Hurry Up and Mow if You Must, Because It’s Almost ‘No Mow May’ in New England
Oh, we do love our lush, green, weed-free lawns. So if you must, please mow now so you can participate in No Mow May. It only started sweeping across the country a couple of years ago, and was first adopted in Appleton, Wisconsin, during stay-at-home times, according to Bee City USA. Now, it's gaining popularity across New England.
It also helps make your lawn and gardens even more stunning and healthy if you avoid mowing during May, according to bee pollination supporter and home improvement extraordinaire Bob Vila. And it's all thanks to those bees.
According to Bee City USA, the general idea of not mowing our lawns is a conservation initiative that actually started in the United Kingdom with Plantlife. Now, many people in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine participate.
The goal of No Mow May is to allow grass to grow unmown for the month of May, creating habitat and forage for early season pollinators. This is particularly important in urban areas where floral resources are often limited.
Whether you participate for a couple of weeks or the entire month, it all helps increase the abundance and diversity of our bees and other pollinators.
If you're asking yourself, "What's the big deal about bee pollination?", then the simple answer is that it's the most important thing that bees do. It's also necessary for plants and flowers to reproduce. Most of the plants you see every day depend on bees and other insects as pollinators, according to Bees Techno Science.
Oh, here's one more note: if you live in an area with a lawn overgrowth and weed ordinance or regulation, most town and city officials will suspend it during No Mow May.
In a study from the inaugural No Mow May year, residents who participated had three times more bee species enriching the area, and five times higher bee abundance than nearby parks that had been mowed.
What a BEEautiful thing, and thank goodness the country is getting behind it even more as well.
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Gallery Credit: Lou Milano