A new study at King's College, Cambridge reveals the striking benefits of letting lawns go wild. But can others be persuaded to break with a
In 2020, for the first time since being laid in 1772, a section of a King’s College lawn the size of just half a football pitch was not mown.
Instead, it was transformed into a colourful wildflower meadow filled with poppies, cornflowers and oxeye daisies.
[Researcher Dr Cicely Marshall] found that as well as being a glorious sight, the meadow had boosted biodiversity and was more resilient than lawn to our changing climate. The results are published today in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence.
Despite its size, the wildflower meadow supported three times more species of plants, spiders and bugs than the remaining lawn - including 14 species with conservation designations, compared with six in the lawn.
The meadow was found to have another climate benefit: it reflected 25% more sunlight than the lawn, helping to counteract what’s known as the ‘urban heat island’ effect. Cities tend to heat up more than rural areas, so reflecting more sunlight can have a cooling effect - useful in our increasingly hot summers.
“Cambridge has become more prone to drought, and last summer most of the College’s fine lawns died. It’s really expensive to maintain these lawns, which have to be re-sown if they die off. But the meadow just looked after itself,” says Marshall.
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