No Mow May

RadishRose

RadishRose

SF VIP
Location
Connecticut, USA
No Mow May is a conservation initiative first popularized by Plantlife, an organization based in the United Kingdom, but which is gaining traction across North America. The goal of No Mow May is to allow grass to grow unmown for the month of May, creating habitat and forage for early season pollinators.

https://beecityusa.org/no-mow-may/

https://bluethumb.org/turf-alternatives/pollinator-lawn/

We need our bees !
 

Lara said:
But it has to be a bee-friendly lawn which
includes wildflowers, dandelion, weeds, and clover.
Love this idea. In fact every other month
But it won't be a pristine lawn of the same species grass
Not if you want to attract bees and save the bee population
Click to expand...
I do this at the lake house. It is dandelion heaven over there at the moment. Too early for clover, daisies and buttercups. When my bamboo bush flowers, the wild bees come from miles away. Tiny little white flowers, but bee heaven. It has its own piece of lawn which must be mowed regularly, in order to prevent the bush from spreading like mad.
 
iu
 
Living in a dense forest, I can certainly attest to the value of letting the foliage grow, and how it aids many forms of animal and insect population. Right now, our entire yard looks like a bed of dandelions and many other weeds....and the forest is full of blooms. It's been far too wet to do any serious mowing, so I've just been able to mow a bit immediately around the house. The bees are starting to appear, and the deer are munching all over the place. When dryer weather arrives, I will keep about an acre around the house trimmed up nicely, and brush hog our walking trail through the woods....and nature can do as it wishes with the rest of the 40 acres.

The local news says we are about 5 inches ahead of normal rainfall for the year...I just hope some of it saves up for July thru September, when we usually really need it.
 
Sounds good but if we let the weeds go to seed we wouldn't have any grass. I think it is better to mow and keep the weeds at bay rather than use all those chemicals I see people spraying all over their lawns trying to kill weeds as well as bees, birds and worms.
 
Where we live, it is almost a waste of time trying to grow nice grass in the yard....the first time the wind kicks up, the yard receives a new layer of weed seeds. So, if it's green, that's all I want. I do have to spray the gravel driveway every year, or it, too, turns into a weed bed.
 
A good alternative to those nasty and dangerous weed killers is simply spraying with vinegar. Sure it takes a little more work but just how lazy are we???
 
I think it would work best in mid March through mid April here for the burbs. The US has such diverse climates that it it would work best to stagger the timing. Kinda messes with the name, though.

In the rural South where I live, we're already mowing but no one is bush hogging yet so we have an abundance of foliage for pollinators with three thriving hives on the property to prove it. Bush hogging schedules throughout the summer and an abundance of lush country road, ditch, creek, field and forest edge foliage usually allows pollinators good habitats from February to on through the end of October.

October wildflowers:

all-wildflowers-1jpg-0a94c797e87013b1.jpg
 

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