Bored with manicured lawns, some homeowners adopt No Mow May all year long

AP News ^ | Updated 12:21 PM CDT, May 22, 2025 | KRISTIN M. HALL

[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...

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TOPICS: Gardening; Outdoors
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[E. Pluribus Unum]

Over the past few years I have let a five-foot strip on one side of our backyard grow up into whatever it wanted. I drew the line at pokeweed though, which was growing like crazy, since it's poisonous and our dogs will eat anything.

A couple of weeks ago I forgot about meaning to leave it wild and weed wacked it. After I was done I saw a pair of birds flying up and down between the fence and the ground. Evidently I had destroyed their nest without meaning to. I didn't recognize them and looked them up and I learned they were hermit thrushes and are ground nesters.

I feel really bad about it. I knew the rabbits liked it in there, but I didn't think of ground nesting birds.

[cgbg]

Homeowners associations go insane over this stuff.

It would be a great prank to post this on their common area club-house walls.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

I keep a couple of brush piles for Gambel’s quail nesting. Should be at least one brood hatching any day now. Last year we had a quail hatch four chicks in a potted plant on our porch.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Last year we had a quail hatch four chicks in a potted plant on our porch.

That's funny.

There used to be lots of Bobwhite quail where I live. Haven't seen one in years.

[Bernard]

The people in the house next to me have been doing this for years. They cut the grass 3 or 4 times a year, whether it needs it or not.

Of course, their house is also a mess. I wonder if the next owners will live like that as well, or maybe they will try to look like owners and not renters.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I like to keep the front area neat but in the back are a couple of acres left for wild growth. The rest is under cultivation.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

They cut the grass 3 or 4 times a year, whether it needs it or not.

That's pretty much amounts to what this Amanda Beltranmini Healen is doing.

I do like the fact that it encourages wildlife.

[VTenigma]

If I don’t mow my place the mosquitos and deerflies will carry me off.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

When we know better, we do better.

It happens to the best of us. Beau does a LOT of pasture mowing as a sideline for other local farmers. He’s still reeling from mowing over a nesting wild Mama Turkey and the occasional spring fawn. :(

However, I DRAW THE LINE at any RATS in the barn, or any CHIPMUNKS (no matter how CUTE!) messing with my plants in the greenhouse.

So glad to learn you’re a Nature Freak like me. ;)

[JZelle]

LMAO

[turfmann]

Believe it or not, this is my point of expertise and I can tell you without reservation that the entire concept is bunk.

It’s British in origin but was initiated in the states in Wisconsin by a couple of an academic’s who published a paper claiming if you left your lawn for the entire month it was a boon to pollinators.

Problem is that the paper was bunk. It was so bad it was withdrawn.

Other researchers - ethical ones - looked at the issue and concluded that mowing every other week in May was far more beneficial for pollinators.

Crazy, right?

[dfwgator]

We’ve got a nest just outside of our front door, they built the next on one of our gutters.

The birds have become a part of our family, LOL, we’re constantly checking on them.

[CatOwner]

This should be done with native perennials, as many pollinators over-winter in the old growth and the debris. But good luck getting that past any HOA here in Central Texas, at least in the front yard.

[9422WMR]

“ There used to be lots of Bobwhite quail where I live. Haven’t seen one in years”
Fire ants wiped out the bobwhite quail, and the horny toads.
I really miss the sound of bobwhite quail at dusk with the fireflies blinking in the dark.

[Fledermaus]

Well, it’s Nashville. I don’t think they care down here in Franklin.

[Fledermaus]

We have a nest in the carport. Same birds for many years. Watched them expand the nest, have kids, teach them to fly.

One little one was having a problem. I swear the mom was scolding it while dad was showing it how it was done.

Eventually he dragged it up to a tree branch and pushed the kid. 3rd time was the charm. Even his siblings were chirping at him and flying around him like they where making fun.

[Recompennation]

Or you could spoof proof the yard by killing all the grass and sweeping the dirt clean with a broom. No mow bro yard.
Throw in a few car tires buried half in the ground painted white.
Light off a few old rags in a barrel and let em smolder with a sprinkle of sulfur to boot.
A stew pot hanging over an open fire cooking up some food
Hang a tire on a rope for a swing.
Slack lime the ground under the house and out house too.
Old timey doings.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

You forgot about the wheelless ‘64 Buick propped up on cinder blocks.

[gundog]

A pet peeve of mine is Hollywood stupidity about birds. Watch “Bonanza,” and you’ll hear the Foley artists have added some California Quail calls to the soundtrack. Watch “The Waltons,” and hear the same thing. Were Bobwhite really that hard to get recordings from?

Blacktail Deer are another...apparently Hollywood has a bunch of acting Blacktails. No Whitetails need apply.

[gundog]

Why not buy some Bobwhite, and re-introduce them?