Low-mow meadow trial

We’re going to trial a low-mow meadow near Waione Bridge.

What's a low-mow meadow?

Low-mow meadows are a lower cost way to manage some green spaces that are insect-friendly, have environmental benefits, and provide a more natural feel.

Instead of mowing the area on a fortnightly rotation we’re planning to take a hands-off approach and let the grass grow over spring and summer.

Other councils have trialled this with success and we’re keen to give it a go in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt to see if it works for our community and spaces.

The benefits of the low-mow approach include:

Reduced mowing costs
Lower carbon emissions
Creating an insect friendly space that supports biodiversity
Improved water quality

What we’re doing

We’re aiming to start the low-mow trial at one of our green spaces near the Waione Bridge in Petone from November 2024 and wrap it up with a final mow towards the end of summer.

While you might be imagining a wildflower meadow to frolic through, we’ll simply be letting the current grass grow to start with. From there we can assess and manage the space through mowing or changing the soil fertility to make conditions less suitable for grasses and more suitable for flowering herbs.

We’re looking forward to the benefits of a local low-mow trial in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt but we’re also aware of some downsides.

Potential risks that we’ll monitor:

Possible increased fire risk in dry weather
Creating habitat and food sources for rodents.
Community concern over unruly appearance

To manage the risks, we’ll be monitoring the site throughout the trial (particularly when we get into drier weather), maintaining the edges of the low-mow space to keep it tidy, and working with pest control groups to install traps in the space.

low mow map

What’s next?

We’ll share progress updates on our low-mow meadow here and on social media.

If the trial is successful, we will look to extend out the low-mow concept in 2025.

Find out more

We're not the first Council in Aotearoa New Zealand to give this a go, follow the links below to find out more about trials that have happened around the country:

Get in contact

Got questions? Check out our FAQs or let us know what you think about our low-mow meadow by emailing lowmow@huttcity.govt.nz