Ranting Locally – a Letter to the Editor
I submitted this letter to the editor of my local paper with the title “No-Mow Presents Problems for Lawns”
This year the City of Greenbelt’s “No-Mow April” campaign encourages residents to avoid mowing this month, in order to encourage flowering for bees. I’m pro-bee, too, but according to experts in lawn care, this practice can seriously damage healthy lawns. U. Maryland’s advice is typical and implicitly warns against waiting a whole month of strong growth to mow again: “Infrequent mowing allows the turf to grow too tall. Subsequent mowing removes too much leaf surface and may shock the plants. Weekly mowing may not be enough, especially during the peak period of leaf growth in the spring. Remove no more than one-third of the grass blade each time you mow. Removing larger amounts of leaf surface may result in physiological shock to the plant, cause excessive graying or browning of leaf tips, and greatly curtail photosynthesis reducing the health of the grass.”
One expert I consulted about the No-Mow idea echoed that concern and added that “In urban situations many if not most of the blooming turf weeds aren’t native and tend to be easily spread, many by wind. Encouraging pollination can exacerbate the situation, leading to more weeds and perhaps encouraging the homeowner to resort to chemical control. And many of these nonnative turf-invading plants can be kept in check by regular mowing.”
Local Reactions
I’m sure the campaign makes sense to many of my neighbors (because they don’t keep up with lawn-care advice like I do – and why should they?) but others cited problems on the city’s Facebook account:
- What are you thinking?!?!?!? Did you get this harebrained idea from [a well-known lefty town nearby]? You have all those early blooming pear trees, crocus, daffodils and the list goes on.
- People relying on landscaping jobs have to work.
- You already have ticks way out of control.
- The city will look awful if people don’t now their lawns.
- I’m mowing mine.
- I’m sorry, what part of tall grass promotes ticks is being ignored here? [This link to tick info.]
And one local horticulturist posted (then deleted) his prediction that good lawns might be damaged by this practice but the mostly-weed lawns he sees around town will probably be fine.
Xerces Connection
So where did my town come up with the (harebrained indeed) idea of a “No-Mow April”? Definitely not from the faculty of the University of Maryland, about 5 miles down the road from us, which I quoted in my letter. No-Mow is a campaign that originated in the U.K. as No-Mow May, then appeared in Wisconsin, again targeting May. Now it’s being promoted by the Bee City USA program of the insect advocacy group Xerces Society. Towns pay the Xerces Society to get bragging rights as “Bee City,” with the fee based on population.
Over-Generalization Galore!
My go-to rant on this blog focus has always been the egregious over-generalization in messaging about gardening and what gardeners can or should be doing to help the environment in some way.
I called the “Leave the Leaves” campaign by the National Wildlife Federation and others “no-good and terrible” because not all plants are the same. Some can be killed by leaf coverage all winter. And the leaves of some trees won’t compost for years, meanwhile suffocating the plants they’re lying on.
Dandelions in a “freedom lawn” at the Rodale Institute.
Then there’s the anti-lawn messaging that’s become so popular, usually including the total national acreage and angrily claiming that lawns demand high input of pesticides, fertilizers, and water. Oh, they sure can – conventional golf courses come to mind – but that doesn’t describe the lawn-care practices of anyone I know. My friends have lawns like the one I used to have, that survive with no inputs at all and no labor except mowing.
Having gotten rid of a lawn myself, I found replacing lawns to be extremely challenging, and the “just plant natives” message from the anti-lawn zealots is misleading and ultimately time- and money-wasting for so many homeowners eager to do the right thing. (I’ve blogged repeatedly here about lawns – good and bad lawn care, and the quest to get rid of lawn altogether.)
My former back yard before and after lawn replacement with groundcover Sedum and clover – an experiment that eventually failed as the clover overpowered the Sedum.
And with the “No-Mow Month” push we see yet another campaign by a wildlife-advocacy group that completely ignores potential harm to the garden plants we’re subjecting those practices to. Makes you wonder if wildlife advocacy groups are simply opposed to gardening. Sometimes it sure seems like it.
