“What do you think of No Mow May?”
The question, asked by a garden friend, caught me by surprise because I’d only seen the phrase once before in a British gardening magazine.
Turns out I’ve been missing the boat because my state of Wisconsin has been at the forefront of the No Mow May movement for a few years. Two years ago, Appleton became the first U.S. city to officially adopt the initiative started in England that asks people not to mow their lawns during May to provide flowers for pollinators.
Weeds make up a good part of my lawn because we’ve never used herbicides on it.
I’m sorry to say that my answer to my garden friend’s question is not positive. I think No Mow May is a well-intentioned movement that has the potential to backfire in the U.S., making the short- and long-term benefits highly questionable.
The promotional material for No Mow May (yes, it’s big enough that there is official marketing) shows romantic flowing grasses with beautiful wildflowers buzzing with bees rising above. I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but those beautiful wildflowers don’t just pop up in a lawn from not mowing for a month, at least not in much of the country.
What will pop up in my neck of the woods is mostly dandelions, which are not native to North America, and perhaps some clover and flowering creeping Charlie. And yes, these flowers will attract pollinators, although the benefit to them is questionable.
Native bees do the lion’s share of pollinating important crops, not the non-native honey bee, according to a peer-reviewed report by Christy Stewart, of the University of Wisconsin’s Agricultural Research Unit. And dandelions are not a great food source for these bees, which benefit more from the pollen of native trees and shrubs that flower earlier than dandelions.
I don’t have anything against dandelions, but plenty of people do, so what happens when the people who don’t like them end up with a yard full?
Where I think No Mow May will go wrong is the repercussions of all those flowering weeds, which will, of course, proliferate a neighborhood causing a carpet of dandelions that might be beautiful to some and an eyesore to others. Neighborly relations may not be up for that kind of stress these days.
Some homeowners who pride themselves on a perfect lawn will likely increase their herbicide applications to counteract a burgeoning dandelion population and even some No Mow May participants may, in time, tire of the look and resort to drastic measures to have a “good-looking” lawn again. And if there’s one thing that’s worse than hungry pollinators, it’s dead pollinators poisoned by herbicides.
The No Mow May movement has gotten some traction in its English home, but there are some cultural differences that I think make acceptance of the initiative on a wide scale a steeper hill to climb in the U.S. Lawns here are just bigger, and as a culture we have a far deeper appreciation of a wide expanse of perfect lawn (something I’ve never come close to achieving and don’t really care) that will be hard to get past.
A far better approach would be to encourage homeowners to turn a small patch of lawn into a proper native wildflower garden that will feed wild bees from spring through fall and be far more attractive than a shaggy lawn full of weeds. And, of course, to stop applying herbicides to their lawn. Or plant native trees that provide more food for pollinators than any lawn could. Or to incorporate native plants into their existing gardens.
The point is that there are a lot of ways to support pollinators, particularly important native species, that will have more impact than keeping the lawn mower under lock and key for a month.
They just need a catchy name and a marketing plan.
A version of this article originally appeared in Ozaukee Press.
Generally agree – also “May” is really late in much of the US for dandelions and clover. I’d much rather see a movement encouraging people to plant a native (or 2) for every non-native tree/shrub/ornamental that they plant; more regulations against selling invasive species; and campaigns encouraging people not to cut down their perennials until May (or March/April if you don’t live in Wisconsin like you.
I’ve read recently not one but two articles that suggest that dandelions are actually good for your lawn and will only grow where there us a need for calcium. I’ve never had dandelions until last year. Of course I immediately began researching the best way to eradicate them.
This is when I tripped over these articles. One was accompanied by a lengthy YouTube video explaining the benefits of dandelions in the lawn.
Any thoughts?
I recently saw someone mention this. I haven’t done any research but I wonder why I have a persistent dandelion growing between the crack of my patio. Is it too in need of calcium? It’s starting to get bigger and doesn’t seem to be affected even if I treat it.
If you are absolutely wanting to kill this dandelion then mix vinegar, salt, blue dawn, and very hot water. Mix very well. Pour it over the area in the morning. It will be dead by that evening. It will kill weeds but also any other plants in the area. Used it to kill off a bad rhubarb (the thing was immune to weed killer) plant that never ripened. Also works on thistles and bad shrubs.
They should have called it Lyme Tick May here in the Northeast. The Lyme tick loves long grass and latches on to a passerby for a blood meal. Be it a rabbit, dog or human in which to spread Lyme disease. If caught within the first 30 days and treated with antibiotics, all well and good. If the person ignores the symptoms they can develop Lyme Arthritis, Cardiac symptoms and even Neurological degeneration. Beware of the Lyme tick, it’s nothing to fool with!
