Increase Lawn Biodiversity

Biodiversity essentially refers to the abundance and variety of life forms within a given area. These could be insects, plants, fungi, birds, bees, trees, and even humans achieving a balanced ecosystem.

We would like all Residents' Groups to significantly support Biodiversity by doing something very simple with estate lawns, and for households to do something similar in private gardens too. For the past few decades society has been actively working very hard AGAINST biodiversity and we think it's high time we changed this. Cut lawns are fantastic for play areas but Johnstown has over 22 football pitches worth and we simply don't need it all to be manicured lawns.

Without the invention of the lawnmower, housing estate developers would not be providing such excessive amounts of lawn space. Mother Nature has her own view on tidiness but by now we should all be very aware that we tamper with her ecosystem at our peril.

Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss, and Environmental Pollution are making us question everything and change our habits.

In early spring grass can offer food, shelter, and safety to creatures who have nested here over winter and faced an ever decreasing source of food. Those first flowering lawn plants offer them survival and we need to ensure that these are there for them and not for our aesthetic pleasure of seeing neatly trimmed lawns. Maintaining them throughout the year in the way that we have means that we pay a fortune to keep them barren of wildlife and flower free. A sweeping grass lawn (monoculture) has very low biodiversity but there is a way to change this.