Mary Lacy
Northside News
In the last few years, it has been popular in some areas to hold off mowing an urban lawn until late May or June. The idea started in Britain and was promoted as a way to help pollinators get a good start on feeding early in the year. The City of Appleton was one of the early adopters of No Mow May, and some researchers at Lawrence University produced a study that seemed to justify reducing lawn mowing to encourage flowering plants to grow.
Unfortunately, the study has since been retracted due to significant inaccuracies, including the inclusion of bees that are not active in springtime and plants that do not flower until late summer and autumn.
Most urban lawns consist mainly of turf grasses, which are not beneficial to pollinators. Leaving the grass to grow and then cutting it can shock the turf, which can lead to an unhealthy lawn. Besides, most lawn mowers are not built to handle grass more than a few inches long. What can be done instead to help pollinators?
● Plant native flowering plants and trees in place of turf, plants that provide food throughout the seasons.
● Halt the overuse of pesticides. (Mosquito treatments kill bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects as well as the mosquitoes.)
● Leave plant debris (leaves and stalks) to help shelter hibernating insects until it is time for them to emerge.
There are several sources for finding out what kinds of plants can be used to make a pollinator-friendly yard. Check out the UW Extension pollinator page: hort.extension.wisc.edu/pollinators.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has a pollinator website as well, with links to nurseries that provide native plant species: dnr.wiscon
sin.gov/topic/endangeredresources/nativeplants.
So go ahead and mow the turf, but to help the bees and butterflies, change the composition of the plants in the yard, stop the use of unnecessary chemicals, and leave some yard waste in the yard to shelter the creatures that pollinate.
