Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)
sciencedirect.com
sciencedirect.com
I fix the dead patches every spring and autumn with clover seeds and compost made from grass clippings, egg shells and vegetables/fruits peels. Zero fertilizer or weed killers, I remove by hand the weeds I don't like once in a while. I rake the garden twice a year to keep moss under control.
5 years later, our garden no longer looks like a green, but a prairie with the usual local plants. Since 2 years poppies are colonizing the most sun exposed parts, with spectacular blooms we are eagerly waiting for. Worms, larvae, slugs and snails are plenty, so birds are always at work foraging. Whatever dies during the hottest weeks regenerates in autumn. Plenty of bees are foraging the clovers and bindweed flowers.
It's looks nice, it's alive, it's much less work and money to maintain, it's self regenerating.
I don't know if you're aware of this (you probably are but I'm posting it for readers anyway) but there's a movement for doing this in many aspects of our nature management called permaculture. It's pretty cool!
Climate change mitigation effects of rewilding > Carbon sinks and removal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_mitigation#Carb...
Permaculture : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture
I normally don't cut the grass until it's long enough that I can pick the flowers there and bring them inside (monthly?)
Though it's really just the grass and dandelions that grow tall. If I had my way, I'd kill all the grass and just throw out wild violets and clover. So much prettier, and requires way less maintenance.
My real goal is to provide a maximally inhospitable environment for cockroaches of all sizes.
Currently in the process of finding a house, and specifically avoiding HOAs. They'd never let something like this fly, which IMO should be illegal(not your yard, rules banning something like your yard).
We had some naturally move in last year and we really liked it So we’re going to help it out. It was soft, and keeping the lawn green/alive/pretty in the park strip is notoriously water wasteful.
Most herbicides require you to wear PPE. But in the residential market people ignore those instructions. Most of them are also unaware of the existence of safety data sheets, and are also unaware that the product packaging is not required to have every safety instruction for the product. The result: a proliferation of cancer lawsuits against herbicide manufacturers.
After use, herbicides still leave the dead plant behind that needs removal.
So, in practice, using herbicides for a residential yard is as stupid as declawing a cat.
My lawn is about 1/3 clover. Just grows wild.
The dirt here is mostly clay, if that significates.
I still love the clover, and it helps keep the grass a bit more sane - but the length of the grass is my primary fight.
They stay within about 50 yards of wherever their 'home' hole is, so they won't run off (although their offspring may!).
You still need to mow about twice a year to get rid of plants the rabbits don't like to eat, which will otherwise grow into bushes.
Your biggest headache with rabbits is they'll eat other plants you might want (vegetables etc), and will dig burrows in random places. But in my opinion, both those are well worth it for having a lawn that mows itself.
Do you have to milk clover seeds on the 3rd full moon after the 2nd Sunday after the Summer Solstice, in front of 2 dancing bears and 4 white bats?
https://laidbackgardener.blog/2020/11/04/clover-in-the-lawn-...
The secret was to turn clover from a friend into an enemy. Pesticide companies decided to launch an intensive advertising campaign to convince homeowners that white clover was a weed that needed to be destroyed. They spent literally millions on advertising to persuade unconvinced gardeners.
If I ignore the smell of my body I'll eventually be rewarded with a staph infection or worse. If I don't use grass monoculture on my lawn I eventually am rewarded with pollinators, blooms, and an ecologically active space.
Lawns require 200 gallons of drinking water per day. In 2005, the amount of lawn cultivated in the US would cover the entire terrestrial surface of Texas. We use 17 million gallons of gas on lawn mowers every year, and tens of millions of pounds of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. All said, Americans spend more than $36 billion USD a year on lawn care, more than 4x the annual budget of the Environmental Protection Agency.
At least with a shower I get something out of the water I used. With lawns what do you get? Empty green space. Fuck bees, fuck butterflies, fuck rabbits, I need my neighbors to know I can afford to let my land lay fallow in an aesthetically inert way.
My lawn gets most of it's water from rain actually. We supplement occasionally when necessary. But during drought we just let it go a little brown. Not a big deal.
I still love my lawn and mowing it is a very nice break from sitting on the computer.
What horseshit is this ? What water-hungry grass do you use ?
The reality is the majority of our modern world and lives can be seen as a waste of energy, resources, and, "hubris against nature" and it seems like there is some subjective line for each person that delineates what is too far.
Why should we burn endless amounts of gas/coal/other energy when the "natural" solution is to either naturally adapt or to simply live in more habitable environments.
