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By not mowing in May you have taken the first step in the No Mow Movement, boosted the wildflowers and thrown a much-needed lifeline to your pollinators. Hopefully you can already see the difference you’ve made and are pleased with the results (we know we are!).

Now the growth season moves into June, things don’t have to get messy or overgrown and you can still maintain a space for your local wildlife. If you’re wondering what to do or concerned about your mower not being able to cope – we have some ideas about how you can build on your success while keeping things under control! But importantly, your lawn or open space is your canvas and you hold the paintbrush.

Different Grass Lengths

You now have an opportunity to design your wildflower landscape.  Grassland wildlife comes in different flavours and you could incorporate these different elements into your plan. 

You might need to keep your paths and recreation areas mown short but perhaps you could frame these functional areas with a flowering lawn mown once every 4 to 8 weeks. This allows common, low-growing wild flowers to regrow and reflower throughout the summer while you maintain a shorter, neater height. Picture a carpet of red and white clovers, golden trefoils, puddles of blue selfheal and the white froth of yarrow.  You will find that even in the fiercest droughts, the wildflowers will stay green and keep flowering while grasses fall dormant and turn brown. 

Buff tailed bumblebee feeding on Knapweed

Let it Grow…

If you are feeling bolder you might want to trial leaving some of your open space unmown for longer. By mowing only twice a year outside of April to July you could try to recreate the effect of a traditional hay meadow. This allows taller growing flowers such as red campions, purple knapweeds and mauve scabious to grace your space with a more dynamic swirl of colours animated by a summer breeze. You can picture this flavour of grassland as a perennial, herbaceous border you never need to weed feed or water. It holds more value for wildlife because when left undisturbed for longer, wildflowers and grasses can support the lifecycles of those invertebrates that depend upon them.  

The more adventurous among you may want to take it to the next stage around the boundary of your plot. Grassland left unmown won’t support so many wildflowers but will provide vital sanctuary for wildlife during hot summers and cold winters. Tussocks of grass and tall herbs will develop, and this structure is a great way to provide another niche for wildlife that complements the more flower-rich areas. Such sanctuary strips need only be a few feet wide at the base of your hedgerow and they only require a minimum of management when you snip out woody saplings or the bramble gets too muchYou will be providing vital protection for toads and voles while seedheads will act as natural bird feeders for visiting finches.  

How to Mow (if you need to)

A mown lawn with tools used for cutting grass, surrounded by a flowering tall grass border

If your grassy growth has gotten away from you, don’t panic. Not all mowers can cope with tall vegetation but most can if you mow in two stages.

Firstly, check your lawn for wildlife – and never mow around the edges towards the centre, this leaves no escape route for wildlife. Instead, as you mow, progress gradually towards sanctuary areas such as uncut grass strips at boundaries.

Next, set the blades as high as possible then mow strips only half as wide as the mower. This will reduce the load on the mower’s engine and make the job easier. You can then re-pass as normal with blades set lower to finish the job. Alternatively, if you have one, a strimmer can be a better way to tackle a taller sward.

Collect Your Cuttings

This will prevent the build-up of cuttings which can stifle the regrowth of wildflowers.  With no cuttings to rot back down into the soil, it will also help to reduce the fertility of the soil. More fertility gives the advantage to your grass over your flowers. This produces a lush green lawn but it will be much less colourful and much less valuable for wildlife.  

Long cut grass in a wheelbarrow on a garden lawn

If collecting up or raking off your cuttings seems like more work, remember that you are actually saving effort by managing some zones less frequently.  This means that you don’t have to mow everywhere all at once every time.  In fact, by removing the cuttings each time you cut, fertility will reduce each year meaning that regrowth will be less and less each year. That means you won’t need to cut so often in the future so you can save yourself the effort, reduce your carbon footprint and enjoy the wildlife! Wilder lawns also capture and lock away more carbon in the soil, so you will be doing your bit for the climate too. 

You can use cuttings to mulch your vegetable beds to suppress weeds, retain soil moisture and add fertility where you want it.  Composting is also a great way to recycle your cuttings with other organics into soil you can use next season. 

