No Mow May: Laziness Or Help For Pollinators? [Block Talk Survey]

ACROSS AMERICA — If some of your neighbors’ lawns are looking a little shaggy, they may not be the lazy, no-good so-and-sos you may think, but slow-playing lawn maintenance for No Mow May.

The practice of pausing mowing in May is to give flowering plants a chance to grow and provide food for early-season pollinators. The No Mow May movement started in the United Kingdom but is gaining popularity in the United States, with some cities officially sanctioning the practice by temporarily suspending weed ordinances.

Here’s the gist of No Mow May: By letting dandelions, clover, blue violets and hundreds of other flowering weeds flourish in May, bees and other pollinators have plenty of the nectar and pollen they need to thrive. It’s one practice — part of an overall landscaping and gardening plan, its backers say — to help imperiled native bees and other pollinators.

There’s some science behind leaving the lawn alone in May. Research by Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where the No Mow May movement started in 2020, found five times the number of bees and three times the number of bee species in lawns that weren’t mowed compared with city parks that were mowed.

Critics say that while well-intentioned, No Mow May may harm pollinators because they’ll be shredded along with tall weeds when mowing does start. Tall weeds can take over and shade grass, leading to fungal diseases. Once established, weeds don’t magically disappear, and could force choices such as chemical pesticides that are even more harmful to pollinators.

No Mow May can become polarizing in some neighborhoods where aesthetically pleasing lawns are important.

“Just letting your lawn go will not result in a lovely meadow that neighbors or wildlife will admire,” Benjamin Vogt wrote for the Monarch Gardens blog that addresses criticism surrounding the practice, adding, “There’s little chance a neighbor will look at your ‘let go’ lawn and think, wow, that’s cool, I want that, I understand it. There’s every chance they will rightfully report you to weed control. …”

What do you think? Is No Mow May a practice that should be encouraged? Is the impact on pollinators a fair trade-off for an aesthetically unappealing, unkempt lawn? We’re asking for Block Talk, Patch’s exclusive neighborhood etiquette column.

Just fill out the survey below. Rest assured, we don’t collect email addresses.

Editor’s note: This survey closed on May 10, 2024.

About Block Talk

Block Talk is an exclusive Patch series on neighborhood etiquette — and readers provide the answers. If you have a topic you'd like for us to consider, email beth.dalbey@patch.com with “Block Talk” as the subject line.

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