Althouse: Did you participate in "No Mow May"?

May 31, 2023

Did you participate in "No Mow May"?

Tell me if you contributed more to the glorious enterprise of not mowing than we did:

95 comments:

MayBee said...: It looks like there are foxtails, which are very dangerous for pets. Meade will know better than I do if that's what's growing there. But the spikes get in their paws, their ears, their tongues, their genitals, and can burrow into their skin. My veterinarian sends out a warning about them in mid May.; 5/31/23, 9:13 AM
Enigma said...: A typical Tucson front yard (not mine):

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8c/41/9f/8c419f3be2361d3edb469385e564f002.jpg; 5/31/23, 9:14 AM
Rocco said...: Is that a TikTok challenge?; 5/31/23, 9:16 AM
Kay said...: Was not aware of no mow may. I don’t have a lawn at the moment, but if I did I would love to just let nature take its course and let it grow free. I doubt I’d ever find an HOA that would let me do it, but that’s what I would prefer.; 5/31/23, 9:20 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: The grass is always a UV-scorched light greener on the other side.; 5/31/23, 9:20 AM
Ice Nine said...: Couldn't they have just put one of those stupid Lefty "In this house we believe ..." signs in their yards to signal their virtue, and gone ahead and had nice lawns in May instead? Equal mentality; equal practical impact.; 5/31/23, 9:22 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: All that virtue isn’t going to signal itself; 5/31/23, 9:24 AM
Jersey Fled said...: It’s been 60 years since Rachel Carson predicted the demise of bumble bees in her book “Silent Spring”. Strangely, I still see dozens of them busily at work in my well manicured yard every day.

But what better way to say “I’m an environmental nut case” than a lawn that hasn’t been mowed in a month.; 5/31/23, 9:32 AM
Curious George said...: No. Had a couple neighbors that did so the bees will be okay. ALso a lot of free space nearby.; 5/31/23, 9:37 AM
jaydub said...: So, pissed at the neighbors, huh?; 5/31/23, 9:37 AM
Rory said...: A provocative May to do this in the Mid-Atlantic: lots of rain.; 5/31/23, 9:39 AM
Rusty said...: Must be a Madison thing.; 5/31/23, 9:40 AM
n.n said...: No, but I am celebrating the polyamorous relations of lions, lionesses, and conception of [unPlanned] cubs playing in gay parade, then lions, then lionesses, in the circle of life.; 5/31/23, 9:45 AM
Charlie said...: Because there's now a thing called "No Mow May"......I went out of my way to mow 3 or 4 times in May.; 5/31/23, 9:48 AM
R C Belaire said...: Hell no. I cut it when it needed it.; 5/31/23, 9:48 AM
madAsHell said...: Almost..........

I have a small yard to mow. Yesterday, I had to knock down the grass with the weed whacker. Today, I can run the lightweight mower over the lawn.

“No Mow May” was really a perfect storm of travel, weddings, weather, and procrastination.; 5/31/23, 9:52 AM
rhhardin said...: I let grass grow a bit longish because it's more fun to cut with a scythe but not that much.; 5/31/23, 9:52 AM
john said...: I did. Had to vacuum the gravel tho.; 5/31/23, 9:53 AM
Richard said...: Is that the excuse you gave to your neighbors when they complained about your grass not being mowed? Try doing that if you have a homeowners association and see what happens.; 5/31/23, 9:55 AM
Jake said...: No. We mowed several times. My neighbors participated so I claimed an offset.; 5/31/23, 9:56 AM
Bob Boyd said...: No Mow May, an unshaven Asian beauty, is one of the bikini clad, sound wave technicians in my fantasy torpor lab.

Coincidence?; 5/31/23, 10:00 AM
Gusty Winds said...: It's a new virtue signal. I mowed my yard and fertilized it. BTW...Menards first application for crab grass prevention is only like $40 for 15,000 square feet. And it works great if you have a throw spreader. Much cheaper than Scott's or and wayyyyyy...cheaper that Chemical lawn services.

If "No Mow May" is meant to help the bees, then it should logically be extended to an indefinite "No More Mowing". And nobody is going to participate in that. But it's the new wear your mask while walking into a restaurant, and remove it when you get to your table.

