No Mow May

And the birds and the bees

BY JUDITH A. RUCKI

Think your neighbors’ yards are looking unkempt?

They might be participating in No Mow May, an environmental conservation effort to create a pollinatorfriendly setting.

According to Bee City USA, “Americans have a love affair with lawns, maintaining roughly 40 million acres, or two percent of the land in the US.” All that well-groomed lawn may be beautiful, but it provides little positive benefit to wildlife and is often harmful. Traditional lawns lack floral resources or nesting sites for bees. And lawns treated with pesticides can actually damage bees and other invertebrates.

“The start of growing season is a critical time for hungry, newly emerging native bees,” say the Bee City experts. “Floral resources may be hard to find, especially in urban and suburban landscapes. By allowing lawns to grow longer and not applying pesticides to flowering plants, you can provide nectar and pollen to help your bee neighbors thrive.”

The US is home to around 3,500 species of bees, many of which provide essential services to humans and ecosystems. Unfortunately, bee populations have been declining globally. Without them, we would be left without essential pollination services.

No Mow May was launched in 2019 by the British conservation charity Plantlife. Felicity Harris, head of participation at Plantlife, says, “It is not only plants and pollinators that benefit; we do, too. Less mowing gives garden lovers more time to relax and reconnect with nature.”

In 2020, Wisconsin became the first state to adopt the practice, which then spread to Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Montana. Locally the city of Buffalo and village of East Aurora are participating.

Last year, the East Aurora Village Board adopted a resolution encouraging residents to take part in No Mow May “to help the health of bees and other pollinators and wildlife and to allow pollinator species to emerge and early flowering grasses to establish.” And the Buffalo Common Council adopted a resolution that allows homeowners to participate in No Mow May without being cited or fined.

Tom Truesdale, owner of WNY Paws Dog Waste Removal and Lawn Service, says, “This isn’t a popular concept at this time with my customers, but I can see it growing in the future as we get more educated on ways to help the environment.”

Some ornamental grasses are meant to grow tall, but turf grass varieties need to be mowed regularly for a healthy, strong root system. “If you don’t cut during the month of May, by June you will be sure to have knee-high growth, which will require multiple cuts at alternating heights and removing the cut grass with raking,” says Truesdale. “It will be unsightly for a couple weeks, but the grass and soil underneath will be thick and healthy.”

A downside of uncut grass is that it can attract a variety of pests, ranging from insects to rodents. Insects, including white grubs, ants, aphids, cutworms, ticks, fleas, and mosquitoes are among the “usual suspects” in natural grass lawns. And when large numbers of rodents hide in tall grass, they can attract predators like snakes.

Heavy rainfall can also be problematic. Given enough rain, grass can grow three to six inches in a week. Too much rain can wash away nutrients, leaving grass weak and dull. It can also drown your grass and allow weeds to thrive. If a lawn becomes unhealthy, it can get brown patches along with weeds.

“If people don’t want to participate

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in No Mow May, there are other ways to help pollinators,” according to local landscape designer Diana Marsh, who suggests a native garden filled with easy-to-maintain perennials, including “ornamental grasses, bee balm, Joe Pye weed, milkweed, anemone, butterfly weed, cone flower, gaura, coreopsis, St. John’s wort, and deutzia, to mention driving around on a Sunday afternoon in the summer.” If you are inspired to plant your own, Buffalo-Niagara Gardening.com suggests staggering the planting; if you plant several batches, you’ll have sunflowers from summer to fall.

The best time to plant sunflowers in our area is from May through August, a few plants.” Marsh has designed a few native gardens over the years that her Menne Garden Artistry crew has installed for their customers. They also have installed beds to attract butterflies and birds.

Sunflowers are considered pollinator superheroes that produce abundant sources of pollen and nectar. Marsh has seen several sunflower fields “while after the last frost. Plant any later than August, and the sunflowers may not grow to maturity. Sunflowers can be started indoors and need to be covered in the event of a late frost.

The bees will thank you! FY in or take out.

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