Long grass - the right of every gardener in the UK - except if you live in area controlled by the zealots of Britain in Bloom or the planning department of Chester City Council?

There are many sound ecological and environmental reasons for moving away from the craze for short trimmed lawns.

Amongst these are:

• Lawnmowers are noisy and polluting.
• Trimmed lawns are more prone to being damaged in a heat wave (and may need watering at a time of water scarcity).
• Long grass (or ideally a mixture of long and shorter grass) is more beneficial for wildlife.
• Long grass needs less maintenance so the resources saved (both in time and money) can be put to better use.

Although narrow minded councillors (and council officials) are prone to saying that long grass is 'untidy' and should be cut down, they always fail to produce and good reason - apart from their own prejudice (and that of neighbours who are adherents to the cult of twice weekly mowing). Some councils try to dictate a specific height to which long grass must be trimmed: Chester City Council ordered 9cm (90mm or about 4 inches). No reason is ever given - in the manner of all dictatorships.

These links are a good starting point for further reading:

Many long grasses are sold by specialist garden centres and 'on-line'. here are a couple of snapshots from the crocus website: (allow time for images to load on a slow modem).

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page in draft October 2008