to achieve neatness is to keep a strip cut around the edge.

 

It is best to have a mix of long and short grass.

https://www.plantlife.org.uk/campaigns/your-no-mow-may-lawn-guide/

In any case, some wild flowers prefer short grass as otherwise they get crowded out. So keeping some strips or areas short improves biodiversity even more.

Keeping the edges short does not take up nearly so much time as cutting the whole lawn so this still allows for some laziness.

If you have a garden with grassy areas, do consider adopting no mow May if you have not already. However, you can still mow some areas short so the long grass areas look intentional rather than neglected and for even great benefit.

If you see an area that looks neglected in May, this may be intentional and beneficial to the environment. So please do not complain unless there really is a nuisance.

The cost of a bath or shower - update

I last looked at the cost of a bath versus a shower back in 2015 [1]. Given the general increase in prices since then I was not too surprised at the increase in cost.

The total cost includes the cost of the water and the energy to heat it. It is still the case that the water cost is a bit more than the energy cost, despite the increase in the cost of energy, as long as the heat source is gas rather than electricity. Previously I had described two showers - a typical shower (7 minutes at 8l/min) and a shorter low-flow shower (4 minutes at 6 l/min). For both of these the water was heated with gas. This time I have compared the cost of a short low-flow electric shower with a typical shower heated by gas. Electric showers usually do have a lower flow rate, simply because you would need too much power to heat the water at the flow rate you get from a hot water cylinder (which is pre-heated).

Summary of assumptions.

• 88 litres for a bath vs. 24 litres for a short, low-flow shower (4 minutes at 6 l/min) or 56 litres for a typical shower (7 minutes at 8 l/min).
• bath water at 41°C and shower water at 39°C coming in from the mains at 14°C.
• Gas for heating at 85% efficiency.
• Electricity at 100% efficiency.
• Water price: 
• 0.139p/litre for clean water [2a].
• 0.256 p/litre for sewerage (from Anglian Water) [2b] charged for 90% of the clean water supplied.
• Energy prices based on the current price caps: 26.1p/kWh for electricity and 7.33p/kWh for gas [3].

Overall findings: 

• Costs (using gas for heating) are up nearly 60% from 2015. The increase for the water and for the energy are surprisingly similar.
• This increase is slightly more than general inflation which was 43% over the same period [4].
• The cost of a bath is now about 56p (depending on the size and depth of your bath), a typical shower 35p
• In 2015 this was 36p for the bath and 22p for the shower.
• When heating by gas the cost of the water is nearly 60% of the total cost.
• When heating the water by electricity, the cost of the water is only 33% of the total.

[1] How much does your bath or shower cost? (Energy thoughts and surprises)

[2a] Metered Charges (Cambridge Water)

[2b] Our standard charges (Anglian Water)

[3] What is the energy price cap? (Energy price cap unit rates and standing charges, (OFGEM)(cap as of August 2026)

[4] Inflation calculator (Bank of England)

What is Money And how to Make it Work Better for Everyone by Ray Galvin (Review)

 

First of all, some things I should mention.

• Ray is a good friend so my review may be considered biased.
• Although I am much better than I was I am still under par from my brain surgery, 18 months ago. (see Pause due to Head Injury ). So it is possible that I have not understood this book as well as I would have done under other circumstances.

Almost all of us use money and most of us think we have a clue about how it works if only how it can be earned and how it can be used to buy things we need or would like to have. However, some things are intrinsically pretty hard to understand. For example:

• What is money?
• What causes inflation?

Galvin goes a long way to answering these questions. Along the way he discusses taxation (should we tax income or wealth), crypto currencies and the role of government and central banks. 

Dealing with uncertainty in climate change risks

The inspiration for this post comes from a couple of reports from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.  [1] and also [2] about how climate change policy has often failed to evaluate climate risks adequately. 

 

Hemp for building insulation

It is illegal to grow hemp without a license as it is the plant source of cannabis, a class B drug. However the strains used for construction material do not contain significant amounts of THC. Historically hemp fibre has been used to make rope, sailcloth, parachute webbing and heavy duty clothing but recently it has been used as a natural insulation material and as a reinforcing fibre for concrete and plastic. It is even used in making body parts for cars (famously introduced by Henry Ford [1])

Other fibre crops can also be used such as flax and bamboo. However hemp is stronger than either [2].

Biodiversity and national security

 I recently read the government report ‘Global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security’ [1]. This was published in January so I am a bit behind in getting to it. It makes for grim reading. The national security issues of concern include migration, conflict and competition for resources.

People’s Emergency Briefing

Last night (Saturday 18th April) I went to a showing of the film ‘People’s Emergency Briefing’ [1] at Pembroke College. I was a bit concerned this might turn out to be horribly alarmist but actually it was not overly negative - the facts are quite frightening enough - and the briefings included sensible actions we can take to reduce the impacts [1]. Do go and see it with your friends and family and consider supporting the campaign to get this shown on TV and get more MPs to see it (screening map here https://www.nebriefing.org/screening-map). The format of the film is friendly and non-technical. It is a bit like Gogglebox with clips of experts explaining the issues interspersed with reactions from a small panel sitting on a sofa.

I can’t say there was a great deal that was new to me but it did reinforce some important facts.