So you can let your grass grow through out the month of May to show the world your temporary concern for the bee population. Great.; 5/31/23, 10:06 AM
Dave Begley said...: Meade:

Not a good look.

But I like the American flag.; 5/31/23, 10:06 AM
wild chicken said...: At our old house I let a section go unmowed but the noxious weeds really took off. It was better after a couple seasons of hand pulling but then the aspen went crazy.

We're in a condo now.; 5/31/23, 10:08 AM
CJinPA said...: Checking the link, not mowing my grass would provide no benefit to pollinators. I didn't mow this past weekend, but that's because we had no rain and didn't need to.

I will talk to my wife about helping the pollinators, though. I'm a city boy moved to the suburbs, so lush, green, flawless lawns don't appeal to me much. I wouldn't mind mixing it up.; 5/31/23, 10:10 AM
David53 said...: No, I‘ve never heard of it. It sounds dumb. I pay some guys to mow my grass every week in May, they work hard to feed their families.; 5/31/23, 10:11 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Making a virtue of laziness. Unless that grass is being baled for hay it's just a lot of preening bollocks.; 5/31/23, 10:33 AM
Earnest Prole said...: We contributed considerably more to the glorious enterprise than you, but I suspect it’s because we call the area in front of our house a “pasture” rather than a “yard.”; 5/31/23, 10:38 AM
Narr said...: Nobody told me about No Mow May, and I guess the yardguy didn't get the message either.

Yours turned out well.; 5/31/23, 10:45 AM
Owen said...: And now you will choke your mower trying to get that overgrowth down to size. And when you do, and have carted away the bales of hay, you'll be left with a scalped yellow expanse.

Was it worth it? Did you get some good pollinators? Some fun new invasives taking root among the original denizens of the lawn?; 5/31/23, 10:46 AM
Narr said...: The flag is a nice touch.; 5/31/23, 10:47 AM
Enlighten-NewJersey said...: Most towns have an ordinance about maintaining one's property and that includes grass and weed height. No mow May is an excuse to begin urban blight.; 5/31/23, 10:50 AM
Insufficiently Sensitive said...: THAT erupted my hay fever!; 5/31/23, 11:06 AM
Sebastian said...: Slightly OT: I like the flag in this picture. Pretty rad in Madison?; 5/31/23, 11:11 AM
Big Mike said...: Comes across as yet another crack pot idea from a city and university known for crack pot ideas.

If you lived next to me I would contact the HOA and insist on having it mow your lawn and slapping a lien on your house to pay for the mowing, as provided under the association’s bylaws.; 5/31/23, 11:19 AM
Black Bellamy said...: Do you have a permit for a Natural Lawn? You need one if you live within Madison city limits.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MGO 27.05(2)(f) requires lawns be kept to less than eight inches in height. The exception is properties with an approved Natural Lawn application.

When we see a tall grass violation, we mail an Official Notice to the property owner. The Official Notice will give a due date by which the owner must cut the grass. Due dates are generally ten days from the inspection date. After the due date, the inspector will reinspect the property.

If the owner cut the grass, we close the case. If the tall grass is not cut by the due date, we will issue a ticket. The ticket for the first offense during a season is $187. Tickets for future offenses during the same season are $313.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anywhoo, see that relentless government overreach? Now get mowin!; 5/31/23, 11:19 AM
joe said...: No Mow May is likely not a good thing for the bees or for your lawn. The original research (done at one of the UWs) which caused it to take off here in Wisconsin has been retracted. Whether there are benefits is no truly unknown. Possible negative side effects are:

1. excess shade by taller grass and weeds during May (typically a wetter month) promotes fungal growth and damages lawns (and likely leads to an increased use of chemicals to treat the fungus)

2. Bees and other pollinators learn where food sources are and become dependant on them throughout the summer. Training that your lawn is a food source in May and then taking it away come June can really mess with (and in extreme cases kill off) bees.

3. The bees, birds, & insects that do most of the important pollinating in this country don't rely on the typical lawn flowers (dandelions, clover, creeping charlie, etc.) that will grow in your lawn in May. The workhorse pollinators feed on flowering tree and shrub pollen - not lawn/weed flowers.

