It’s that time of year again to talk about No Mow May. So what is No Mow May? By not mowing our lawns in the month of May, we can increase honeybee populations by 500% in as little as 2 years. 

After reading about the concept in a garden journal from the Untied Kingdom, two assistant professors, Dr. Isreal Del Toro and Dr. Relena Ribbons, at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin started a study of bee populations in the Appleton area after they convinced the Appleton Common Council to endorse the “No Mow May” concept. The University began working with the Appleton Common Council, and, in 2020, Appleton became the first city in the United States to adopt No Mow May, with 435 homes registering to take part. Dr. Del Toro and Dr. Ribbons studied the impacts of No Mow May on Appleton’s bees. They found that No Mow May lawns had five times the number of bees and three times the bee species than did mowed lawns and town parks. Appleton was the lone city at the start of the project in 2020, but since then the concept has spread throughout the northern tier states. Rochester, NY was the first official city to sign up for the project in NY and now others have followed. 

The concept is so simple, keep your lawnmower in the garage for an extra month so that the natural weeds and wildflowers can come up and bloom providing needed early season pollen for some of the hardest working insects in the world. By providing an abundance of pollen early in the season, bee populations are able to expand much faster and produce queens that will in turn go out and form new colonies during the late spring and early summer. 

Up here in the North this is important for bees to do as early as possible so that new colonies can store enough honey to last them through their first winter. If a new colony doesn’t have enough time before winter sets in, they will simply starve during the winter. 

Early season flowers like dandelions, white clover, bugleweed and chickweed though unsightly, provide a valuable service in the circle of life. Ask any beekeeper in Sullivan County and they will tell you that bee populations here have been under stress for some time now. 

This past winter was particularly bad with the early cold in November and the late cold and snow in April. This is an easy way to help bee population increase. 

So let the weeds grow for a month, there will still be plenty of time to kill the weeds in June when the bees can focus their attention on all the other beautiful flowers that you plant or the garden in the backyard. Even by mid-May, fruit trees and berry bushes will be flowering providing ample pollen and nectar supplies. 

Last year we had an early, fairly nice spring so I planted my garden in Eldred on April 30 and I didn’t have to cover it once. This year has been a little different so far with snow as late as mid-April but the weather is looking up. 

Since we aren’t planting our flower beds yet, at least not until the full moon on May 12, give the bees a hand by being lazy and not mowing. Just tell your neighbor, I’m not lazy, I’m practicing No Mow May. They can look it up on the internet and see that it is a real thing. That being said, besides helping the pollinators getting off to a good start this spring there is another added benefit to letting your grass grow. No, it’s not the fact you’re saving gas. When your lawn gets high your grass will go to seed, so when you do mow, you will be reseeding your lawn with free grass seed, so it is a win-win proposition.