Pesky Details Not Considered in the No-Mow Month Campaign
- Whether your lawn even has flowers that will appear in April.
- Whether such flowers, if they are allowed or encouraged to be pollinated, are flowers you want more of.
- The risk of damaging any thick, healthy and weed-free lawn by waiting a whole fast-growing month to mow it. (And what mower could do a good at that, anyway?)
- And probably more details I’m missing.
The opinion cited in my letter to the editor was by Sylvia Thompson-Hacker, one of the admins of the popular (25K+ members strong around the world) Garden Professors Blog Facebook Group. Here’s the rest of her comment, before I shortened it for print:
“No mow” doesn’t necessarily mean more benefits to pollinators. The assumption that plants blooming in the lawn are attractive to pollinators is fallacious. But let’s assume there are plants attractive to bees in the lawn. The controlling point is the turf mix percentage, the grass : blooming forbs ratio. Not mowing and allowing them to bloom more would be a benefit to insects, that makes sense. But if the lawn is largely grass allowing it to grow long won’t provide the same profit. Plus letting grass get too long between mowings isn’t good for the grass itself.
Another admin to respond when I posted the campaign was the one I know best – Linda Chalker-Scott. She wrote:
I don’t believe this is a science-based recommendation, at least not plant-science based. Letting the grass grow too long is bad on lawns health and integrity. Thin or dead patches that are apparent after the top layer is mown are invitations to weed invasion. And that means homeowners are likely to use herbicides.
What’s more, this is certainly not germane to other locales. I will have to start mowing this weekend (in the Pacific NW), as our lawn is already growing like gangbusters. There is no way I’m waiting for another 6-7 weeks to mow. [Posted in mid-March]
If anyone has a peer-reviewed and published study to the contrary, please provide it in the comments.
Here’s the Garden Professors recent post about plants for bees.
Observing Flowers and Post-Mowing Lawn Health
This month I’ll be watching and photographing the progress on No-Mow-certified lawns around town, especially documenting what flowers actually appear. Then soon after May 1 I’ll document the post-no-mow effect on local lawns of all types. Maybe our lawns are so weedy it won’t matter.
Your statement “lawns demand high input of pesticides, fertilizers, and water. Oh, they sure can – conventional golf courses come to mind – but that doesn’t describe the lawn-care practices of anyone I know. My friends have lawns like the one I used to have, that survive with no inputs at all and no labor except mowing” may be true in Maryland but in my area of Northern Virginia many, if not most home owners in my neighborhood use lawn services that fertilize and spray pesticides. Some folks are still installing automatic lawn sprinkler systems that go on whether or not it has recently rained. And my neighbor just had his yard sprayed by Mosquito Joe — just before the 48 hours of rain that we had this week. All of these practices are expensive and unnecessary but most folks in NoVa still strive for the “perfect lawn”.
Oh, Maryland has its fair share – or more – of chemically treated lawns, but not in the less-affluent neighborhoods I live in. Potomac, for sure!!
lawns are a stupid status symbol and I totally support no mow. people who claim “their neighbors” don’t use chemicals are being disingenuous. Every spring the spray trucks frequent subdivisions to spray cancer causing herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. Down with the cult of the lawn. Sally blanton Lexington KY
If it weren’t for the weeds in my lawn, it wouldn’t look half as green as it does (from a distance)! I keep the mower deck on my yard tractor set high enough so as to avoid the clover, but lop the blooms off the dandelions. With really noxious weeds like creeping charlie, I use spot weed killer … I’m not willing to let this stuff take over the lawn and ultimately spread into the flower beds.
Thank you for providing a refreshing counter point of view to a trendy meme.