If you want to do something that we know will help - use "bee lawn" seed mixes. These seed mixes, mix low/short native wildflower seeds in with grass seed. This will create a lawn that will feed bees all summer long as the flowers should be lower than your lawnmowers cutting head. Or convert part of your lawn into a native wildflower & shrub garden.; 5/31/23, 11:20 AM
MadisonMan said...: I mowed once. Given the ongoing drought here, that might be the only time I mow this year.; 5/31/23, 11:21 AM
Free Manure While You Wait! said...: "Did you participate in "No Mow May"?""

Just the front yard. The backyard looks like an old retired guy lives here just waiting for any opportunity to shout, "Hey! You kids get off my lawn!"; 5/31/23, 11:21 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Not mowing until June just means you expend more time and fuel mowing more in June. It isn't easy using a mower on grass stalks that high.; 5/31/23, 11:28 AM
rehajm said...: Your’s looks lovely…; 5/31/23, 11:33 AM
rehajm said...: My house is in the woods and I have only a couple disconnected swaths in the front yard. I’ve campaigned to have them removed but have lost that argument. They were mowed all May by the new gardener…sniff.; 5/31/23, 11:35 AM
Oh Yea said...: One of the houses in my neighborhood did but I suspect pollinators was not a consideration. The city put a posting in his yard citing him and he promptly cut it.; 5/31/23, 11:55 AM
Kevin said...: Did you participate in "No Mow May"?

Sounds racist.; 5/31/23, 12:00 PM
Temp Blog said...: And in the end days the sin of sloth shall be named a virtue.; 5/31/23, 12:11 PM
stlcdr said...: Nope. It's not a thing. Why make it harder on yourself in June?

When mowing, it helps out the swallows to get a big fill of bugs.; 5/31/23, 12:21 PM
Mason G said...: A quick internet search results in this observation:

Eventually, insects release carbon dioxide as waste back into the air.

I'm told CO2 is a pollutant and is going to destroy the world. Why would any right-thinking person do anything to encourage the proliferation of insects to release more?; 5/31/23, 12:25 PM
John Holland said...: Has Meade taken up mowing with a scythe? When grass has turned to hay, a scythe is the best way.; 5/31/23, 12:29 PM
John Holland said...: Alternatively you could hire a goat.

Grass cutting and lawn fertilizer in one pass!; 5/31/23, 12:32 PM
PM said...: Where I live, the police and coroner have been called.; 5/31/23, 12:35 PM
Eva Marie said...: So many shades of green. Maybe, never mow. In my yard there was a spot where nothing would grow until a little weed (no, a real weed) settled in. So I left it there to grow and it’s about 5 feet tall now. Every once in a while, when it flowers, it’s surrounded by bees.; 5/31/23, 12:45 PM
boatbuilder said...: No Lyme Disease in Wisconsin?; 5/31/23, 12:51 PM
Tina Trent said...: Why not hire a goat? Or buy a sling blade? Or use a non-power mower? That looks like a tiny space.

Or plant monkey grass? When cats eat it, they get high.; 5/31/23, 12:56 PM
iowan2 said...: Several good observations in the comments.

There are reasons for mowing, other that looks. mowing is great weed control for annuals. If you have a months worth of top growth, to manage, that means raking and hauling off the the dead top growth. That removes nutrients that then need to be replaced with commercial fertilizer, or manure of some sort.; 5/31/23, 12:57 PM
Anthony said...: One of the first things I did upon moving to Arizona was to get rid of the grass in the back yard. No mowing. Again. Ever.

Please note: I discovered that one advantage to having a small lawn is that the scorpions get their nightly moisture from the wet grass instead of wandering inside to find some. Still, a small price to pay.; 5/31/23, 1:16 PM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: Bunch of radicalized Karens on my Next Door app say they’re saving the planet via No Mow May. They also want to make it illegal to treat for weeds or bugs in any way. Typical leftism. Start with individual acts that make you feel virtuous followed by edicts that everyone must obey.; 5/31/23, 1:16 PM
Wilbur said...: I'm in Hollywood, Florida and from May through October I mow my lawn twice a week. I set my mower much higher than the lawn services do and, not coincidentally, have one of the most beautiful lawns around. I've always looked at it as a) good, useful exercise and b) personally maintaining value in an investment.

