#NoMowMay: A Step Toward Abolishing the Lawn?

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

This month is #NoMowMay, largely within the UK however within the US too. The hash tag and idea was invented by the Plantlife website, “is a British conservation charity working nationally and internationally to save lots of threatened wild flowers, vegetation and fungi.” From the FAQ:

Why “No Mow Might”?

Over-maintenance of lawns and different grassy areas implies that the wild vegetation in these grassy areas don’t have an opportunity to develop, flower and set seed. Altering the way in which we mow, mowing much less commonly or permitting some areas to get lengthy and leaving others brief, allows a combination of wildflowers to develop, flower and set seed.

For those who change the way in which lawns and grassy areas are lower you will notice extra wildflowers; that is good for our senses and for pollinators.

And:

What’s “No Mow Might”?

We’re encouraging you to go away your lawnmower within the shed and let all of your garden develop lengthy, only for the month of Might. On this manner, smaller vegetation like daisies, dandelions, selfheal, and clover will get an opportunity to flower. After the survey, you possibly can stick with it and depart some or all of your garden unmown if you wish to encourage flowers for pollinators.

Some individuals will have already got left all or a part of their garden unmown from the start of the season. It’s nice for those who’ve carried out this – letting a mini-meadow develop like that is a straightforward technique to encourage wildflowers and wildlife into your backyard.

The month builds towards a pleasant piece of citizen science:

On twenty first Might we’ll be asking all No Mow Might individuals to take the Each Flower Counts survey. Merely rely the variety of flowers in a sq. metre patch of garden and get your very personal Private Nectar Rating.

#NoMowMay is sufficiently big within the UK that it serves as a information hook. From the Guardian, “Mow drawback: gardeners inspired to not lower lawns in Might“:

1000’s of individuals participate in Plantlife’s annual Each Flower Counts citizen science survey, the biggest ever research of backyard lawns within the UK. The charity says the outcomes present a “radical shift in attitudes in direction of garden administration is below manner”. It says 78.8% of two,157 EFC individuals final yr didn’t mow for a month earlier than collaborating within the survey, a rise from 33.6% in 2019.

Individuals who selected to not mow have been rewarded with uncommon vegetation. Greater than 250 wild plant species have been recorded by gardeners final yr, together with wild strawberry, wild garlic and really uncommon vegetation together with adder’s-tongue fern, meadow saxifrage, snakeshead fritillary and eyebright. Many orchids have been additionally seen, together with the declining ​man orchid, green-winged orchid, southern and northern marsh orchid and bee orchid.

Vegetation thought-about weeds must be welcomed in lawns in summer season, the charity added, particularly these resembling dandelions, which offer necessary nectar for pollinators. Regardless of being outnumbered by daisies 85 to 1 on a typical 2021 garden, they produced 9% of its pollen and 37% of its nectar sugar. Plantlife mentioned simply eight dandelion flowers might produce sufficient nectar sugar to fulfill an grownup bumblebee’s baseline vitality wants.

(I confess that I’m sufficient of a bourgeios to treat dandelions as, effectively, an ethical failing; a faliure to deal with the property correctly. It appears that evidently I’m mistaken!)

And from the BBC, “Gardeners urged to let lawns go wild to spice up nature“:

One gardener who has been having fun with a extra relaxed method is Tom Jennings, 45, from Buckinghamshire. He says it’s an opportunity to reconnect with the pure world.

“There’s an obsession with neat gardens,” says Tom. “And loads of that makes use of not solely obsessive mowing but additionally chemical compounds which aren’t suitable with nature.”

After letting his again backyard develop out, Tom witnessed an explosion of dandelions – necessary for pollinators resembling bees.

Tom says he’s been shocked at how rapidly bugs have returned to his again backyard: an encouraging sign given the worldwide decline of insect populations.

“You may stroll by way of the center of the backyard on a sunny day, and it throbbed with that sound of bugs,” he says. “That was commonplace within the British countryside, however sadly isn’t today.”