I think the most important bugaboo here is the over-generalization of lawn care advice – as you discussed. Where I live, in MT, April is definitely NOT a month of fast-growing grass – the soil is too cold and the unstable weather (e.g. occasional snow squalls) doesn’t help get grass growing during this month. Despite the cool soil and fluctuating temps, I do have dandelions and other flowers blooming in the lawn by the end of the month. (They typically get yanked before setting seed, though.). Additionally, I cringe at the idea that pollinators are simply bees and the idea that dandelions and the other early flowering plants that commonly invade lawns are not useful for pollinators.
Thank you for this post. I know people are trying to do the right things with their gardens and lawns but this sort of fallacious advice doesn’t help them or the environment.
Here in drought-stricken California there has been a movement for years to “lose the lawn”. Long term result: grass died and with no watering nothing replaced it but a few hardy weeds. Neighborhoods that once looked well-maintained now look “seedy”. Xeriscape landscaping is an expense and effort that only a few homeowners are willing to undertake. California may be saving water, but the birds, the bees, and the esthetics are all suffering.
i was a bit puzzled when I saw the “No Mow Month” lawn signs in Greenbelt, Maryland. It did not seem consistent with recommendations from scientists like Doug Tallemy that we develop environments in our yards that have leaf mulch like a forest floor and keystone pollinator trees/plants, the native plants that provide food for the most insects which are then eaten by birds, and which also meet the needs of the most pollinators.
Grass lawns are generally spoken of as a habitat/food wasteland for pollinators. So, perhaps the Xerces Society people are actually suggesting that in the month of May meadows that have a variety of native plants for insects and pollinators should not be mowed yet?
In Greenbelt our small lawns tend not to be the meadow type, but many people do try to develop space in their yards and the community to support insects, birds, and pollinators. Usually just not so much in the lawn grass.
I always learn pieces of the puzzle that are a revelation to me when I watch a Doug Tallemy talk from Youtube.
I just saw on the Xerces Society’s Bee City USA website the following recommendation:
“The efficacy of reducing mowing may be expanded upon by altering the composition of your lawn to include more flowering species. A “bee lawn” may include Dutch clover (which captures nitrogen and helps feed the lawn) as well as other low-growing flowering plants such as creeping thyme (Thymus spp.), self-heal (Prunella vulgaris), and others. Some plants, such as native violets (Viola spp.) may already be present and should be encouraged as they are valuable host plants for fritillary butterflies. For more information about creating a flowering lawn please see the resources at the end of this blog.”
What they go on to recommend is not just less mowing, but a greater variety of flowering plants in the lawn, or to eliminate the lawn entirely.
Around here, we might be able pull off a No Mow August, when drought usually hits. But April? No way!
Wouldn’t planting one or two specific perennials for the pollinators provide more food than the occasional
flowers that may be in someones lawn. Or, maybe a pot of dandelions that can be controlled.
There is science behind the idea of mowing your lawn less, which can feed the pollinators if it contains plants and weeds in it. Not sure which science Xerces is leaning on, but here is what I have seen. https://www.umass.edu/news/article/lazy-lawn-mowers-can-help-support-suburban And let’s remember that less mowing, means less fossil fuels burned which means less carbon dioxide in our atmosphere (which causes climate change.) Its a win-win. Advice like this Xerces isn’t meant to be a mandate. It’s meant to be a suggestion, an idea to play around with. Try it, don’t see a benefit? Don’t do it and don’t ruin it for other people. In this time of environmental crisis, we need to bring all ideas to the table.
Looking forward with interest, to seeing the results in May. Also wondering whether mowing the advised % per mow, over some weeks, until it’s the correct height, might be more successful than scalping it after letting it grow all month. I got rid of my lawn some time ago; waiting for the horizontal junipers to fill the space. South facing slope, central NC – it was a bear to mow!
