No Mow May: A Pollinator Love Story

“A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule,” mused Michael Pollan, who writes about the intersection of the human and natural worlds in his 1991 book Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education. The precise dictates of lawn maintenance can yield visually alluring but environmentally damaging results. No Mow May, the counter-movement, allows nature and its pollinators to break free from the cultism of lawn care.

No Mow, or Low Mow May, encourages lawn owners to reduce cutting or leave the mower in the shed entirely during the first month of spring to aid pollinators (bees, birds, bats, butterflies, moths, beetles, wasps, and small mammals) as they emerge from their nests in search of food, in the form of early flowering plants and weeds left to grow unchecked.

Inaugurated in 2019 as an unofficial movement by UK-based Plantlife, which has restored nearly 16,000 acres of meadows in the UK since 1989, and carried forward in the US by the Xerces Society, No Mow May implores us to let go and let grow.

Our modern gardens and lawns are often filled with exotic plants that have no relation to their geographical location. The 40 million acres of decorative non-native turf grass that blanket the US are the single largest irrigated crop in the country. This equates to half the acreage of the entire National Park system.

The difference between the two is that National Parks are a functional and participating part of our collective ecosystems, while gardens and lawns are a sort of eco-sterilization under the control of an army of fertilizers and carbon emission-challenged lawnmowers, battling the earth rather than working with it, Sunday after Sunday.

Forgoing lawn maintenance is a kind of earth activism in itself. Voluntary nature reparations and an acknowledgment that our lawns are not really ours at all.

“Owning a garden, however small, is a privilege, pleasure, and a responsibility,” regenerative designer, craftsman, and environmentalist Sebastian Cox wrote in 2021. “Not a responsibility to grow prize veg, although growing your own food is immeasurably rewarding, but a responsibility to not lay that land useless to other species.”

To rewild our domestic landscapes by letting our lawns grow freely is not only a service to the planet but also embraces an aesthetic untethered by crisp corners and meticulously planned color palettes.

We are the problem and the only solution

Mother Earth has done an expert job of harmoniously running herself until humans came along with our detailed landscaping plans, imposing our will on an originally biodiverse land and driving out beneficial species in the process. This is a manmade problem to which we are the only solution.

Monoculture landscaping lacks the floral diversity and nesting sites necessary for bees and native species to thrive. Non-native turf lawns provide little benefit to pollinators, whose invisible services shoulder our food system, prevent soil erosion, and increase carbon sequestration.

In leveraging our lawns as wild refuges for pollinators and eco-engineers like beavers and birds, we become partners in revitalization.

Pollinators are vital

Bees and other pollinators are responsible for sustaining 87 of the world’s 115 leading food crops. Only 28 global food crops can survive without nature’s pollinating services.

Without the bee’s genetic imperative to flower hop, billions of people would be forced into homogeneous diets.

We can support pollinators by swapping out our tailored lawns for native landscapes, which emphasize species diversity, abundance, and local origins.

Native bees are specialists in working with the plant species they evolved alongside. Native flora attracts and supports a larger number of pollinating insects and animals than non-native plant species. Even a yard with a few flowering plants of any kind is better than one without any.

Committing to pollinators

Keeping a meticulous yard and creating a pollinator's paradise doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. You can transform your yard permanently by replacing non-native grasses with indigenous ground cover and flowering species.

Low-growing flowering plants such as creeping thyme, creeping phlox, white clover, and selfheal are perfect alternatives to resource-greedy grasses, cutting down on the 9 billion gallons of water Americans use daily to grow ornamental grass while also increasing the drought tolerance of soil.

You'll attract a greater diversity of pollinators by filling your garden with variety, including annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, ground covers, and herbs. Acclaimed garden designer Piet Oudolf once ruminated, “If a plant also attracts insects, butterflies, and birds, it’s truly an ideal plant.”

You can also introduce green real estate on a smaller scale, through flower boxes, hanging plants, and micro gardens on balconies and terraces.

Creating more wild pockets in a home’s landscape also provides better conditions for critters critical to a diverse ecosystem, including fireflies, grasshoppers, and butterflies who prefer longer grass.

Affirmative Inaction

The reality is that many homeowners in the US are under the watchful eye of homeowner associations, which set stringent rules that can make rewilding your yard challenging.

Janet and Jeff Crouch of Columbia, Maryland lived in relative harmony among neighbors until resentment for their wild, unmanicured “naturescape” became a point of contention with HOA bylaws built to protect property values.

On principle, the couple stood their (rewilded) ground. Their battle to maintain a pollinator-friendly yard became the foundation for groundbreaking legislation. Maryland House Bill 322 reduces the power of HOAs to lord over lawns and affords homeowners the right to curate eco-friendly landscaping (rain gardens, native flowers, and turfless lawns).

Education, conversation, and strategic signage can persuade your neighborhood of the benefits of swapping traditional lawns for a free-spirited yard. Begin by trying No Mow May.

Steps to rewild your outdoor spaces:

• Let go: Let nature do the landscaping. Give the lawnmower a rest and let native plants and pollinators return.

• Create native landscapes: Plant native blooms that align with the needs of native pollinators. Keep species diverse and aim for a succession of blooms to make pollen and nectar available across seasons.

• Replace turf grass with functional ground cover: Replace non-native grasses with native drought-proof ground cover and flowering species to create more functional green space for pollinators that require less water and fertilizer.

• Add real green real estate: Use hanging planters, terraced landscapes, and flower boxes to bring depth to a more wild landscape.

• Coordinate with nature: Pollinators like bees have excellent  color  vision. Create monochromatic floral targets for them by planting a single species in clumps approximately four feet in diameter.

• Put down the pesticides: Let the natural rhythms of your yard take over. Wildflowers have an intuitive pest defense that ensures harmony and the vitality of pollinators.

Photography: New York Botanical Garden, Jason Ingram, Adrien Olichon, Revieshan, Janet Crouch