“Mähfreier Mai”, “no mowing in May”: this is the name of the operation launched by Bettina de la Chevalerie, the director of the German Horticultural Society DGG 1822, which is listed in several newspapers overseas. Rhin of the benefits of leaving your mower and brushcutter in the garage for a month. Objective: to watch nature develop, to see flowers bloom, to rediscover insects… In short, to observe life, precisely all that which does not have the right of citizenship on the squares of monocolored lawns.
The idea is not hers, it comes from the kingdom of perfect lawns, England, which has been organizing this month without mowing for several years now, with some success. Bettina de la Chevalerie therefore decided to import the concept to Germany, where 75% of households have a garden. “If we stop mowingshe told the weekly Die Zeit, the proportion of flowers is multiplied by ten, and in a few days, you will see daisies, clover flowers, speedwells, primroses, daisies and dandelions appear.”
Bettina de la Chevalerie would like us to revisit our definition of what a garden is, to question our relationship to this piece of nature, to question our obsession with order, arrangement, the dominance of what we have decided to call weeds, “because dandelions and daisies are not weedsshe says, these are wild herbs that are of great value for bees for example, but also butterflies and birds.“
This is what the photos of those who participate in the operation on Instagram show, a proliferation of butterflies and other bumblebees with legs full of nectar.
At the end of the month, the gardens are not transformed into a jungle. In general, the option taken by the participants is that of mowing a path in the middle of the flowers. Something to marvel at a little, and treat yourself to a firework of colors and perfumes.