What is No Mow May? 

Written by Amy Yarger, Senior Director of Horticulture Invertebrates are the foundation of our way of life, and around the world, scientists are recording declines in diversity and population. The hopeful news is that we can all take steps to help these important animals. One of these steps is adopting garden practices that promote the survival of our native insects.  Butterfly Pavilion maintains over four acres of gardens that provide habitat and highlight the intricate relationships between plants and invertebrates. Our horticulturists care for the gardens in ways that parallel insect life cycles and provide food and shelter for pollinators and other wildlife. Spring is when many of our beneficial invertebrates emerge, hungry and looking for food and shelter. Many bees and butterflies visit early lawn weeds such as dandelions and clover to get much-needed sustenance after a long winter, especially if other resources aren’t available. Creating sheltered niches for invertebrates is also important in spring, a vulnerable time with high moisture and extreme changes of temperature.  The “No Mow May” campaign was launched in the United Kingdom several years ago by an organization called Plantlife and has entered the public consciousness over the last few years as concerns about our disappearing invertebrates have heightened. Several studies have correlated increased mowing with lower pollinator diversity and abundance and have demonstrated that dozens of bee and butterfly species visit flowering species found in turf. Even just reducing mowing (“Slow Mow Spring”) can make a difference for pollinators. A side benefit for the gardener is that less frequent mowing can result in less-stressed turf with fewer pests, while also saving money and time.  

However, for those who really want to devote time to yard work this month, there is a way to make “No Mow May” even more impactful: replacing turf with pollinator gardens full of native plants! These gardens provide more varied food and shelter resources while saving water and maintenance costs. Even in these landscapes, letting the landscape rest through the early spring is preferable to wholesale “spring cleaning”. Consider a stepwise approach, cutting down last year’s perennials once new growth has appeared and leaving some stems standing over the summer if possible. In a world where we are all told to do more, it is refreshing to have an opportunity to do less and still benefit the planet and ourselves. By not “cleaning up” our gardens too much or too early and by delaying mowing, we provide shelter and food for beneficial invertebrates such as bumble bees, lady beetles, and early butterflies.  “No Mow May” is more than just postponing lawn mowing for a month. It’s a way of managing our landscapes as habitat for the creatures that keep our food systems and ecosystems running.