Anyways, yes, I'll give you that comparing HVAC to lawns is silly, but it doesn't take much imagination to think of less silly examples that we accept. So my question is who draws the lines? Whose standard is the standard that everyone should follow? Manicured lawns not cool, ok. What about backyard pools? What about irrigation systems? What about drainage ditches or other infrastructure that allow for land to perk so more housing can be made available, but negatively affects downstream wildlife? Etc, etc.
Speaking personally, it's about externalities: American suburbs have ludicrous amounts of common and private infrastructure, all financed through the lie of infinite and perpetual growth. All of that infrastructure has hidden externalities, ones that aren't being addressed on the individual or state levels. Monoculture lawns are just one tiny example of that, manifest in their cost to the local ecosystem (and additional water demands, pesticide use, &c.).
It's worth realizing that carefully curated and maintained lawns are more of a signifier of wealth than anything else. The trend originated in Victorian-era Europe, and somehow stuck.
But then it wouldn't look the certain way you want, would it? That seems to be the main concern for Americans.
Or the overgrazed pasture with no flowering plants?
Or the industrial areas? I guess those at least have the occasional dumpster from a candy factory.
You and Dow chemial, who demonized this Nitrogen fixing wonder in order to make more money.
If you don't want a weed on your garden, fair enough, but what's the point of the homogenous-lawn ideal Americans seem to have? It feels like a holdover from something like cold-war cultural propaganda.
People have different preferences and that used to be OK.
My dad always insisted on mowing every 4 days though.
Sydney for example has a higher annual rainfall than places that Americans consider rainy (eg. Seattle). Combine that with warmer temperatures and in many parts of Australia you are fighting a potential jungle more than fighting desertification.
Canberra, the capital, on the other hand regularly gets below freezing which means less mowing required.
a surprising amount of the US gets more rainfall than Seattle
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-17/this-simp...
There are a lot of things you can do to help bee populations. I can't imagine how you mow the lawn is that large of a factor considering the other things you can do.
Seriously considering landscaping to not need to do this. Wife and I have thought to turn the whole front and back yard into other greenery.
Bear in mind this is a 5 acre lot that is 4/5 forest or water- definitely not a stereotypical suburban uniform green carpet. No pesticides or fertilizers used at all either.
And my local borough at least have plenty of high moisture wooded areas whether or not the grass is cut short, so allowing more of the open grassland to grow out would not make a material change.
Ticks are uncommon here (EDIT: Here being in my borough; there are definitely parts of England where it's more of a concern - and if I had a dog or if I was wandering around more in the woods, I'd still check for ticks, just in case) - some have been found in adjacent boroughs e.g. in Richmond Park, but that's thought to be due to to a high population of deer, but even there the proportion of infected ticks is tiny.
For ticks, wolves are actually really important. They keep deer and coyote populations in check. Deer of course feed ticks, but what's really interesting is that coyotes have a two fold effect on ticks. First they eat some of the tick predators like opossums. And second they eat mouse predators like foxes, with mice being a major part in tick reproduction. Wolves don't usually eat these smaller animals. So wolves help keep a balance.
What are good ways to do that? Everything I saw that's good for dragonflies is good for mosquitos, but I'm not going to promote mosquitos. (Sure they've got a place in the world, but I wish it wasn't so close to my house)
What I do see all the time is the front setback given over 100% to driveway and parking. These neighborhoods become very drab, even though if you look on satellite view there’s plenty of plant life - it’s just all locked away in private backyards.
My personal preference is neither. Pull the buildings right up to the sidewalk. Present an interesting pleasant facade to pedestrians. But to the extent you are going to have setbacks, they should at least have some redeeming aesthetic value.
That seems reasonable. Are you seeing codes that require specifically grass and not other vegetation?
> I don't understand why a lot of people have a lawn in the first place
> > Often times it is required by law or HOA.
Also, in many locations, the grass is already there when the house is built, but maybe needs some help coming back around the construction areas, so it's not like they're putting a lawn in that wasn't already there. It's just that perhaps now it's a lawn instead of a field because the house is there.
My neighbors have something like that in their back yard, and prairie grass in the front. My house has a big vegetable garden, some flower gardens, some bushes, and trees. We also have some lawn, but it's un-maintained and only needs to be mowed a couple times during the spring before it goes dormant. It's also about 1/2 weeds. Every year we convert more of it to garden.
Only about 1/5 of the houses have actual managed green lawns.
