When people hear *wildflower* they think this....
What they're getting with unmowed suburban lawns is this...
Posted on 05/22/2025 3:20:10 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — No Mow May encourages homeowners to stash the lawn mower each spring and let flowers and grass grow for pollinators and water retention. And if your neighbor’s lawn already looks like a wildflower field most of the time, it could be more intentional than passersby might assume.
The movement has expanded to “Let It Bloom June” and the fall version: “Leave the leaves.” Conservation and horticulture groups say year-round low-mowing while selectively leaving native plants to grow can save huge amounts of drinking water and lead to lasting and impactful ecological changes.
When Amanda Beltranmini Healen moved into her Nashville ranch house in 2016, the yard had been manicured for sale: a walnut tree, roses from a home improvement store and short grass. So she experimented, first with a 10-by-10-foot patch where she dug up the grass and sowed native seeds. Then she planted goldenrods in the culvert near the street, and let more of her yard grow tall without mowing.
Local authorities apparently didn’t appreciate her natural look: “I got a letter from the city saying that I had to mow it,” she said.
But then, a friend told her about No Mow Month signs, provided by the Cumberland River Compact, a local water conservation nonprofit. Soon she was signaling to the city that she’s no derelict, but a participant in an international movement.
These days, every month is No Mow May in parts of her property. While she keeps the growth shorter near the culvert and street, her backyard is filled with native grasses and plants up to her knees or waist. There’s a decomposing tree trunk where scores of skinks and bugs live, birds nest under her...
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
I occasionally weedwhack certain areas. I have some sort of native bees visiting one of the ground covers an adjoining property owner mowed until I solved that issue and the vegetation got higher.
Stuff like goldenrod I’ll leave standing until the end of the month for insects that overwinter in the stalks.
I’m in the process of planting trees and shrubs that will benefit pollinators and birds.
Years ago, I read a story about a woman who planted edible plants all through her yard and had no grass. When she went on vacation the township hired someone to remove everything because they thought it was overgrown. I think she got a nice settlement for violating her civil rights because what she planted wasn’t grass, but her garden. That kind of frugality is not very popular with the lawn crowd. Cutting grass is expensive and time consuming. Not everyone wants a lawn or to pay for it.
I see you’ve been there too. Made me laugh. the 56 Buick was
also a favorite especially with bullet holes .
For those who don’t know the bullet hole slang; the Buick automobiles of this era sported fake exhaust ports (bullet holes) in each front fender. A four bullet hole Buick was highly prized.
Wait too long to mow and you’ll need a 3020 John Deere and a Woods bushhog just to get it under control again.
“Why not buy some Bobwhite, and re-introduce them?”
Pen-raised birds have a low success rate at “going native.” Odds increase if it is a large pen with plenty of room to fly but it’s still turns into a “put & take” matter, for the most part.
That might be what a lot of folks in my town are doing. Or, it could have something to do with the creeping Gary, Indiana-like ambiance that started a few years back.
“ Why not buy some Bobwhite, and re-introduce them?”
The fire ants are everywhere in the south now. Releasing quail that are not wild would be a waste of money. Even if they would reproduce, the fire ants would kill the chicks.
In the south, as a wild bird, bobwhite quail are extinct.
Amen!😄
I’m having a no-mow May. Mostly because it’s rained so damn much this season I haven’t had enough dry days to cut. And the grass is growing like gangbusters.
We live in the woods. I find that keeping the grass short around the house severely discourages critters from crossing the lawn into the house - particularly mice.
My theory is they feel vulnerable when they can’t hide themselves in the grass and they stay in the woods where they belong. I cut it as low as the mower will practically go.
The Edible Front Yard: The Mow-Less, Grow-More Plan for a Beautiful, Bountiful Garden, by Ivette Soler - lots of pictures, examines edible plants as ornament with hints on how to sneak them past an HOA.
I am blessed to live in a neighborhood without an HOA, so I can grow whatever I want. I have to pay someone else to mow my lawn; I have exercise-induced asthma and I’m allergic to grass.
Slowly turning my grassy .57 acre into permaculture garden space: Water retention, lots of compost, a zillion perennials, and chickens for the very first time. Just a few more years and the grass will be gone.
“I do like the fact that it encourages wildlife.”
Like mice, rats, snakes and assorted insects.
When people hear *wildflower* they think this....
What they're getting with unmowed suburban lawns is this...
All I have seen is rabbits and birds. I don't live in the ghetto.
Lawns became popular because it was fast and cheap for the builder. Bluegrass, rye grass, and fescue all want to grow like "amber waves of grain" and require a lot of care to make them grow differently - mowing, water, fertilizer, weed preventer, weed killer, fungicide, and often pesticides.
There are ground covering plants that require less care and naturally stay low. They require some initial planning and effort but once established, they don't take much effort to maintain.
I always feel bad for the ground nesters too, especially about feral and house cats. I think we probably don’t have whippoorwills around here anymore because of the cats.
Freegards
Sweet!
Thanks.
Many neighborhood birds, including bluejays, crows, ravens, robins, and starlings will kill and eat mice that venture out across an open lawn.
Do they eat them?
I live as far from the ghetto as one can get. Rats live everywhere. City and country.
If you have flowing water you have rats who swim upstream. If you have chickens you have rats.
I put out pail traps to catch mice and catch the occasional rat.
My front yard ground cover is moss, wild blueberries,violets, lily of the valley, no mow.
I just dig in perennials.
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