Sarah Shuttleworth, 39, a botanist who works for Plantlife, has additionally seen the chirping of crickets getting way more noticeable after permitting her garden in Somerset to develop wild.

“It makes you are feeling such as you’re someplace tropical as an alternative of your personal backyard,” she feedback.

Listed below are just a few examples of lawns unmown: A really inviting path:

One other inviting path:

Not simply bees. Birds:

A meadow:

#NoMowMay hasn’t gotten a lot traction in the USA — there’s no equal of the protection from the BBC and the Guardian — however I did see this story from the Related Press, which I discovered encouraging. (It impressed this put up, as a result of I did some searches on “garden.”) From “America’s love affair with the garden is getting messy“:

LeighAnn Ferrara is remodeling her small suburban yard from grass bordered by just a few shrubs into an anti-lawn — a patchwork of flower beds, greens and fruit bushes.

It didn’t occur unexpectedly, says the mom of two younger children. “, and by now the entrance yard might be three-quarters planting beds,” she says. “Yearly we do extra.”

Ha. I all the time mentioned sheet mulching, which is what Ferrara is doing, was a gateway drug:

I wish to put in a plug for sheet mulch, permaculture’s gateway drug: The concept (oversimplifying badly) is to imitate the buildup of natural matter on the forest ground by masking one’s beds with at the very least a layer of newspaper or cardboard, after which layering straw on high of that. (Gurus do much more layering than that.) You possibly can see directly how the paper would act as a weedblocker, and I like that, as a result of weeding is figure, and I don’t like work, however what’s much less evident is how good sheet mulch is at capturing and retaining water. I walked over the straw on the fringe of a mattress simply now, on my manner out to, er, mark my territory to scare off the deer, these pests, and I might really feel the dew in opposition to my toes, fairly moist, all captured by the point the solar has risen. Fairly exceptional. I solely water the backyard whereas the vegetation are establishing themselves, in early June, after which I don’t water in any respect for the remainder of the season, and I like that, as a result of watering the backyard is figure. Did I point out that I don’t like work? Sheet mulch is the rationale I don’t need to water.

(Sheet mulch can also be good for worms.) The pattern towards “messy” is a nice case of over-determination. Again to AP:

In states with water shortages, many owners way back swapped out turf grass for less-thirsty choices, together with succulents and gravel.

Elsewhere, the pandemic has speeded the pattern away from lawns. Gardening exploded as a pastime, and plenty of non-gardeners spent extra time at dwelling, paying extra consideration to the pure world round them.

Municipalities throughout the nation are handing out garden indicators with “wholesome yard” bragging rights to owners who forgo garden chemical compounds or mow much less typically. Many cities are slapping laws on frequent instruments like gas-powered leaf blowers and mowers, largely due to noise.

“For individuals all for gardening, so much have come to the belief it may well’t simply be decorative anymore. It has to serve another goal, whether or not meals, habitat … pack in as many makes use of as you possibly can,” says Alicia Holloway, a College of Georgia Extension agent in Barrow County. “It’s a shift in thought, in aesthetics.”

(“[P]ack in as many makes use of as you possibly can” is a succinct assertion of the permaculture precept of “stacking features.”)

Personally, #NoMowMay strikes me as a bit reformist. Why mow in any respect? I’m an abolitionist! Here’s a nice rant from David Roberts:

I hate lawns — notably suburban entrance lawns — past all motive. Most likely greater than I can justify. However they are surely horrible.

I’m not simply speaking in regards to the environmental impacts, although they’re appreciable. Sustaining thousands and thousands of acres of monoculture means combating in opposition to nature. With a little bit googling, you’ll find 1,000,000 articles in regards to the monumental quantities of water, fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides used to develop America’s most typical crop.

All that stuff is true, however it’s not what sticks in my craw. What bothers me most is the trade-off of public for personal house.

By which Roberts means:

As an alternative of public gardens, everybody vegetation their very own backyard. As an alternative of occasions, gatherings, and festivals in public plazas, everybody has their very own yard BBQ. As an alternative of playgrounds and parks, everybody buys their very own toys and play constructions and has their very own f’ing garden.

