No Mow May - YES, You Should Try It - Here's Why!
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- No Mow May is a proposed plan to leave your grass to grow throughout the month of May so that native flowers can bloom and provide pollinators with an early forage. You will see your yard fill with dandelions, clover, creeping charlie, and whatever else you have mixed in with your grass, but in the end your grass may notice a denser nicer lawn, and you'll have helped the bees get a good head start for the season.
This video is an essay showcasing my journey throughout the month. It highlights the project history, milestones during the month, and pros & cons.
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I’m doing this now, but with an eye to protecting lightening bugs (for bees, too, by my garden is mostly flowers and plants, just a smallish patch of lawn) I love how the long grass, with its waving seed-heads looks!
And saves so much with no watering and less money wasted on petrol! 😇💖
I grew up in Minnesota until I was 12 and then my family moved to Austin, Texas. At first I was taken aback by how rough around the edges yards looked in Austin. But now I've grown to love the more casual approach to yards. Perfectly groomed lawns are not as common and so I find it funny when folks get all bent out of shape about how other people's yards look. They clearly have too much free time on their hands!
I'm 30 now and back in Minnesota. Because I've lived in many other parts of the country, I don't have as much saved up so I probably won't be able to afford a home until I'm at least 40, and probably only a tiny home at that. But, interestingly, listening to all the upkeep required for a lawn made me reconsider some things. If I do have a small plot of land, I actually think I would find it more worth my while to make it entirely a flower garden and use a bit of ground cover plants such that mowing isn't required. I don't find lawns very appealing so why waste my time mowing a lawn that doesn't bring me joy when I could spend that time weeding a beautiful garden instead.
Long story long, you've sparked a lot of thoughts for me and I'm glad to hear that the No Mow May worked out well for you!
First, let me state as a beekeeper bees are out in force in May after a long winter so pollinators abound no matter whether mowing in May or not. Second, as a survivor of Babiosis, a tick-borne malarial like disease letting grass grow beyond 3.5 inches is extremely risky. Ticks favor high grass and brush they can easily be brushed onto clothes or skin between 3.5 inches to about 5 feet.
For the record, I contracted Babiosis last July, 2021 from a tick bite. Though I found and removed the offending tick within minutes, a month after I had to be hospitalized for 3 weeks. The malarial-like parasite attacks white blood cells, which are what delivers oxygen to the body, without which muscles will begin to fail to function. This is what happened to me one night in August, 2021. I got up to use the bathroom and while walking realized I would not make to the facility so I quickly ducked out the front door to relieve myself in a relatively safe way. Problem was as I turned my other muscles began to fail one by one: first my neck then chest, hips and legs I crashed to the ground in a slow motion way and could not get to the door handle though I was inches away. I moved forward on the slate unable to lift my head and scraped my entire face. I still could not get to the handle so I inched up the brick wall on my back scraping the back and top of my head and began knocking on the storm door. My wife being a deep sleeper did not hear me for an hour. I inched up more further cutting my head and just managed to get to the handle but did not have strength enough to press and pull on it. I inched up again barely able to ring the doorbell. After a time she came and found me on the slate apron of the front door. However, I was now so close to the door that I blocked it with my body. She got the phone to alert my son who lives only 2 miles away but his phone was turned off. Keep in mind this all started a 1:00am. Between her pushing and my slow attempts at rolling on my side we cleared the storm door but I could not lift myself and obviously she couldn't lift me. I told her to cover me with a beach towel and leave me for another hour to regain some strength, which we did. It was now 3:00am and i was able to roll on my back to position myself to crawl in, but again I could not muster the strength. It took another hour for me to get in the house and crawl to the bedroom. At that point, 4:00am my son called but I was all tucked into bed after a much needed shower as not only bladder let loose so did my bowels. I showered on the floor and manage with the wife's help to dry and redress in a fresh pair of PJ's and make my way into bed. In total this all took about three hours: the longest hours of my life.
For those who might ask why I didn't call 911 it was still in the throes of CV-19 and I would not allow ANY experimental vaccines into my body for fear of well founded repercussions. Over the next two days I was in and out of delirium and still had little to no control over my body, finally the hospital advised that while a test for CV was required I would not have to be jabbed.