With all things horticultural, individual conditions will indicate if a no mow month is sensible. Here in north Texas, a no mow March is sensible. Warm season turf grasses have not broken dormancy. There is no reason to mow until the weather is warm enough for the grass to get growing, yet lawn care companies generally scalp lawns at the beginning of March and they continue weekly mowing until November. During the beginning of the pandemic, our local parks department did not begin mowing until mid-April. The turf at our Allen Heritage Village was alive with anemone and wild muscari. It was glorious and good for early pollinators. Still, rather than promote no mow months, it would be better to encourage people to remove unnecessary turf and replace it with mixed plantings. Even non-native planting beds require far less work, water and fertilization than lawn. Where lawn is useable or aesthetically needed to balance plantings or satisfy HOA requirements homeowners should be free to have it without guilt, so long as they try to water wisely, use slow release Nitrogen fertilizers that do not add to the chemical soup that is wreaking havoc with our watershed and mow at the appropriate height for the health of the turf.
I think one aspect people miss here when they talk about not mowing is that you can replace your St. Augustine with native grasses and sedges. It doesn’t need to be some wildflower planting that covers the whole yard. So many of our native grasses and sedges do a lot of heavy lifting and maybe they aren’t bringing in the gregarious pollinators but they are sustaining a lot of different insect life. I don’t live in typical suburbia but I’m near Houston and on an acre lot. My front yard is covered with blooming and seeding native sedges, some that aren’t common, and some really interesting native grasses, plus a Texas ragwort that has grown in size the last few years. Would these results be the same in a suburb? No. But if people were actually conscious about planting native grasses and sedges it wouldn’t be as big of a deal. That and like you said, if you wait a few weeks you get some of those cool early ephemerals in some areas that most folks never see because they mow the second the grass turns green.
There’s a middle ground here that GR doesn’t ever seem to want to acknowledge exists.
Oh, GR has covered middle positions on the lawn-anti-lawn debate many times, including these posts by me. https://gardenrant.com/2021/06/my-15-years-of-ranting-about-lawn-replacement-and-lawn-care.html.
And I’m pretty sure NEVER a defense of conventional lawn care.
Hmmmmm. I guess I’m surprised at how angry this made you? I know, I know–that’s what Garden Rant is all about.
I think what’s going on here is that public messaging like this must, by necessity, be simple. Complexity gets lost in messaging campaigns and the people running them know that. To be effective the message must be simple and direct, catch people’s attention, and make them think.
You mentioned being upset by the “leave the leaves” campaign because it’s only sometimes a good idea; of course it’s only sometimes a good idea! Hopefully both campaigns have simple slogans which can lead to more complex information for anybody who checks the city website. If it doesn’t that is indeed a messaging failure.
I think both “leave the leaves” and “don’t always mow” are worthwhile ideas. If these campaigns lead some of your neighbors to more ecological gardening practices they are worth it. If there is no way for those interested to read the more complex information it is indeed a campaign failure–and one I would point out to the city.
What about those places in the US(Aussie here) who have those pesky HOA’s, aka modern day Nazis, who control basically every aspect of the property YOU OWN.
maybe a compromise would be to reduce the amount of turf in one’s landscape and replace it with beds planted out with pollinator friendly plants. there is an interesting study done by a University of Florida professor on the abundance of pollinators in a managed, (manicured) turf-practically zero-and landscapes with a variety of native and non-native plants. There is a huge difference. Given the staggering decline of insects and other pollinators, it is hard to support a monoculture of only turf.
If you have a 100% grass lawn, then, yes, the no-mow initiative is a poor one. If your lawn has weeds in it, then you will get significant flowering during the no-mow month. The obvious flower is the dandelion, a favorite of many bee species, but I have other flowers in my yard right now, violets in particular. When you return to mowing, set your mower’s blades at their highest level, and then over the next few mowings bring it down to the height you prefer.
There is a climate crisis. Nobody cares. What a bunch of selfish, shallow chubs who claim mowing is good for anyone. Karens are out there mowing regardless of the noise pollution it creates, and using the ridiculous, “but my lawn will look bad” defense to continue a ridiculous practice. Get over yourselves. Taking a break from mowing is a good thing for the environment, and if you enjoy the sound of a lawn mower, you probably have very few brain cells. That science.