Watch Out for Wildlife

Some wildlife may have taken refuge in your liberated lawn. Here are some quick tips for keeping wildlife safe while you mow:

  • Hand search areas of longer grass for small mammals , like hedgehogs, before you begin the cutting process.
  • Work gradually parallel to the shelter the wildlife can move towards, so you are moving closer to the shelter one mower’s width at a time.
  • Work from paths and high footfall areas towards the boundaries to allow disturbed wildlife to move towards cover gradually.
  • Making a first pass with a high blade setting on your mower will help to flush wildlife before making a lower -repass for a neater finish.

Your Choice…

Ultimately, it’s your lawn and your choice – to manage as you wish. You can rekindle wildflowers from those that are already present and the seeds that have remained naturally dormant in the soil.  You might also consider introducing some native perennial wildflower seed or native perennial wildflower plants this autumn.  We will have more advice on this later in the year.

However you choose to enjoy your new wildlife area, we wish you every success. Now that you have added a little more colour to the world, we hope you are rewarded with the fizz of grasshoppers, the delight of birdsong and a space that dances with butterflies and buzzes with pollinators. 

Share with us

We would love to see how your No Mow Movement is going – whether that’s pictures of your garden, the flowers blooming or the wildlife that comes to visit. Share your pictures, videos and stories by tagging us on Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky.

Plantlife’s Guide to a Nature Friendly Lawn
A meadow with Oxeye daisies, lush green grass and woodlands in the background

Plantlife’s Guide to a Nature Friendly Lawn

No Mow May is the perfect starting point to get your greenspace on track for a wild summer. Learn more about how to manage your wild lawn all year round!

How a Museum Does the No Mow Movement
Northern March Orchid

How a Museum Does the No Mow Movement

The changes to insects, wildflowers and people have been ‘mind-blowing’ since the National Museum of Scotland started taking part in the No Mow Movement.

The No Mow Movement Calendar
A lawn is bursting to life with wildflowers. A house can be seen in the background. In the foreground a banner reads, 'I'm giving power to the flowers'.

The No Mow Movement Calendar

Our No Mow Movement might begin with May – but it’s just the start of the journey to manage our lawns for nature. Follow our No Mow Movement Calendar below for all the tips and advice you need to give your lawn some flower power this year!

Pollinators and other wildlife bring our gardens to life with buzzing and fluttering along our lawns, borders and hedges.

From bees to butterflies, and beetles to hoverflies, the wildflowers keep them thriving in our neighbourhoods. Here are just a handful of the species which you can spot in your garden this May and beyond.

And if you haven’t already, why not join the No Mow Movement and help pollinators from home.

Read our blog on creating a pollinator friendly garden here, for our top tips on their favourite flowers!

A Speckled Wood Butterfly rests on a leaf of a hedge, image by Pip Gray

Speckled Wood Butterfly 

The dappled pattern of the Speckled Wood is a sign that summer is on its way. With up to two generations of this sun-seeking butterfly being produced in a year, it’s crucial that its caterpillar food plants, long grasses such as False Brome Brachypodium sylvaticum, Cock’s-foot Dactylis glomerata and Yorkshire-fog Holcus lanatus are available. This is why leaving patches of long grass year around in your garden is so important! 

A Red Tailed Bumblebee dusted in the pollen of a Crocus Flower, image by Pip Gray

Red-tailed Bumblebee 

Living up to its name, this bumblebee can be seen across the UK in spring with its vividly red tail. Bumblebees like this one rely on a plentiful supply of our wonderfully wild plants such as Red Clover Trifolium pratense and Dandelions Taraxacum officinale to supply them with nectar and pollen. These are food sources for the bees and their larvae – next year’s buzzing bumblebees! 

Cinnabar Moth caterpillars munch on Common Ragwort, image by Pip Gray

Cinnabar Moth  

The life cycle of this bright and boldly patterned moth (pictured in the heading) relies entirely on one of our sunniest wildflowers – the yellow Common Ragwort Senecio jacobaea. Its tiger-striped caterpillars munch on this unpalatable plant before pupating underground over winter, ready to emerge as moths and put on another dazzling show next year. 

