Blaise Tapp: I do love butterflies but I also really love my freshly mown lawn

Last weekend saw the first British airing this year of the much envied Tapp calves, after I finally recovered my shorts from their winter quarters at the back of the wardrobe. If the sunshine and Mediterranean temperatures weren’t enough my mood was lifted further by the sight of multiple butterflies. Who doesn’t love a butterfly? They are a symbol of warmer, happier times and a reminder that, whatever may be troubling us at that particular moment, the world continues to turn.

However, it turns out that the beloved butterfly is having a rough old time of it right now, with the organisation which monitors their progress, reporting that 2024 was the insect’s worst on record with more than half of the UK’s butterfly species now in long-term decline. Compared to 2023, 51 of the UK’s 59 species of butterfly declined, which has led to very real concern from not just beardy-types who get into tizz when they spot a rare thistle, but ordinary no-nothings like your Yours Truly.

Among the reasons for this alarming trend is not only last year’s wet Spring and cooler than usual summer, along with climate change but also the long-term decline of natural habitat in the countryside, parks and our own background.

In light of what has been described as a butterfly emergency, which sounds like a band you’d hear on BBC Radio 6 Music, nature lovers have been told that the best thing they can do to help is not mow their lawn for the next six months. It turns out that I’m not a nature lover after all as the idea of letting my lawn grow up to my knees is as palatable as a Trump trade tariff.

While I’m no Monty Don, I do look forward to being in the back garden, especially when the sun is on my back. I’m afraid to say that I’ve never gone in for initiatives such as No Mow May because, in my experience, any lawn above a couple of inches is an open invitation to the neighbourhood’s cats to do their business amongst the grass and daisies.

I’m certainly not on my own with this attitude if the chorus of lawnmowers I’ve heard in recent days is anything to go by, which almost certainly means that me and millions of other garden proud Brits will be considered part of the problem.

Like most people, I’m a fan of wildlife, just not more than a freshly mown lawn.