« previous next »
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: No Mow May  (Read 1310 times)

rcjordan

  • I'm consulting the authorities on the subject
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16415
  • Debbie says...
    • View Profile
No Mow May
« on: June 12, 2022, 03:33:35 PM »
>garden of weeds

Cities & HOAs are having trouble adjusting to eco-friendly yards.

The city wanted me to take better care of my gardens, so I had them approved by the local nature conservation association : r/MaliciousCompliance
https://old.reddit.com/r/MaliciousCompliance/comments/vahmqf/the_city_wanted_me_to_take_better_care_of_my/

-------
Related:

I'm not inclined to be a gardener, but the on-going Pollenator Apocalypse has me seriously concerned.  So I planted a small flower garden (heavily mechanized for easy maintenance) and we've put pollenator favorites in containers on the deck (slated to be mechanized soon with smarthome water valve). Pollenator gardens are oddly tech-y when you're starting from scratch; heights, spread, colors, bloom season, sunlight, water ...the list goes on. I learned quite a bit, especially that flower gardens are expensive.

I've also slowed down the lawn-mowing cycle to 2, sometimes 3 weeks. Last year, I started leaving big patches of clover flowers by mowing around them.  This year, I'm trying to go 3 weeks and also leave a thick patch of clover flowers ....which the bees like better than the expensive plants, hhh.

I saw an article earlier this year that said "Mowing your yard every 2 weeks instead of weekly increases the bee population by 30%."

To mow or to mow less: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity in suburban yards | Treesearch
https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/55816

Logged

Rupert

  • Inner Core
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 3358
  • George in a previous life.
    • View Profile
    • SuitsMen
Re: No Mow May
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2022, 05:51:30 PM »
Interesting, thanks.  We did No Mow May, this year.  Its a hell of a job getting it back under control though :) 

https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/news/no-mow-may-how-to-get-ten-times-more-bees-on-your-lockdown-lawn

Logged
... Make sure you live before you die.

rcjordan

  • I'm consulting the authorities on the subject
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16415
  • Debbie says...
    • View Profile
Re: No Mow May
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2022, 05:59:20 PM »
>a hell of a job

Yeah, on the 3-week schedule or the clover patches it took longer to cut.  We're on the edge of a drought here so if we'd had normal rainfall it would have been worse.

We have noticed that there was a noticeable increase in birds and we now have a few rabbits again (they went missing 3 or 4 year ago).
Logged

ergophobe

  • Inner Core
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 9324
    • View Profile
Re: No Mow May
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2022, 05:54:50 PM »
>>Cities & HOAs

Don't screw with the suburban American lawn. This is almost like trying to take guns away in rural America (where, incidentally, there are a lot fewer lawns; at least out here, guns are ubiquitous and lawns are rare).

Lawn Order
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/lawn-order/
Quote
In communities across America, lawns that are brown or overgrown are considered especially heinous. Elite squads of dedicated individuals have been deputized by their local governments or homeowners’ associations to take action against those whose lawns fail to meet community standards. Call them—lawn enforcement agents.
....

Now, fortunately for Joe, the local paper had written about the arrest and detainment of a senior citizen for having a brown lawn. Word got around, and dozens of people came out to help dig up and re-sod the Prudentes’ lawn. Joe was released from jail the next day.

I remember a long long time ago (last century, probably in the 1980s) hearing a radio new item about a couple who were getting harassed from the HOA or city in the DC area. The couple were both lawyers. They sued back and said the HOA was infringing their right to engage in "meadow gardening."

>>No Mow May

Not having a lawn, I had never heard of this until last month when we visited the botanical gardens in Madison, Wisconsin. They had signs up all over explaining why their grass was so long and encouraging others to take part.

https://beecityusa.org/no-mow-may/

Honestly, a lot of the rules around lawns in many places, to the point of almost requiring you put chemicals on your lawn, would keep me out of suburbia. I think dandelions are beautiful flowers, but there are places where having just a few on your lawn is essentially a crime. Now, in the US, dandelions are an invasive species, but so are the vast vast vast majority of plants in every flower garden.

Quote
Chicago's weed ordinance requires property owners to keep all weeds on the property under ten inches tall, on average. Fines run between $600 to $1,200 a day. A weeds is, of course, undefined by the ordinance.
https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/seventh-circuit/your-weeds-are-beautiful-but-theyre-also-illegal-posner-says/

Quote
The dandelion’s fall from grace has been a doozy. This once-prized plant, which gardeners used to exhibit at county fairs, now holds the title of Public Lawn Enemy No. 1, inciting levels of disgust on par with those directed at vermin, politicians and people who remove their shoes and socks on airplanes.
https://news.wttw.com/2020/05/14/dandelion-weed-flower-history

« Last Edit: June 13, 2022, 06:08:30 PM by ergophobe »
Logged

rcjordan

  • I'm consulting the authorities on the subject
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16415
  • Debbie says...
    • View Profile
Re: No Mow May
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2023, 08:11:49 PM »
UK: Report finds 80 per cent of butterflies have declined since the 1970s 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11706391/Report-finds-80-cent-butterflies-declined-1970s.html

I think the decline may be worse here.
Logged

rcjordan

  • I'm consulting the authorities on the subject
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16415
  • Debbie says...
    • View Profile
Re: No Mow May
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2023, 06:25:47 PM »
UK: Noticed my council are doing no mow may. All the flowers coming through look nice.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/13ra6kk/noticed_my_council_are_doing_no_mow_may_all_the/
Logged

Rupert

  • Inner Core
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 3358
  • George in a previous life.
    • View Profile
    • SuitsMen
Re: No Mow May
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2023, 07:03:54 PM »
Quote from: rcjordan on May 25, 2023, 06:25:47 PM
UK: Noticed my council are doing no mow may. All the flowers coming through look nice.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/13ra6kk/noticed_my_council_are_doing_no_mow_may_all_the/

A Round Tuit for New Year

And the rest....Funny :)
Logged
... Make sure you live before you die.

rcjordan

  • I'm consulting the authorities on the subject
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16415
  • Debbie says...
    • View Profile
Re: No Mow May
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2023, 07:16:51 PM »
>funny

"mine are doing Dig Up And Replace Literally The Entire City's Road Network From Scratch All In One Go"

related:

My small city is majority Democratic in a GOP state.  We're a colonial-era riverfront city in the coastal lowlands with dozens of canals and creeks with bridges on nearly all of our major roadways.  As such, we'd been begging for bridge repairs by the state's Dept of Transportation for decades. We didn't vote GOP in the elections a few years ago.  A month or two later the DOT showed up in force and shut down or partially closed our bridges All In One Go.  Traffic pandemonium ensued.  I'd lived here for 65 years or more at that point and it took some deep local knowledge to navigate out of town.
Logged
Pages: [1]
« previous next »