If that pisses off a Leftist, well, so much the better.; 5/31/23, 1:23 PM
Inga said...: Good thing we didn’t get much rain this month!; 5/31/23, 1:26 PM
lonejustice said...: I live on an old farmstead out in the country on a gravel road, so I can pretty much do whatever I want with my very large lawn. I mow it, but at the very highest setting. (I have had people come out to my place the day after I mowed who told me that I should really mow my lawn.) There are plenty of dandelions, wild violets, and white clover in my lawn, so I have loads of pollinators all over my place.; 5/31/23, 1:32 PM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: Looks like a neighborhood from an episode of The Walking Dead.; 5/31/23, 1:47 PM
Mr. D said...: I mowed; maybe 20% of the yards in our town went unmoved. As I was walking through the neighborhood last night, I saw a guy who was trying to mow his No Mow May lawn a day early. His lawn mower got clogged and pooped out on him. This morning his lawn remained unmoved beginning at the exact point his mower died.; 5/31/23, 1:48 PM
Birches said...: I think it looks great.; 5/31/23, 2:04 PM
Dan from Madison said...: Gah Joe stole my thunder at 11.20am.; 5/31/23, 2:07 PM
Uncle Pavian said...: Our front lawn is smaller than our living room and is in constant shadow from trees in adjacent lots. About 20 years ago, I Rototilled the area and planted English ivy. No mowing.; 5/31/23, 2:15 PM
damianlewis719 said...: We had no rain, did not have to mow.; 5/31/23, 2:31 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Our grass cutting service doesn't mow. They run their machines over the lawn but don't sharpen their blades. They just push it over.
There's millions more where they came from.; 5/31/23, 3:20 PM
RJ said...: Invasive species, other weeds, and ticks. Then weeks of scalped yellow stems. Sounds great!; 5/31/23, 3:45 PM
mongo said...: I didn’t participate in no mow May but if we don’t get some rain here in Maryland it will be no mo mow period.; 5/31/23, 3:52 PM
Breezy said...: We always mow due to some of the less socially accepting fauna here in NC.; 5/31/23, 3:56 PM
tommyesq said...: First cut in June will kill all that tall grass, leaving what for the bees?; 5/31/23, 4:34 PM
Scotty, beam me up... said...: I did not. Why? I own a battery powered mower and it doesn’t have the power to cut too high of grass. I compensate by planting a lot of flowers and I let the naturally seeded milkweed grow in my grass for the bees and Monarch butterflies to feed on (I mow around the plants).

BTW, I am not a virtue signaler with the battery powered mower. I have had 2 battery powered mowers since 1997, long before the EV zealots arrived on the scene (and hell no, I am not getting an EV car - it costs too much money and the technology is not there yet for reliability and long distance travel). I am not mechanically inclined to maintain a gas powered mower so I got a battery powered mower. Plus, I have relatively small yard in the city. All I need to do is get the blade sharpened and replace the batteries when they wear out.; 5/31/23, 4:41 PM
mtp said...: If you wait until your grass is that long to mow it, your grass will all die when you mow it. Anyone who's grass is 2 ft long right now is going to be staring at dirt in a few weeks.; 5/31/23, 6:01 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Yes and no. We have 6.52-acres with a creek running from NE to SW. Half of it is forest with cedars, hemlock firs, maples, English holly and alders. There's plenty of sword and spear ferns and other brush.

We have a developing lawn around the house; some of the grass is really green, but there are too many bare patches without any grass and still too many rocks. I bought a Kubota 48" zero-turn riding mower to cut the grass. It takes about an hour to mow with a 20" EGO electric push mower to take care of the area that the Kubota can't.

I'm preparing the ground north of the creek to expand the lawn. I've been using the tractor to rake up the hoggs fuel we put down last fall in preparation for using the box scraper to smooth out the ground. Still have more than 1/2 dozen tree stumps to be removed.