The promise of the American suburban dream is that we don’t want a public — that the nuclear household could be ample unto itself. As Margaret Thatcher famously put it: “There’s no such factor as society. There are particular person women and men and there are households.”

The garden started as a characteristic of UK feudal estates. The entire level was to flaunt wealth, to display that one owned a lot land that one might afford to show over swathes to nothing however decorative inexperienced.

Then as now, sustaining that swathe of inexperienced required monumental quantities of assets and labor. That was the purpose, to indicate you had these assets.

Effectively, we don’t anymore, will we? Some assets the garden calls for, just like the fertilizers and the poisons, shouldn’t be used in any respect. Different assets, just like the labor, the water, and the soil, must be put to productive use (and never simply productive for people, however all life).

It’s all so apparent. However not essentially to everybody! Issuing my customary caveat that IANAL — however perhaps, readers, a few of you’re! — I wish to have a look at two obstacles to treating your garden as one thing apart from a “tidy” standing image and “mess”-free useless zone. First, native laws. Subsequent — and way more difficult — House Homeowners Associations ( HOAs) and their Covenants, Circumstances, and Restrictions (CCRs). (What follows applies to property house owners, however it additionally applies to renters, for the reason that similar guidelines applly to every.)

On the native authorities, Bee Metropolis, in its dialogue of #NoMowMay, has these useful hints:

Most cities and municipalities have some type of weed ordinance that dictates the peak and typically even the sorts of vegetation a house owner is allowed to develop. Sadly, many of those ordinances are woefully outdated and out of contact with the fashionable motion in direction of creating yards that help wildlife in city settings. Whereas native ordinances will differ significantly from place-to-place, listed here are just a few ideas for protecting native officers, and your neighbors glad:

• Keep a mowed buffer. Sure⁠, after spending a substantial period of time discussing the issues with garden, we’re suggesting you retain some⁠—strategically. Maintaining a mowed edge in entrance of or round a pure planting of a foot or two could also be all that’s wanted to outline “garden” from “backyard” and maintain you in line with native ordinances or House owner Affiliation tips. Sustaining a tidy mowed edge additionally makes a busy pure planting look much less overwhelming, and makes these areas look intentional somewhat than neglectful.
• Interact together with your metropolis council, well being division, or different native officers. Inform them what you’re doing, why, and start a dialog about how they will help pure landscapes of their neighborhood. This reality sheet from Penn State may help arm you with details to beat the frequent myths which have led to overly restrictive weed ordinances.
• Counsel an “opt-in” program, resembling a Pure Garden Registration program to sidestep the necessity to re-write a well being code ordinance. Below such a mannequin, a house owner might register their pure panorama with their native well being division. The well being division can then decline to nice registered properties so long as they’re sustaining the pure panorama correctly and never encouraging the unfold of noxious weeds.
• Educate your neighbors and passersby about your landscaping decisions. Displaying a easy signal designating your yard as pollinator habitat could be the distinction between it being seen as a uncared for space to individuals viewing it as an necessary a part of a thriving panorama. Xerces gives downloadable indicators for No Mow Might and you may obtain a pollinator habitat indicators as a thanks on your donations by way of our reward heart

(I actually like the thought of a “pollinator habitat” signal. It has the good advantage of being true!

HOAs are, I feel, a more durable nut to crack. HOAs, as far as I can inform, exist to protect [genuflects] property values:

HOAs are chargeable for the neighborhood’s , so anticipate yours to have guidelines about overgrown lawns, weeds and unkempt exteriors. Make sure you verify the bylaws about what sorts of bushes, vegetation and shrubs are allowed to be planted.