 

A Marmalade Hoverfly rests on a prickly wild plant stem, image by Pip Gray

Marmalade Hoverfly 

This deliciously named hoverfly is one of our easiest flies to spot, identified by its black and orange bands and mesmerising levitating flight. Despite being disguised as a wasp, this friendly pollinator relies solely on nectar from flat flower heads such as Common Ragwort Senecio jacobaea and Cow Parsley Anthriscus sylvestris. 

A Cockchafer Beetle image by Sarka Krnavkova

Cockchafer Beetle 

Commonly known as the May Bug, these chunky red/orange beetles only live for 5-6 weeks. Despite their short lives above ground, females rely on grassy areas such as lawns to lay their eggs, where the larvae develop hidden deep underground for up to 5 years. Look out for them on warm evenings, perhaps bumping into your lit window! 

Wildlife to Spot in Your No Mow May Lawn
A Cinnabar Moth rests on a long blade of lawn grass, image by Pip Gray

Wildlife to Spot in Your No Mow May Lawn

It’s not just wildflowers which benefit from not mowing our lawns this May. Pollinators and other wildlife bring our gardens to life!

Go Wild in the Garden with these Gardening Jobs
A blossoming garden lawn full of wildflower

Go Wild in the Garden with these Gardening Jobs

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.

No Lawn? No Problem: 5 Ways to Join in with No Mow May

No Lawn? No Problem: 5 Ways to Join in with No Mow May

As well as bringing back the bloom to our lawns, there are many ways you can get involved with No Mow May, even if you don’t have a garden.

Snake's-head Fritillary flowers growing in a garden pot, image by Pip Gray

Why Are Native Plants Important?

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. 

  • Wildflower blossom provides food in the form of nectar and pollen for bees and other insects. Look out for them in the native plant section of your local garden supplier – don’t forget to check that they’re grown in peat-free compost too!
  • Fruits and berries are important for feeding birds when food supplies are short later in the year – small trees and shrubs that are good for blossom and berries include Rowan, Crab Apple, Elder, Blackthorn and Hawthorn. 

Not got a lawn? Small bushes and trees, and many wildflower plants can be grown in pots!

Oxeye daisies and long grass in a garden with chairs

Turn Your Garden into a Wildflower Meadow 

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.

A small pond within a garden

Build a Wildlife-friendly Pond

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. 

 

Two different lengths of grass, a short flowering lawn, and long grass with taller wildflower

The Benefits of a Wild Garden

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.

Garden meadow by pond (c) Shuttleworth

Plan Your Garden and Get No Mow May Ready

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!

More about No Mow May

Take Part in No Mow May
Buttercup in a wild growing garden

Take Part in No Mow May

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!).

Wildlife to Spot in Your No Mow May Lawn
A Cinnabar Moth rests on a long blade of lawn grass, image by Pip Gray

Wildlife to Spot in Your No Mow May Lawn

It’s not just wildflowers which benefit from not mowing our lawns this May. Pollinators and other wildlife bring our gardens to life!

How to Grow a Wildflower Meadow
Wildflower meadow landscape with a variety of species near Cardiff, Wales

How to Grow a Wildflower Meadow

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!

Different flowers provide different resources for different wildlife species. Clover on a short flowering lawn provides a lifeline for bumblebees,  long grasses provide an essential resource for butterflies and moths such as the Small Skipper, and Goldfinches are attracted to Knapweed when it sets seed.  

But how do you increase the diversity of plants in your garden? Here are some tips from Plantlife’s wildflower experts to help you create a blooming bonanza!  

 

In Spring and Summer 

Long cut grass in a wheelbarrow on a garden lawn
  • Avoid using herbicides, fertilizers and moss killers  as these are detrimental to wildflower species.
  • Allow plants time to go to seed before cutting your lawn so they increase naturally.    
  • Remove grass cuttings to prevent nutrient build-up in your lawn which might discourage wildflowers to grow. 