I think you’re right, and that there are better solutions to making pollinators happy. And, as Lisa said above, May is late for some of us. If we didn’t mow in May, I’m not sure HOW we’d mow our grass. We might have to bring in some sheep. Probably have to do no mow April here, or maybe March if we ever have a warm spring again.
I don’t agree with no mow may because it encourages tick populations. I live in the country and the last thing I want is long grass to attract ticks. I have a large number of native wildflowers in my woods and a number of native plants in my flowerbeds. I do not use herbicides and only use organic pesticides if I absolutely have to.
In Colorado, leaving your dandelions was the thing to do, and it drove me absolutely crazy. I work hard to keep my yard weed free and it’s tough when those around you let their dandelions go. It made me want to drive around at night and weed people’s yards. I am an admitted weedaphobe. and find weeding enjoyable.
I live in the UK, where this idea began and I’m not in favour. It’s an idea that’s gained traction with those gardeners who pay lip service to wildlife gardening, being sold ‘pollinator friendly ‘ plants ( which pollinators? and will they turn up for one plant?) and having ‘wildlife corners ‘ in their uber tidy gardens. There must be so many disappointed gardeners whose long grown lawn has no wild flowers at all
100% agree!
I agree with you and the previous commenters Erin. I’m not in favour. We deal with a high tick population here and Lyme disease cases are doubling each year. I have plans to naturalize a portion of our land with native wild flowers and only mow that section in very late fall (a section we don’t walk through). Another reason I’m against ‘no mow May’ is the awful thought of an early June mowing over of all those insects and critters that I’ve attracted to the long grass. Baby bunnies still in their nests, bees, mice… seems odd to lure them in in early Spring, then take that habitat away in June.
I might be missing something but instead of letting the bees feast on the weeds, why not just plant something ornamental that they would like just as much or more? I’ve had bees all over my azaleas through April and now that the azaleas are done blooming the lilacs are about to bloom and they will be obsessed with those. That will carry them through until the rest of the garden is blooming. No one can convince me there’s anything good about a dandelion and I’m glad you agree, Erin!
I have 2 different old school/country neighbors who love dandelions. The PA Dutch neighbor harvests the the greens and serves them up with a warm bacon dressing. The Bulgarian neighbor makes the most delicious dandelion honey. (Didn’t know that could be done!)Allergy sufferers reap the benefits of local pollens in the blossoms to lessen their symptoms, so I’m told. I’m of the opinion that God gave us all good things for our use, and maybe we need to learn more about more natural ways to feed and heal ourselves. That said, I’m a mower, but don’t fuss over a perfect lawn and I have tons of pollinators in my yard due to my plant obsession! My catch phrase for this time of year would be, “Pollinators: more promises than your local politician!”
additionally, they can be turned into a delicious summer wine,…
Thank you for putting my feelings in to words. I have read many times that dandelions are not a very good source of nutrition for pollinators and yet there is still the push to let them be. There needs to be more education and discussion about better plant choices.
No Mow May is just more ridiculous propaganda from the nanny state.
Shouldn’t the longer grass help keep the danny lions at bay,?… if not pull them and use them in salads,… they have more nutrients than spinach.
Thank you! I agree. But then I have a yard full of things the pollinators love and so I never feel guilty eradicating the dandelions. I don’t have much grass and it doesn’t ever look all that great except when freshly mowed in a rainy spring. I wish we could get a no herbicide spring and summer, or at the very least an organize yard care movement. I hate to think of all the chemicals going into to storm drains so people can have great looking grass.
Perfectly explained! My bees were bringing in pollen from native trees long before I saw the first dandelion. I have never heard of “No Mow May.” It sounds to me like it’s a shady way of getting people to cut down on emissions, more so than feeding bees. JMO
Thank you very much ! Yes the bigger picture for larger properties and the consequences of over use I’ve chemicals . Love your well written researched articles!
Agree, this is dumb. It should be “Plant more natives May”.
Well said! I was wondering how this all got started because May here is rather late here. I have so many pollinators that arrive way earlier and see no benefit from a shaggy lawn.
Anyone who has a serious crop of dandelions will know that they duck when they see the lawnmower coming anyway. We try do the lawn in sections so as not to mow all of the white clover at once. We also have a half acre in the back that is only mowed once a year in the fall to keep rose bushes from taking hold. May is when the lawn grows the fastest and if you left it all month you would be the rest of the year trying to get it back into decent shape after scalping the roots when it was taller.