We cleared about 2-acres south of the creek. The black berry vines, sword and spear ferns came back vigorously this spring. The landscape rake on the tractor has scraped a lot of them down; but it takes a lot of laps with the tractor to clear them. There's still a lot of dead branches to be removed also.; 5/31/23, 6:08 PM
LuAnn Zieman said...: Wisconsin is full of wood and deer ticks. One of the first rules of keeping down the tick population is keeping the grass low! I've had Lyme disease twice already, so no No Mow May for me!; 5/31/23, 7:27 PM
iowan2 said...: Sometime back. 10ish years ago, the Iowa DOT announced they were stopping mowing highway ditches and interstate medians. It took less than a week for them to reverse their decision, when people that understood ecosystems explained all the long term benefits of mowing, and the overhyped good, it was supposed to accomplish.; 5/31/23, 7:51 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: Can you sell lawn credits, like those people Al Gore buys his carbon credits from? The buyer can then feel virtuous even though he still brings the Mexican lawn crew in every week.; 5/31/23, 8:14 PM
hpudding said...: Rusty said...
Must be a Madison thing.

I think it’s actually a pollinator thing. Are there no foods grown in this great land that ever make their way to the workshop or machinist’s bench? Sounds either very privileged or you’re eating Soylent Green. (Or factory food, which would be poetic!)

It’s really not that hard to click that link thing in the post. It does take some reading once you get there though, which may be hard for people who don’t read very much.

Foods don’t grow themselves but with insect populations plummeting from all the chemicals big-money elite agribusiness lobby Republicans and the anti-EPA Supreme Court are polluting our lands with, they may one day have to.; 5/31/23, 8:19 PM
hpudding said...: It’s funny when right-wingers go on about “virtue signaling.” Evil people are very threatened by doing good and the message that apparently sends.

It would be cool though if they ever took ownership for all the vice signaling they do. Just admit that it’s not ‘cause they’re badasses, but because they’re morally lazy. Conservative vice signalers take pride or some sense of group reinforcement or psychological security in showing off in unison just how immoral they are.

Vice signaling. It’s a right-wing thing.; 5/31/23, 8:25 PM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: I made it to Memorial Day before mowing the front yard. The back yard I mowed two weeks ago and again today, the last day in May. Here in New England, we only have to mow 5 months out of the year, so I’m 20% done with lawn mowing for 2023.; 5/31/23, 9:46 PM
Meade said...: “I think it looks great.”

Thanks, Birches! And everyone else who offered compliments and good humor. The rest of you can just get. off. my. lawn. Kidding. But it isn’t really meant to be lawn. It’s rye, the grain. I consulted the “genius loci” considered the Prairie-style architecture of our house and realized amber waves of grain was just what the genius ordered. I mow 3’ wide strips around each of rectangles of cereal crop to keep it all looking trim and tidy. I’ll harvest it with a scythe exactly like the one rhhardin uses to manage his grass only mine might be older. I bought it in 1975. After I harvest the rye I’ll sow a blend of bluegrass, red fescue and Dutch clover and in October I’ll rake the leaves and start over again. This fall the genius might call for Oats. Or Hard Winter Wheat. Or, if Biden and the stupid Democrats and RINOS continue trashing our economy, I might have to put the entire acreage in potatoes. I don’t know though—the Rye patches yielded almost a dozen baby rabbits this spring and by 2024 we might be needing the protein.; 5/31/23, 10:02 PM
Meade said...: “ But I like the American flag.”

It’s my way of saying: “In this house we believe there’s not one damn reason to be ashamed to say we’re proud to be American and everyday is Memorial Day in which we all owe our cherished freedoms to our forefathers and foremothers who stood in the gap when they felt called upon to step up”. 365 days/year unless, temporarily, tornadic winds try to rip down Old Glory until the dawn’s early light and sailor’s delight. 🇺🇸; 5/31/23, 10:15 PM
walter said...: ,Conservative vice signalers take pride or some sense of group reinforcement or psychological security in showing off in unison just how immoral they are."
Do tell.; 5/31/23, 10:35 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: The front yard in our old house was surrounded by trees, 50-ft tall hemlocks, Douglas firs and cedars. The grass never grew well there, so I replaced it with vinca minor, aka periwinkle. It did well with all the shade.

