No Mow May is an initiative that was first popularized in the UK and is now widely participated in throughout North America. It urges people to let their lawns grow freely for a month, supposedly to feed early emerging insects, particularly bees. It also serves as an excuse for lazy folks not to bother mowing and is a “band-aid” action, allowing people to rationalize that they are doing something to help the environment.
Possibly, in the UK, where bees evolved in tandem with plants that grow in turf grass there is a benefit to insects. In North America, particularly in lawns maintained with chemicals, no insect-supporting plants grow. The typical lawn is a monoculture of grasses which does not support insect life at all. It provides little pollen or nectar and no habitat. Many ‘lawns’ are filled with invasive species such as Creeping Charlie, Quack Grass, Garlic Mustard and our old friends the Dandelions. If any of these plants have pollen, it is of poor quality for early emerging insects. There is no benefit to letting such plants grow unabated for any length of time.
Bees will forage among dandelions if nothing else is available, but dandelions lack proteins essential to bee health.
No Mow May is not a solution to the world-wide loss and degradation of pollinator habitats.
Let’s look at some better ideas, which will assist pollinators in May and beyond. Replace part (or all!) of our lawns with a mixture of plants native to our region. Include early-flowering shrubs such as Red Maple (Acer rubrum), Willows (Salix spp.), Serviceberries (Amelanchier spp.), Cherries (Prunus spp.), especially Choke Cherry (Prunus virginiana) and Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica).
We can add native perennials such as goldenrods, asters and coneflowers to the beds we already have, remove invasive species (which do not support native insects), and learn to love the ‘mess’ of decaying leaves, dead plant stalks, and tree stumps. The latter provide pollinator habitat. The David Suzuki Foundation has more suggestions. https://davidsuzuki.org/living-green/messy-yards-help-pollinators/
Here is a link to the ecoregional planting guides from Pollinator Partnerships which detail the plants native to all the areas of Canada. Our ecodistrict is the Lake Erie Lowlands. https://pollinatorpartnership.ca/en/ecoregional-planting-guides
Together we can nurture the natural communities upon which we all depend.
Submitted by Leslye Glover, Tri-County Master Gardener
