Reducing mowing for a single month is a relatively easy step that you can take, but it’s not enough on its own to help bees and other pollinators—and any benefits will be limited if you power up your mower and restart as if nothing has changed once the month ends. There are many other additional steps you can take to improve your habitat year-round. The three most important things you can do to support bees on your property are to:

1. Plant regionally native plant species.
2. Provide natural nesting areas,
3. Reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides.

If you’re interested in taking the next step in turning your lawn into better habitat for pollinators, consider converting it to a pollinator-friendly lawn or removing your lawn entirely and replacing it with native plants.

Yes, No Mow May is just a beginning, an initial step in making our urban landscapes more hospitable to bees and other pollinators. There are 40 million acres of turfgrass in the United States, and two thirds of that is home lawns. No Mow May is a great opportunity to shine a spotlight on the needs of native bees and highlight the problems with what might be called “typical” lawn care and gardening. Pausing mowing for one month will bring some benefits, but on its own is not enough. Bees need more than lawn weeds blooming for a few weeks. It should be a starting point for how we can make those featureless acres better for bees. To truly have a lasting impact, we need to reduce the area devoted to lifeless lawns and replace them with native plantings. And we need to provide for the whole life cycle of bees with places to nest and shelter. Pollinator conservation is a year-round activity, not just something that happens for one month.

We recommend maintaining a mowed buffer near your house or in high-traffic areas in tick-heavy regions. Ticks prefer shade, so creating gravel, bark, or wood mulch borders (about 3 feet wide) between sunny lawns and shady forests can reduce their numbers in the grass. Rodents and deer are carriers, so planting deer-resistant plants and discouraging rodent habitat can also reduce ticks near your home. Replacing lawns with ferns, herbs, and other plants can also help.

For more information see our guide: Smarter Pest Management: Protecting Pollinators at Home (page 7) and Tick Management Handbook by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (Integrated Tick Management section is on page 44).

Not all weeds are noxious, some “weeds” are even native! But if you do have noxious or invasive weeds, remove them as you would any other time of the year, prioritizing non-chemical methods when possible. Check your state’s noxious weed list or seek out an invasive plant organization to learn which weeds need control. Contact your local extension service for advice on management of specific noxious weed species.

Green spring grasses are not too much of a fire risk, but dry grass is. Follow local fire safety recommendations for mowing and landscaping if you are in a fire-prone community.

If you only have grass (a monoculture with no clovers, etc.), not mowing will not provide any new floral resources for bees. You could plant some native, spring-blooming flowers instead—but remember, you won’t get much bloom this year. The benefit from those will be in the years ahead.

It’s hard to say how people will react. Some people may not be happy to see a wilder yard, others may be thrilled. Seeing changes in a landscape can take time to accept. Let your neighbors know you are letting your yard get a bit wild for a good reason. Allowing your lawn to grow a bit longer or converting part of your yard to pollinator habitat will mean it will look different, but you aren’t abandoning it. You’ll still be tending and caring for it and there are some “cues to care” you can do to show that such as:

• Mowing a neat border near sidewalks and paths.
• Adding short fencing or rocks to tidy up the appearance of the yard.
• Putting up a handmade or purchased pollinator habitat sign.
• Adding plant labels to show your intentional planting choices.
• Including features like benches and bird baths to show that the space is being used.
• Offering garden tours can be a great way to build acceptance for your habitat.
• Don’t be afraid to talk to your neighbors, too!

Here’s a quick “lasagna” method to smother grass: Cut grass short, but leave the clippings. Completely cover grass with clean, tape-free cardboard (no gaps) and wet it down. Top with a thick layer of wood chips. Contact your local arborists for free or cheap wood chips. Another successful method is solarization using plastic sheeting. You’ll find details about these and other approaches in the Xerces Society’s guidelines, Organic Site Preparation for Wildflower Establishment. You can add native pollinator plants at any time, from flowers to shrubs to trees.

Another Xerces Society publication, and another that can be downloaded for free, is Mid-Atlantic Native Meadows: Guidelines for Planning, Preparation, Design, Installation, and Maintenance. This offers detailed information about planning, creating, and maintaining meadows in place of lawns. (The information is relevant for more than only the Mid-Atlantic region)

Reduced mowing does help other insects that benefit from the longer stems and lusher growth—plant hoppers, fireflies, etc. Longer grass may not help ground nesting bees (that lush growth can be a barrier to accessing the soil), but less intense lawn care can. Mining bees (Andrena, aka tickle bees, and known in some places as lawn bees) are often the primary bees that nest in lawns. What they need is the space between grasses to reach the soil. Cultivating a well-fertilized dense sward can hinder that.

No Mow May in the US was sparked by the community of Appleton, WI. The city is a Bee City USA affiliate, and Lawrence University, located in Appleton, is a Bee Campus USA affiliate. In a blog written by these affiliates about their experience of No Mow May, leaders from that community noted:
“In the beginning, there were fears that the program would increase animosity and conflict among neighbors, that it would lead to explosions of rodents and ticks in tall grasses, and that it would destroy lawn mowers as they moved through knee high grass. Not only did those things not come to pass, but to everyone’s surprise, weed complaints rose only negligibly and a large portion of the community participated in the program.”

In reality, the vegetation in your habitat is not enough to support rodents and snakes. Snakes require plentiful food (like rodents!) and rodents are more attracted to garbage and human food scraps than the vegetation in your yard. Penn State Extension Service has information about “neighborly landscaping” that also addresses this concern.

It can be hard to know exactly when and where the bees will be year-to-year. Some bees emerge later in the season if the weather is colder. If you have fruit trees or other early blooming trees or shrubs, bees may prefer those over lawn weeds. Similarly, if there are natural areas nearby with willows, they may be hanging out there. What time your local bees may emerge varies with climate. You could ask local university biology or entomology departments or your local cooperative extension service — look for Master Gardeners or Master Naturalists — if they know when they expect bees to start emerging.

University of Minnesota recommends waiting until you have a relatively dry day, then mowing your lawn down by no more than a third of its height at a time. If you are worried about your mower getting through the grass, you can try mowing every two to three weeks.

The exact costs of lawn conversion will depend on many factors, including size, how you remove the existing lawn, the number of species you plant, etc., etc. The Xerces Society publication Mid-Atlantic Native Meadows: Guidelines for Planning, Preparation, Design, Installation, and Maintenance (download for free) has information about planning, creating, and maintaining meadows in place of lawns, including cost comparisons.