Gardeners’ World star Monty Don tells Brits to stop mowing their lawns to save the planet
GARDENERS’ World star Monty Don says people should stop mowing their lawns to save the planet.
He insists cutting grass with a lawnmower increases climate change and is one of the worst killers of wildlife.
The British presenter said: “One of the things that I, and people like me have been banging on about for ages, is that cutting grass burns lots of fossil fuel, makes a filthy noise and is about the most injurious thing you can do to wildlife.
“Whereas letting grass grow, which is, after all, a pretty passive thing to do, is probably the single most effective thing you can do in any garden of any size to encourage particularly insect life, but also small mammals, invertebrates, reptiles.”
But Monty, 65, told Radio Times he loves walking on freshly cut lawns in his bare feet.
He went on to say that the obsession with clean-cut grass is mainly from men.
The gardener said: “I like walking on a lawn with bare feet as much as the next person.
“The obsession, which tends to be male, which is controlling rather than embracing, with making a lawn that is pure grass without any filthy and foreign invading plants in there, making sure it’s stripy and neat, and – phew – just one aspect of life that’s under control.
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“That just doesn’t cut the mustard. It’s just not good enough. We’ve all got to get beyond that.”
A study by the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières found a reduction in lawn mowing can boost wildlife.
It also discovered the increased cutting of lawn reduced the diversity of plants and invertebrates.
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