I was in the hospital for three weeks. I had to re-learn to use my muscles and had to have therapy for 2 months thereafter at home. I finally regained nearly all function only this last February. I still have some residual problems specifically vertigo on sitting, laying down or rising.
Babiosis is a vile disease and something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. It has a 28% death rate and when in hospital on one particular night came close, very close to dying. I was knockin' on heaven's door for at least three days before the aggressive antibiotic regime and other meds brought me around.
Ticks are a plague in the USA, most especially in the Northeast and nothing to take lightly. I urge folks not to forego mowing, pruning, etc. as you my pay dearly for not following through on this.
The first purple flower you showed is the wood violet (state flower:)
Great ideas for improving it next year! My family did it too (with additional seeding in some spots) and it seemed to help with the patchy areas. I’m interested to see if there will be more pollinators next year if more people around the city participate. Overall I’m really happy Oshkosh gave it a shot and I’m excited to see how No Mow May improves with community input!
Thank you for sharing your experience! One other pro to doing no mow May, was I'm certain, seeing your baby girl enjoying nature its self. I know for me sitting in the lawn with my grandbabies picking clover flowers and making clover tiaras and King crowns with tall grass is one of my favorite things to do. We also count bees in a certain area usually picked by the winner of"pick a number between 1 and 10"!!
2022 will be my 5th year of supporting the pollinators. I get the 🐦 🐝 and even butterflies. The last 2 years we have watched a monarch butterfly grow inside its chrysalis. We watched from caterpillar hanging upside down to emergence...I'm 56 and prior to this experience with my grandchildren I had never seen this in my life...but at 2 to 9 years of age they have seen it twice!
May I use your video to show or local cooperative agency your results and your pros and cons??? You are very honest and informed with your words and your touching on the area with more manicured lawns with larger homes will absolutely help me!
Thank you again for sharing!
P.S. my sweet 13 year old fur baby also loves laying in the taller lawn and she always smells so sweet and fresh!!!
This is amazing, thanks for sharing. I'll be doing it this year so I'm doing my research!
Some really interesting things here from a lawn care perspective. Not least of which, it doesn't look scalped after cutting it down, the seed germinating and growing in places it had not before, and pretty good color despite I'm going to guess limited fertilizer or anything like that. Awesome stuff.
Seen You At The Paine Arts Center Plant Sale! I Like To Keep My Grass 4 Inches Or So. The Longer The Grass The Longer The Roots Are Below The Ground.
I love this! I was just thinking about the pollinators in my grass the other day. I live in a neighborhood where people cut two and three times a week; yikes! We are one of the few with clover, and we get so many honey bees. How to change the perception of longer grass (even just 2-3"!) and "weeds"?? I don't know. ha! ...we are using the same fiskars reel manual mower for the second year now; sadly, the rubber on one of the wheels tore in half. Have to check into warranty. lolz. Probably couldn't use it for first cut anyway, but all's well. haha. Isn't it crazy that lawns are controversial?! Loved your view-point. :) Happy high mowing!
grow out your lawn, and add more flowers. perennial ones esepcially. plant more trees. let your neighbors witness the beauty and maybe theyll be inspired to do the same
I have a neighbor who regularly lets their lawn go to seed before mowing to help thicken it. We have very sandy soil that doesn't grow grass very well aside from scrubby beach grasses. We had a conversation about ways to improve seed quality and I suggested clover to increase nitrogen and organic matter. It increases the amount of weed seeds that blow into my garden, but overall I don't mind. It's a process.
I am kinda sad that you're sending all that potential compost away. Hopefully your city has a composting system for yard waste.
I will definitely try this! I've always left stems intact and planted for bees, also leave leaves on ground in autumn. We planted one part of lawn with clover after removing grass, for bees. Now I will try mowing later than May..
Great video
Maybe there's a happy medium where you can let the back or side yard grow out and still mow/maintain the front yard. Keep the 'mess' out of sight and hopefully not anger those in the community that are opposed.