In Autumn

Yellow Rattle growing in an urban wildflower meadow
  • Introduce Yellow Rattle – known as ‘the Meadow Maker’ – to long-grass areas as it reduces growth of competitive grasses giving wildflowers more space to grow.  Here’s our comprehensive guide to growing yellow rattle. 
  • Introduce native, meadow plug plants, preferably in the autumn. Choose suitable perennials such as Cowslips, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Betony, Oxeye Daisy, Selfheal and Knapweed. You may need to help them establish in the first couple of years, ensuring they don’t get crowded out by the grasses.  
  • Sow native flower seed in patches of prepared soil in the autumn. Remove the top few centimetres of turf from a small area, break up the soil a little with a fork and sprinkle the seed in the patch. Keep well-watered if the soil is dry until the plants are established. Read more in our guide here.

Don’t forget that humble dandelions and daisies are fantastic lawn flowers!

They are some of the first lawn flowers to appear each year and provide much needed food to early bees and other pollinators when there is little else out in flower. Sparrows also enjoy feasting on their seeds as a tasty snack. 

Wildlife to Spot in Your No Mow May Lawn
A Cinnabar Moth rests on a long blade of lawn grass, image by Pip Gray

Wildlife to Spot in Your No Mow May Lawn

It’s not just wildflowers which benefit from not mowing our lawns this May. Pollinators and other wildlife bring our gardens to life!

Go Wild in the Garden with these Gardening Jobs
A blossoming garden lawn full of wildflower

Go Wild in the Garden with these Gardening Jobs

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.

No Lawn? No Problem: 5 Ways to Join in with No Mow May

No Lawn? No Problem: 5 Ways to Join in with No Mow May

As well as bringing back the bloom to our lawns, there are many ways you can get involved with No Mow May, even if you don’t have a garden.

A Day Volunteering at Plantlife’s Deep Dale Nature Reserve

Find out what it’s like to volunteer at one of our nature reserves. Jim Whiteford describes a day working outdoors, protecting and restoring nature in Deep Dale, Derbyshire.

person smiling

I’m Jim, an Ecologist at the walking and cycling charity Sustrans. As Sustrans are committed to supporting sustainability across the UK, I’m encouraged to spend at least one day a year volunteering for a charity which is making a difference either by improving the environment or peoples’ lives.

The day starts with

I met up with Andy Kearsey and other members of the Plantlife Reserve Team to help-out at their fantastic Deepdale Reserve, in Derbyshire. After a useful and friendly introduction about what Plantlife do and the reserve itself, we cracked on with clearing areas of hawthorn, blackthorn and dog rose scrub using a selection of hand tools supplied by the team.

Andy explained how the area we were working in was managed using conservation grazing and that by cutting back the scrub this would help the cattle to do an ever-better job.

 

Lemon Drizzle

After working hard, I was then treated to some fantastic lemon drizzle cake and had an opportunity to find out more about the great work Plantlife are doing across all their reserves.

The day ends with

When we finished stacking away the scrub we had cleared, Andy and his colleagues  took me on a guided tour of the reserve.

It was great to learn about the rich archaeological history of the site and see firsthand the fantastic range of valuable habitats Plantlife are working hard to protect and improve.

It was fun to spend a day outside, with a gang of positive and friendly people helping to make a great place even better; I also appreciated the chance to beat my daily step count and get some exercise at the same time!

I hope to be able to get involved again over the summer at another reserve.

Deep Dale Nature Reserve

Deep Dale Nature Reserve

The reserve, located in the Peak District national Park is a special place if you visit at the right time of the year you would see colour spreading over the hill side.

Volunteer with us

Volunteer with us

Volunteer with Plantlife and help us in practical conservation work or by data entry and research, or even campaigning and advocacy work.

Stories
person holding a plant with white flowers

Stories

Read our other stories about plants and fungi conservation and the human behind them.

Wild plants and fungi are the essential fabric of our world.