We sold that house in 2019 and the new owner tore out the vinca minor and put grass back in. There was more sunlight then as some of those trees were cut down because of disease or the trees just got too big. Maybe the grass will do well now.; 5/31/23, 11:00 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: The front yard in our old house was surrounded by trees, 50-ft tall hemlocks, Douglas firs and cedars. The grass never grew well there, so I replaced it with vinca minor, aka periwinkle. It did well with all the shade.

We sold that house in 2019 and the new owner tore out the vinca minor and put grass back in. There was more sunlight then as some of those trees were cut down because of disease or the trees just got too big. Maybe the grass will do well now.; 5/31/23, 11:00 PM
MayBee said...: I mow 3’ wide strips around each of rectangles of cereal crop to keep it all looking trim and tidy. I’ll harvest it with a scythe exactly like the one rhhardin uses to manage his grass only mine might be older. I

Thanks for letting me know not to worry about the foxtail. It's a big deal around here.

Did you harvest the rye? Might you be using rye flour soon?; 6/1/23, 1:19 AM
Rusty said...: Meade said...@ 10:15
Goddamn right.; 6/1/23, 6:38 AM
SweatBee said...: No-mow May sounds like a great way to

- invite fungus diseases to your garden
- invite ticks to come feast on your kids and pets
- invite weeds to go to seed
- stress the lawn on June 1 (rule of thumb is not to cut more than 1/3 of the height)

I have turf-type tall fescue and kbg, so I mow more in spring and fall and less in summer. I've not noticed a shortage of bees on my property; they seem perfectly happy with what's available to them in the flowerbeds.; 6/1/23, 7:59 AM
mikee said...: A recent load of Bermuda sod for a new construction house contained a bit of annual rye. It looks invisible for a day after mowing, and then its growth rate pops the stalks up above the Bermuda until the next mowing. I figure I'll just keep mowing it down so it can't reseed, and the problem will be gone next year. Any better suggestions?

As for No Mow May, I also had a No Mow February, March, and April in my own back yard. The bee balm (bergamot) bloomed recently, a real delight.; 6/1/23, 8:01 AM
Birches said...: To me, it's obvious that thought went into the design. I love different landscaping choices. The master gardener at one of our temples used to try a lot of different things. Some people chafed. I loved it.; 6/1/23, 8:14 AM
Mason G said...: "I've not noticed a shortage of bees on my property; they seem perfectly happy with what's available to them in the flowerbeds."

Same thing here. The logic being used appears to be something like this:

1. There are plenty of bees in the flowerbeds.
2. There aren't many bees around the lawn.
Conclusion: Lawns are bad for bees.
Solution: Get rid of lawns.; 6/1/23, 9:25 AM
JK Brown said...: No, because I don't have a tractor and bushhog to cut it after a month of growth. Although, I've cut less so far as it's been cooler and the warm-season grasses are still less active. Warmed up now, so I have to do the full rotation in the next week. I rotate as I have rabbits about and I try to have some areas regrowing before I cut the next section over.; 6/1/23, 10:42 AM
Tim said...: I mowed every Thursday. And back in March, I spread crushed limestone and a 50 pound bag of triple 13 on my 1/2 acre yard. Growing fast and pretty, greenest lawn in the neighborhood, and loving it. Even the white oak, pin oak, maple and kaizen cherry seem to be greener.; 6/1/23, 11:22 AM
walter said...: Today is No mo' May.; 6/1/23, 11:24 AM
Narr said...: "Conservative Vice Signalers" would be a good name for a band. Or a blog.

There are as many bees on our .4 acre as ever. Tiny little bees gather even at my little bush-screened backyard piss spot. I try not to anger them when I'm wearing shorts.

That's not even to mention the bush and wildflower lovers aplenty.

Anyway, IMO the whole natural vs groomed yard kerfuffle is absurd. Any real effects will be localized and tend to smooth out over time and distance as the fashions wax and wane.; 6/1/23, 11:47 AM
Yinzer said...: I nearly had a mowless May, but then my lawn service got its shit together when I threatened to fire them!; 6/1/23, 12:51 PM