My grass was 12 inches in spots May1 and it was mowed down 5 bags later. A normal cut I can do it all with in bag.
Try getting my in laws to do this! 🙄
They love their super trimmed lawn and they certainly love their pesticides.
Hi, I was watching a tutorial about grass and other things that grow in meadows and I remembered about dandelions, there was some professor telling us all that dandelions will only grow where the soil is lacking in something that makes for a good soil balance. This is because dandelion roots grows deep down into the soil and brings up a nutrient that remains after the life cycle of the dandelion therefor next year should have less dandelions in that part of the grass. My grass is ridiculously long as it has not been touched since last year, it is not that I am lazy but because it has been too wet to mow
May try the ultra hipster approach to lawn care that turns the downsides you had with your no mow may to benefits by encouraging the "weeds" and chasing off the grasses. Polyculture... Your lawn is very thick with grass, you are spending a pile of money to maintain that. Violas, bugle weed, mosses, clovers are often frowned upon but they have one great advantage, they don't get very tall. Your lawn will look very long and be incredibly hard to mow with a standard push mower if you are promoting grass growth and leaving it to seed. Forget mulching grass that thick and long, bagger only. As far as exercise, I spend a ton of time swinging a cordless weed eater to keep the flowered dead heads (dandelions) and grasses that persist under control. The weed eater allows me to chose what stays and what goes and while it may only weigh a few pounds it gets heavy in hurry! If you work against the grasses rather than with them, after a few years, your yard is covered in flowering ground cover that attracts pollinators by the thousands. Moreover it doesn't mind foot traffic, does not require fertilizers or water to stay green, and does not require poisons. If you have under an iron HOA it may be troublesome they like checkerboard mow patterns in every lot every saturday. It will annoy the neighbors who are determined to chase dandelions. There are more insects in general if you do not poison and cut. Not just pollinators.
I do this ALL YEAR. I do not mow about 90% of my lawn at all anymore. I mow the property line to ease the neighbors minds and maybe slow my flowers from becoming their weeds. I mow around the garden because I water and fertilize there and everything grows like crazy and out of hand fast. Other than that its a ton of weed eating. Every couple of days I wonder around with it and check out all the new stuff that's popped up.
The neatest aspect for spring is the remarkable reveal. A literal fairy garden of low growing spring flowers. The overall look after you've managed to get the natural cover to replace most of the grass looks overall much shorter and colorful than your lawn looks with its lush grasses gone to seed. Other than the odd ball volunteer flower or plant that I allow to grow to see what it does my lawn is maintained well within the cities lawn regulations. The approach requires a different idea as to what a lawn looks like, the crosshatched mow is a pretty clean carpet to look over. A natural ground cover space is space to be explored and pondered rather than looked over.
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I accidentally did No Mow May... because it rained for about 3 weeks straight in East Texas.
I don't believe this is a thing in my area of WI, at least I've not heard of it locally. I think I might push to have it be a thing next year though as I'd love to do this too.
I tried to do the no-mow May thing, but my neighbor mowed my grass when I wasn't looking. I'm sure he thought he was helping me out, so I can't get mad, but it was a little frustrating.
Cons - Grass clippings are technically not allowed in yard bags and have to be dropped off at the yard with the $25 permit - this doesn't work well for me. Rabbits decided the long grass in my back yard - even with two large dogs was more attractive then my neighbors lawn. I think next year I might only let the front go long.
So weird use get find 😮 Australia doesn't
So if I don't want to have all the weeds, I'm going to get them anyway. What happened to just planting some FLOWERS? I have flowering trees and bushes that sound like bee hives. Others are going to put down MORE poisons. I'm not a hater, but I understand how this is maybe over reaching.
Tell the neighbors who are so anal about their perfect chemicaled grass yards to get a life. Nice video. Thanks!
Great ideas for improving it next year! My family did it too (with additional seeding in some spots) and it seemed to help with the patchy areas. I’m interested to see if there will be more pollinators next year if more people around the city participate. Overall I’m really happy Oshkosh gave it a shot and I’m excited to see how No Mow May improves with community input!