They provide shelter, food, medicines, clean air and a wealth of health benefits to humans and animals alike.

Yet 54% of plant species are in decline and 28% of known fungi are threatened with extinction. Centuries of habitat loss, development and persecution through changes in land use and the effects of climate change have led to the UK being among the world’s most nature-depleted nations.

You can use your vote to give plants and fungi a voice at the 2024 general election on 4 July. 

What you can do

  • Join the Restore Nature Now march in London on 22 June
  • Follow the #Nature2030 campaign for other calls to action
  • Tell candidates that you stand with nature and that you expect politicians and governments to work together for our shared environment
    • Send a short, polite email
    • Attend local hustings
  • Ask your friends, family and colleagues to take action
  • Share our messages via social media- tag local nature groups, candidates, and us on Twitter/X  ,  Instagram , and/or on Facebook with #Nature2030
  • Support Plantlife – join our events, survey work or through donations

With upcoming global environment commitments and nature recovery targets being set in all UK nations, we need determined and rapid action by politicians to reverse the fortunes of our wildlife.

Restore Nature Now

Plantlife is joining forces with 100 other conservation charities in the Nature 2030 campaign calling for five key actions by the next UK Government:

  1. A pay rise for nature and farmers: Doubling the nature-friendly farming budget to £6bn.
  2. Making polluters pay:  Putting a Nature Recovery Obligation on polluting big businesses into law to counter the damage they cause.
  3. More space for nature by 2030:  A rapid delivery programme to fulfil the promise to protect and manage 30% of the land and sea for nature.
  4. Delivering the green jobs we need:  A National Nature Service, delivering wide-scale habitat restoration and creating thousands of green jobs.
  5. A Right to a Healthy Environment:  Establishing a human right to clean air and water and access to nature.

What difference could this make?

The Nature 2030 actions, if delivered by the next government, would go a long way towards bringing endangered plants and fungi back from the brink of extinction, and restoring our unique, species-rich habitats, such as grasslands and temperate rainforests in England.

These will also help to tackle climate change, create a green economy and improve our own health and wellbeing.

We already work tirelessly across the UK to influence and inspire farmers, local communities and other land managers to help create a world rich in wild plants and fungi. Many aspects of environmental law and policy are devolved. But we need all political parties and all nations’ governments to make things happen at a bigger scale and a faster pace, to bring back our wildlife.

King Charles III became Plantlife’s patron in 1999 when he was HRH Prince of Wales, and his devotion and passion for championing conservation and defending nature has had a galvanising impact on our work.

His passion for species-rich grasslands has brought about significant impact, particularly in our work to restore and expand meadows. From his own meadow at Highgrove, to the Queen’s Meadow in Green Park, London, King Charles has done so much to highlight the value and vulnerability of these special habitats that Plantlife speaks up for.

In 2009 our Patron contributed an urgent forward to our Ghost Orchid Declaration report, ringing the alarm for plant extinctions. Our Patron’s message that “we must rediscover an essential understanding of the role of wild plants of sustaining wellbeing of life on this planet, both physical and spiritual” rings true today.

In 2012 Plantlife published the seminal report Our Vanishing Flora, highlighting how 80 species of wild plants that existed in Britain in the 17th Century had become extinct. Half of those were lost since the 1950s. The sobering Plantlife report caught the eye of the then HRH The Prince of Wales, whose family has shown an enduring passion for preserving nature.

Inspired by the rallying call from our Patron on the 60th anniversary of the Coronation, the Coronation Meadows project was born. The Coronation Meadows conservation partnership project, between Plantlife, The Wildlife Trusts and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, was launched at Highgrove in 2013 by HRH The Prince of Wales and pioneered a path to the long-term creation and restoration of species-rich grasslands.

In recent years, our Patron’s backing has continued to energise our efforts. In February 2020 he held a reception at Highgrove to celebrate Plantlife’s 30th anniversary and endorsed our Strategy to 2030.

