Two or three years ago, Amy realised, what Monty Don has been telling us recently, that mowing your grass damages the environment, destroys insect habitat and reduces biodiversity. Describing gardeners as a group of people who spend their time killing plants and destroying creepy crawlies, also showing statistics such as the loss of 97% of our grassland habitat in the UK since the 1930s, she made us think of the advantages of gardening differently and leaving our grass long. She also told us that there are more microbes in a teaspoon of soil than there are humans on the planet. And she told us about glomalin, only discovered in 1996, which retains carbon and nitrogen and may be a possible means of carbon sequestration.

We still need to cut grass (or trees and shrubs will take over), at least once a year, after seed from annuals as well as grass has had time to set. She does three cuts using her old lawn mower, first from the highest then to a lower setting each time. It is important to remove the cuttings to allow for regrowth. The area looks brown after cutting but then soon greens up again. She did suggest mowing pathways through the areas that will become meadows. We don’t need to seed for flowers, these will just appear, but it can be helpful to add some seeds (beware of meadow seed containing mostly grass though!) especially yellow rattle which weakens grass and leaves more resource for other plants.

Amy talked about the Blue Heart Project (bluecampaignhub.com ) that she works with. She also showed us some of Saxmundham’s verges which were being left to grow and only mown round the edges to prevent fallen plants getting in the way of paths and roads. She told us a bit about how she and a friend dealt with the council and Norse, the contractors who cut the verges, to achieve this. The Blue Heart site also hosts an excellent Good Verge Guide from Plantlife.org.uk.

A couple of the WISE members already have experience of managing areas of long grass and Amy has clearly inspired others among us to plan something similar this year. She has kindly offered to answer our questions as they come up.

Amy has provided an inspiring list of websites, books and gardens to visit, which you will find here