Its always interesting to watch something become political…..even in gardening. staggering to see so much information that is bent,twisted, or just plain incorrect….we so often cling to one shining thread of “Truth” to defend ourselves, at the expense of the larger tapestry of knowledge…… or”cant’t see the forest for the trees” if you like…… (I am mostly talking about things I see myself do, to justify my preexisting beliefs ) My best advice….. you shouldn’t listen to anyone! Just use your common sense.
A beauliful lawn (sadly) is not good for nature, it offers almost nothing but asthetic (for humans) value. (as I learn more about gardening, thank you Monty Don and Gardeners World! It’s funny how a pretty lawn is strting to look like a ecological dessert to me….. I’m not giving it up! Just maybe making it a little smaller….)
This is my first year with no mow May.
I think to myself ……What will happen to all the compliments I usually get on my front yard? Will everyone think I’ve given up at last?
To my horor,I’ve watched the dandelions grow in my hard won front yard this May…..when they started to go to seed I almost grabbed the mower. But in the spirit of trying something new I resisted the temptation… oh, the seeds!!! so,so many seed heads!!!! and then the Black Eyed Juncos showed up (I had to look them up, they were just some bird before….) and started eating them! A few at first and now its constant! (Some are fledglings from nearby nests) they have cleaned every seed head in the front and back yard….
Danelions whether native or not are good for polinators(great nectar source) and apparently birds, rabbits eat them pretty much round the clock here. So maybe there not as evil as I thought…..and as for my coveted local reputation? I just printed a sign from Bee City and put it in the yard. Now,I look like some kind of enviromental hero. Especially to the kids…
So now instead of mowing today I’m going to sit on my but and watch Hockey! Yes! Have my cake and eat it too baby!
Very well written, Erin! I’m a neighbor over yonder in Madison. I prefer to plant native perennials and shrubs as well as trees and bulbs. It makes more sense to me. This post opens up a wonderful opportunity for you to possibly chat with Doug Tallamy. I’d love to hear his take on it!
Thanks, Erin!
Yep over here in the UK, I laid a very small new lawn a few years ago, and I’ve kept it weed free, by digging out the weeds by hand, and re-sowing the patches. Letting the grass grow in May would do nothing for pollinators – there’s nothing to flower – but it would leave me with a lot of hard work to recover the lawn later in the year. I’m one of only two people in my street, who has restored their small garden. I’ve stocked the borders with native wild flowers, and a native hedge in place of a garden wall. Everyone else has pulled out the hedges and replaced them with fencing, and block paved over the rest of the garden. I think I’ve done quite enough already to attract the pollinators, by restoring the garden… it’s a tiny oasis of soft and frothy flowing plants, in a sea of hard landscaping and fake plastic lawns. The birds and insects love it, and I love love seeing them visit.
Some excellent point raised. What works for England from an ecological perspective may not work for places with different climates and ecosystems. In my area of northern Canada No Mow May works because things are barely even growing at the start of May. I can imagine a lawn getting out of control in a place where growing starts in April or earlier. We also don’t have to worry about ticks. If we did, I’d mow at least once in May.
My yard, which is quite large, does well when not mown in May. The wild violets cover the ground in a sea of violet, there’s creeping herbs that the bees and wasps are all over, forget-me-knots cover large patches, and I have large yellow patches from marsh marigolds (that I transplanted to a wet area on the lawn), and of course dandelions. Wild strawberries are evident in places too.
Not mowing also gives the poplars and maples a chance to get their heads up high enough I won’t run over them when I do mow. The backyard was originally lots of grass. My first year I let some of the new trees grow. Every year following I let another few grow. Eventually I’ll have a mixed aged forest where there once was lawn. Even now I’m getting hares living in the back, deer will stand in the leafy shade of those first trees that grew, a variety of birds are moving in (I keep a list of birds I see in my yard, and every year so far new ones show up). Merlins and Sharp-shinned Hawks are also hanging around to go after the smaller birds.
And I’m starting to get bats again. I have ultrasonic equipment to monitor for them. First few years here there were no bats at all. Last year a handful showed up nightly. I’ll be starting to monitor them this year in a week or so. Hope there’ll be even more.
It’s been wonderful to see wildlife coming back, including migratory birds just passing through. I get a kick out of hearing Palm Warblers, Blackpolls, American Tree Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows in the yard as they feed and rest in the yard for a while. I’ll be mowing tomorrow but will avoid the violets and forget-me-nots as the flowers are carpeting parts of the yard. And I want them to go to seed so they’ll spread even more.