In 2021, Plantlife and our partners at Bumblebee Conservation Trust and Butterfly Conservation were thrilled thatGrasslands+ – our joint effort to raise the urgency to protect and restore global grasslands at COP-26 was chosen as a case study in the very first annual report from theTerra Carta our Patron’s mandate to put Nature, People and Planet at the heart of the private sector.  

In January 2023, Plantlife was delighted to be chosen as one of seven organisations to be awarded a Strategic Partnerships grant from King Charles III Charitable Fund, allowing us to launch our Science and Impact programme to demonstrate impact, share organisational learning and develop our research networks.

We are very much looking forward to having His Majesties support in years to come, as we know how crucial it is that we protect and restore nature.

 

Peat-free horticulture for plants, people and planet

We are calling on governments and the horticultural industry to end the use of peat in gardening and horticulture.

Peatlands and their wild plants in Britain, Ireland and beyond continue to be devastated by the commercial extraction of peat. Damaging peatlands has a knock-on effect on wildlife, carbon stores, flood risk and water quality.

It’s time we stopped this destructive practice through new laws to ban peat sales.

Although governments across the UK have promised to do this and many believe that it is already banned, there are still no laws against selling peat.

Plantlife and its partners in the Peat-free Partnership are campaigning for legislation to ban the use of peat in horticulture in all four nations without further delay.

Our governments’ next steps will decide the fate of our precious peatlands. When will they finally mark the end of a decades-long debate and the beginning of a future where peat is left undisturbed for nature, people, and the planet?

Not ‘if’, but ‘when’

Despite tireless campaigning to stop peat extraction and persuade gardeners to go peat-free, vast quantities of peat from bogs in Ireland, the Baltic states and the UK every year is still used by amateur gardeners and professional horticulturalists each year.

However, with an ever-mounting body of evidence documenting the environmental toll of peat extraction, government commitments and clear public support for a ban, the question is finally not ‘if’ but ‘when’.

A ban on all commercial trade in peat across the UK is needed to provide:

  • A legal requirement to end peat use, as repeated voluntary targets have been consistently missed.
  • A level playing-field for the market, so that peat-free companies don’t lose out to their competitors who take advantage of lower prices for peat than alternative materials.
  • An end to imports and exports of peat, protecting peatlands in other countries as well here in the UK.
  • A catalyst for sustainable gardening and horticulture overall, moving away from reliance on raw materials and artificial inputs, and towards ‘greener’ gardening and a circular economy.

What is peat?

Peat is plant material which is partially decomposed and has accumulated in waterlogged conditions.

Peatlands include moors, bogs and fens, as well as some farmed land.

Peat bogs are particular types of wetlands waterlogged by direct rainfall. Peat bogs grow slowly, accumulating around 0.5 to 1 mm of peat each year, and the water prevents the plants from decomposing. As a result, many areas of UK peat bog have been accumulating gradually for as much as 10,000 years, and can be up to 10m deep. Due to its slow accumulation, peat is often classified as a fossil fuel.

Commercial peat extraction in the UK and Ireland is largely from raised bogs in the lowlands.

Much less peat comes from blanket bog, which is much thinner and more often found in the uplands in Scotland and western parts of the UK.

Why is peat important?

Peatlands are home to some of the UK’s most distinctive plant communities. Diverse organisms have evolved in response to the low-nutrient conditions which has led to some remarkable adaptations, like the insect-eating sundews and butterworts, and the spongy blankets of colourful sphagnum mosses.

Peatlands are also one of our most important terrestrial carbon sinks. But, when bogs are drained or the peat is exploited, the peat is exposed to the air and begins to break down, releasing carbon dioxide. This turns a huge carbon store into a vast emitter, contributing to climate change.

Peat bogs also act like a sponge, soaking up rainwater, and can help to reduce flood risk. Water filtered through healthy peat bogs is of a higher quality than water from degraded bogs, making it cheaper to treat as drinking water.

Other plants to find in peatlands such as Plantlife’s  Munsary reserve in Scotland include cotton grasses, bog asphodel, rare sedges, cuckooflower, marsh violet, marsh cinquefoil and marsh willowherb. These support a range of butterflies, dragonflies and birds, including snipe and curlews, merlins and skylarks.