Sure, “curb attraction” is the euphemism I used to be searching for; which is bizarre, as a result of I obtained many compliments for my backyard, in each it’s vegetal and floral phases, and I can’t recall a single praise on the boring garden. However I suppose, from the customer’s perspective, or maybe the actual property brokers, lawns are fungible, and gardens or meadows should not. (After all, CCRs, the “bylaws”, have been additionally mentioned to maintain property values excessive by protecting HOAs judenfrei, not even to say Black individuals, however all that was a very long time in the past and we’ll hope it wasn’t true.)

Right here is an instance of a CCR:

• All entrance, facet, and rear yard areas inside six months after completion of development. Inside one yr, not lower than $250.00 shall be spent on every lot for landscaping apart from the garden.

• Tons shall be periodically and unfastened particles and supplies picked up and correctly saved to stop them from being unfold and blown all through the Properties.

And there are many HOA members keen to do their bit imposing the CCR. From the minutes of the identical HOA:

L*** R****: Proposed a garden committee primarily based on the Covenant 5e that no weeds are going to be

permitted to begin on properties and tree upkeep. Educate the people who the covenant

is there, have conversations with neighbors. Performing some extra training, slicing suckers, weeds

contained.

One can solely think about what R**** would consider sheet-mulchinge one’s “sod.”)

(OK, “seeded” with what? And “mowed” like a kind of cute UK paths? L*** R****: “Don’t get good with me!”) The entire CCR factor ticks me off a lot it’s exhausting for me to suppose straight. What provides these individuals the fitting to find out what I plant in my soil? (To which the reply is: “The CCR, which you signed. Did you learn it?”) Nonetheless, there are benefits to protecting a degree head and a cool coronary heart. From “What to do when your HOA bans vegetable gardens in your entrance yard?,” Nicole Schauder’s letter to the HOA:

On the HOA assembly, you requested me to discuss fulfilling my duty as a house owner to make sure that my entrance backyard is aesthetically pleasing and well-maintained.

You will notice within the image hooked up that we’ve got very dutifully trimmed the browned leaves. Now we have additionally raked the leaves from our neighbor’s yards. We promise to proceed to take care of, prune, harvest, forestall rot and maintain our backyard as stunning as potential. At the moment, we should not have something rising on the trellis as it’s winter. We have been planning to embellish it with evergreen lengthy wreaths for Christmas.

For those who discover our entrance yard unmaintained, tell us instantly in order that we might rectify the state of affairs as quickly as potential. We are inclined to our gardens each single day.

We use a “cottage type” aesthetic with minimal borders and lawns. I’ve additionally taken a short-course on backyard aesthetics. Because of that course, my entrance yard design has been featured within the Corridor of Fame designs of English backyard designer, Rachel Mathews.

I consider that the upkeep of our entrance vegetable backyard will increase the market worth of Fox Creek Neighborhood for the explanations elaborated above:

– Total well being of the people who our backyard feeds

– Happiness of our neighbors, by way of friendships, neighborhood excursions, sustainability training

– Great thing about our garden

– Environmental Influence & Inexperienced Residing

Thanks a lot for taking the time to learn this and contemplating the explanations we’ve got given to permit us to develop vegatables and fruits as we want.

This labored, apparently. (I guess it was the “featured within the Corridor of Fame” bit that did the trick. Although whether or not L*** R**** would have been persuaded is an open query. (Studying between the strains, Schauder was additionally fairly a networker, and loads of different HOA members have been gardening, too. HOAs do, in spite of everything, vote.)

* * *

Hopefully, lawns will collapse in The Jackpot, so there’s an upside! Within the meantime, I’d be all for listening to from readers who’ve abolished their lawns, and much more from readers who confronted and overcame regulatory and authorized obstacles. And have you ever at the very least left the mower within the shed?

APPENDIX

If you need “tidy,” right here’s tidy:

As plastic lawns develop into extra frequent, we’ve obtained requests to take away or trim adjoining bushes which deposit blossom, leaves or catkins. We usually received’t do that. Plastic lawns have to be swept or vacuumed commonly, please do take into consideration over hanging bushes earlier than you commit. 👍🏼 pic.twitter.com/iurKIFhhTV

— Central Swindon North Council (@SwindonNCent) May 4, 2022