So I’m a big advocate of no mow May, but only because for my area it works well, and my neighbours on one side don’t mow either, and the other side mows but likes how my yard looks (she’s thrilled to see hares and their young hopping around when the grasses get taller). Oh, I also have native shrubs and plants in my gardens. There’s enough variety that there’s something blooming all way to the fall. The veggie and tomato plants do exceptionally well too…so many cherry tomatoes that we are giving them away by the cartons.
I have also been thinking about “No Mow May” and it’s appropriate application. Which zone does it best apply to? I garden in two different zones. My work home is in zone 6 in a closely knit neighborhood of 1/4 acre yards or less. I feel it should be “No mow till mid May”, just before the dandelions go to seed and visit your neighbors pristine lawn. I have difficult invasives like creeping bellflower and bind weed. I laughed at the Wine and Weeds video were Erin suggests you just move if you have bellflower. I have considered moving! So I maintain a lawn and mow in this urban setting with unfriendly invasives. Dandelions will just bloom on shorter stems anyway.
My play home is in zone 4b where I practice “No Mow May”. The timing of May seems appropriate in zone 4b. The “lawn” consists mainly of native strawberriess, bluet, arrowleaf violets, mosses, sedges, panicum and a wee bit of grass. My hope is to attract more pollinators for a better yield of apples and blueberries. My neighbors, who self pollinate their apple tree, are travelling this year during the apple blossom blooms. Let’s see if my “No Mow May” approach welcomes them home with a generous apple yield this fall. Added bonus is that I get to snack on tiny native stawberries out in my lawn just before I mow.
Most of the unmowed lawns I’ve seen here in northern IL are just grass. People have created such sterile lawns that nothing but grass is growing in them. I don’t like sterile lawns. We certainly have some lawn, but it includes weeds that get mowed with the grass –things like creeping charlie, violets, and clover. Many of them are short enough and bloom quickly enough that our lawn has lots of insect activity –something the bluebirds really appreciate. I agree that no-mow May is going to be ineffective at best. We need to encourage people to replace much of their lawn with native flowers and grasses, or woodlands.
Westmont IL sponsored No Mow til Mother’s Day for the past two years. This approach is not a “one fits all” solution and can be adapted to a variety of circumstances depending on the growing zone, the kind of spring weather, rainy or dry, warm or chilly and the preferences of the homeowner. It is not a legal contract! If you want to cut your lawn in mid-May, it’s your lawn, mow it! Or set the mower’s deck high and mow above low growing flowers like violets. Don’t mow in the backyard but mow in the front. The broader benefit is increasing awareness of the benefits of sharing your landscape with pollinators. Yes, planting gardens for bees and butterflies is the best solution but not everyone wants to maintain large gardens but bees and butterflies need everyone to help in their own way. Dandelion pollen isn’t the best but it’s better than nothing and might provide just enough fuel to find a better food source. If you’re already on board with pollinator conservation practices, let’s extend a welcome to the newbies who are willing to let the grass grow long and introduce them to the other things they can try.
Cut our lawn yesterday. Waiting this long DID work – we have about 20 fruit trees on our property and it has been years since they have shown pollination like this year. We probably will need to thin a few of the trees – our lawn produces some dandelions and creeping Charlie, lots of violets, daisies, and other things – we saw many more bumblebees than usual wiggling their cute little behinds in our apple blossoms. We have lots of native stuff as well. Rather than a specific period, the idea should be to let the first plants come to flower before cutting the grass that first time.
We only came across ‘no-mow May’ this year which is odd and found this post, we never would have thought of taking into consideration the size of the gardens in the U.S.
Really interesting… Well to us it is who spends most days in someone’s garden.
Nice little article, thanks.
I have a large garden in the south east of England , almost too big for me to manage but I love it. I also love wildlife and do a lot for it. I’ve found though, that the combination of do nothing over winter and then don’t mow all May, (which this year they have encouraged us to continue through June) has left me in a depressing mess. Perhaps it’s my own fault and I’ve taken the “wildlife” garden too far but my fairly pretty beds and borders full of good plants for pollinators are taken over by brambles, bindweed and nettles.. Feel I’ll never win it back. If I, as a very experienced gardener, end up feeling that way, then imagine the problems for newbies…. I agree totally that a designated border for native wildflowers is a much better bet., in fact I’m planning to remove the majority of my grass and create a huge island flower bend in it’s place.