Where does horticultural peat come from?

In 2015 more than half of peat used for horticulture in the UK came from the Republic of Ireland, where peat is extracted on a large scale for horticulture and for burning to produce heat and electricity. As peat extraction has declined in the UK, we have increased imports from Ireland, effectively exporting much of the environmental impact.

So what’s the problem?

Put simply, our current use of peat is unsustainable.

  • Peat ‘grows’ by only a millimetre a year
  • Commercial extraction can remove over 500 years worth of ‘growth’ in a single year
  • Amateur gardening accounts for 69% of peat compost used in the UK – we currently use some three billion litres of peat every year in our gardens
  • 32% of our peat comes from the UK, 60% from Ireland and 8% from Europe

Alternatives to peat

  • The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is demonstrating what’s possible; its gardens are now 97% peat-free and it is committed to reducing peat use wherever practicable
  • The RHS also provides advice on what to look for in peat-free alternatives
  • Many of the National Trust’s gardens have been peat-free for years
  • Gardening Which? Compost trials uncover great peat-free products

What can I do to help protect peatlands?

  • Make your own compost from garden cuttings & food waste if you have space.
  • Only buy peat-free compost and potted plants and encourage your friends and family to go peat-free.
  • Write to your MP, MSP or MS to raise concern about the need for more urgent action by the government and industry.
  • Support Plantlife  and our work towards peat-free horticulture.

On the high peaks of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and on the Glyderau there grows a forest that is little more than a foot high. A forest of Juniper Juniperus communis subsp. nana nestled among the rocks in the crags and crevices. They are everywhere, if you look in the right places, creeping through the thin turf and sprawling over rocks.

 

Where can you find Wales’ Juniper forests?

If you scramble over the jagged ridges of Crib Goch and Crib Y Ddisgl you will find them. On Esgair Felen they tumble down the cliffs and on the upper reaches of the Watkin Path you will be walking through the middle of this ‘coedwig fach’ (little forest). Y Lliwedd, one of the satellite peaks of Yr Wyddfa, holds the largest of these forests and here you can’t fail to notice them, although you may not realise they are trees.

Their twisted and gnarled trunks keep close to the ground, bonsaied by the cold and the wind in the exposed locations in which they grow. These small trees are glacial relics from a time between the ice ages, like many of our Arctic – Alpine species.

They are clinging on literally for dear life in the least accessible locations in our mountains where they find refuge from the goats and the sheep and the deep time history of clearance of our mountain woodlands.

These Juniper plants, alongside Dwarf Willown Salix repens, are the fragmented upper reaches of a special type of woodland that has almost disappeared from the mountains of Eryri.

A woodland of low growing scrubby willows, junipers and other ‘Krummholz’ trees and shrubs. ‘Krummholz’ is a German word that is used to describe dwarfed gnarled trees that push high into the mountains to eke out their existence in a tangled and contorted state.

 

Protecting the foot high forests

This scrubby, fairy woodland would have once spread from about 450 metres in altitude, the natural treeline, almost to the summits of Eryri. Elsewhere in Britain it is found in the Scottish Highlands and there are fragments of it in the Lake District. It still just about exists here in Wales on the edges and ledges where people and grazers have never ventured.

The trees of Eryri are under recorded, with limited records of trees in the high mountains, so there is still so much more to understand about these sky-high forests.

Recently, whilst out climbing, I discovered a tree species I was not expecting on a ledge, a Bird Cherry Prunus padus. The discovery of this cherry links our mountain woodlands even more directly to those of Scotland where Bird Cherry is a common feature.

Read more about the work Natur am Byth! is doing through the Tlysau Mynydd Eryri project to better understand these tiny but fascinating forests, alongside Bangor University.

The importance of the coedwig fach in Cymru

Restoration of this mosaic of alpine woodland comes with great benefits. This habitat is ecologically vital, for invertebrates’ montane trees and shrubs are particularly important and many of these woody species support high diversity of endemic ectomycorrhizal fungi. Additionally, mountain woodland habitat and willow scrub can provide protection against extreme weather for rare tall herb and alpine plant communities which would otherwise be exposed and struggle to persist in alpine environments.

