Know (your) May Maintenance
You may have heard of “No Mow May” - the movement encouraging people to abstain from mowing their lawns in the month of May.
Now, introducing: “Know (your) May Maintenance”
Dandelions aren’t really that great as a diet for our native pollinators so feel free to dig them up and/or mow them before they go to seed. (Don’t let Dandelions get between you and your neighbors!)
Dandelions aside, No Mow May isn’t great for grass either because grass that is allowed to grow and then cut very short is shocked and has a hard time recovering. And wildlife may move in to higher grass and then be injured when you do decide to mow.
So what should you do if you have lawn but also are worried about biodiversity, bees, butterflies, insects and birds? Know Your May Maintenace in 4 easy steps:
Leave more leaves and leave more stems. While it may seem like summer to us, our local pollinators are still sleeping outside at night and those leaves are their blankets. So leave those leaves as long as you can, and/or gently rake them under trees or around garden beds (or leave them on any grassy area you are hoping to plant natives into!) Stems are great places our local insects use for their babies. So don’t throw them away.
Slow Mow Summer: mow less frequently and raise your mower to a higher height (if you can). This will likely keep your grass healthier AND any native plants like violets in your yard will have a chance to bloom.
Grow native : add some native plants, if possible. Look to our pollinator patch program and the Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library for free native plants that will alow you to grow a pollinator oasis with minimal effort. Any outdoor space will do (even a container). Every plant matters!
Remove invasives: If you have time before you mow (because they are easier to find), try to manually remove the invasive plants in your yard (iNaturalist is a great tool for this!). But you can also do this after mowing too and throughout the summer.
Know (your) May Maintenance is all about trying to leave any native plants you can, leave the leaves in gardens or areas you want to kill grass, remove invasive species, plant natives anyway and anywhere you have bandwidth/capacity and otherwise mow with no guilt!