The increasing diversity enabled by these wooded upland communities has positive impacts for small mammals and birds such as Ring Ouzel. Succession in these wooded habitats builds soil organic matter through their leaf litter. These woodlands reduce erosion by building these soils and halt water runoff which reduces the impacts of flooding.

So, if you are planning a trip up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) any time soon, keep an eye open for the forest you are walking through and take a moment to stop and think about what the mountains may have looked like before their woodlands almost disappeared, the other species that were lost with them and the way they could look again.

Our work in Wales

Rosy Saxifrage Reintroduced into Wales after 62 Years Extinct 
person holding a plant with white flowers

Rosy Saxifrage Reintroduced into Wales after 62 Years Extinct 

The beautiful mountain plant, Rosy Saxifrage, has returned to the wild in Wales after becoming extinct in 1962.  

Juniper on the Peaks: A Foot High Forest 

Juniper on the Peaks: A Foot High Forest 

Discover the gnarled woodlands on the wildest peaks in Wales, as Robbie Blackhall-Miles reveals the secrets of Eryri’s miniature but magical Juniper forests.

How to Grow a Wildflower Meadow
Wildflower meadow landscape with a variety of species near Cardiff, Wales

How to Grow a Wildflower Meadow

Whether it’s your back garden, local park, community field or lawn, wildflower meadows are amazing spaces with so much to offer.

Hazel Gloves Fungus’ common name comes from the finger-like projections of the stromata, cushion-like plate of solid mycelium. Found on Hazel trees in Britain, it is actually parasitic on the Glue Crust fungus Hymenochaete corrugate, and not the Hazel tree itself.

It was incredibly exciting to find Hazel Glove fungus. I knew about its importance as a rainforest indicator species and also its rarity status. I had seen many photos of it and so when I turned to take a second look at something I saw in the corner of my eye, I knew at once what it was.

I couldn’t share my unbridled joy at my discovery with anyone else in that moment, unless you include telling the singing Dipper I had just spotted or indeed talking to myself about it as I walked back along the trail. However, I was able to capture that moment on camera to relive again.

What does finding Hazel Gloves Fungus tell us?

Hazel Glove fungus is an indicator of good air quality and temperate rainforest conditions, making it a flagship species for this threatened habitat. Temperate rainforests are found in areas that are influenced by the sea, with high rainfall and humidity and damp climate.

They are home to some intriguing and sometimes rare bryophytes, plants and fungi. Plantlife are working in many ways to protect and restore this globally threatened habitat. 

Fungi need you to find them!

I have since sent in my record to the county fungi recorder with a 10 figure grid reference, only to discover that this species has not been officially recorded in that area before, which only heightened my sense of achievement.

Recording fungi and sending your finds to local wildlife recorders creates a more accurate picture of the wild and wonderful world around us – and helps people like us know where to target conservation efforts.

It’s estimated that more than 90% of fungi are unknown to science, and only 0.4% of the fungi we know about have enough data to be assessed for global conservation status – letting us know if they’re critically endangered or not.

Learn more about fungi

No Mow May: Can your Garden be a Carbon Store?  
A close up look out across a lawn from amongst the grasses. The grass has dew drops on each blade. Hedges can be seen in the background and a small peak at a clear blue sky.

No Mow May: Can your Garden be a Carbon Store?  

It’s not just trees that capture and store carbon – our meadows and grasslands can play an important role too.

How to Find Fungi
Shaggy Inkcaps

How to Find Fungi

Getting out and looking for fungi can be a great way to connect with nature and discover more about this amazing kingdom. Here our Specialist Botanical Advisor, Sarah Shuttleworth, gives her top tips for finding fungi! 

How many fungus species are there?
Fly Agaric

How many fungus species are there?

Recent studies have revealed that there's so much fungi out there that we don't know about. But how do we know this? Rachel Inhester, from our science team, tells us why.