Contrast with my parents' neighborhood in another state. Every lawn in the entire 'hood is bushy bright green, and the people are out there mowing all the time. Many of their neighbors mow twice a week. One neighbor had a large mature tree cut down because it was shading their grass. Of course you can't see the lawns because all of the streets are lined on both sides with giant cars.
In addition to the visual appearance, there's the noise. A relative of mine went on vacation recently, to a place that was more or less off the grid. His comment was that there were no string trimmers or leaf blowers. A lot of suburban neighborhoods are just a constant racket of equipment.
I get it, it's a culture thing. But it's interesting to see that there are actually lots of possibilities for what to do with the grounds around a detached house.
I count myself fairly lucky that I can walk from the sea to a suburb to a field full of cows in less than an hour where I live.
The parts I planted are dominated by the grass I planted (fescu? sp?) but the invasive flowering weeds are encroaching and I am happy to see them.
Biggest influence is foot fall. High traffic areas are very different from low traffic areas.
I imagine my lawnmower is like a herbivore eating the tops.
I have experimented with letting it grow. Gets dominated by dock and long grasses generally
I’ve heard of HOAs going after people for planting vegetables in their front yard.
But, there is seriscaping, which is popular in dry areas.
Trees, bushes, hedges.
So now, I don’t mow that part until they warn me, then I’ll trim it with a weed trimmer but leave some clusters here and there.
It can't actually be illegal for you to not cut your grass at your property right?
Good article / podcast on it
It's classism. The entire point of requiring large setbacks with front lawns is to discriminate for homeowners who can afford to maintain a large completely useless surface.
But I have a lawn that takes me an hour of hard work to mow. It is not visible to the public. I adore it. The dogs adore it. The children are too little to appreciate the effort, but they like it too.
There are other reasons to have lawns.
Also maintains an area around the house that does not burn
the only reason for a law requiring other people to have a manicured lawn is to ensure that a neighbourhood is only populated by the class of people who both value and can afford that luxury.
If you've ever lived somewhere with 'that one guy' who completely flouts the norms in all regards, it's easy to see how people decide to enact regulations. I lived in such a place, and the whole neighborhood had to live with his stinky, half-burned shade-tree mechanic operation with junked cars and chemicals everywhere for years before he could be forced out. He didn't even live there, he had a house somewhere else. What finally pushed the city into acting was when we were able to document rats.
After serious cleaning (including hauling away truckloads of contaminated dirt) there's a nice little house on the old lot that matches the rest of the neighborhood, and we can forget what a jackass Verl was.
Another fun read of you are not familiar
https://www.yellowstonelandscape.com/blog/most-common-hoa-la...
I’ve lived in this house for 5 years now, and the first time it happened I couldn’t believe it myself.
You are right in that I incorrectly referred to it as a “blue law”. But it is an ordinance.
Mayhaps the mis-reference was due to most cool-season lawns being buegrasses?
In my experience (I am at 45°45′S 170°34′E in the South Pacific/Southern Ocean area) the lawn flowers do not mind being mowed. It seems to encourage them if you mow like I do (a bit irregularly, when it looks too long) they seem to thrive.
I am really pleased to see this article. (I have only read the abstract) It matches my experience.
I have found my green carpet to be a lot more drought resistant than my neighbours perfect lawn, and the biodiversity attracts more bees, toads and other insects. However, I appreciate many would class the biodiversity as weeds (moss, clover dandelion, daisies).
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Since, Before, ObstaclesWe keep some milkweed along one fence and have a bed of local wildflowers along the roadway and a vegetable garden for the bees, but this article is about increasing lawn flowers/weeds rather than directly about mowing frequency.
Flowering lawn weeds are such a wonderful addition to a lawn.
The bees will be pleased, but you may need to get a hive nonce you have flowers established. From the complaints here about local by-laws you may need to have a stealth hive.
Worth the effort.
Lawn is really fascinating when you get into it.
The fascination with lawns, and everything that comes with it, is something I could never get. Flowers might not be manly enough but why not grow trees and/or produce? Not talking commercial efforts. Just a hobby. One that doesn't involve horrible motorized mowers, water waster, and what have you.
Also having a space around your house means it can be more easily defended from file
Gardens with flowers and vegetables have the same benefits, but are more work and make the ground unusable for the dogs and their children
But I love a lawn. They’re beautiful and it’s a fun hobby. They also make a great ecosystem for lots of bugs and worms which love organically fertilized earth. Lawns are also a carbon sink depending on how you maintain it. Not to mention they’re great for erosion issues. Not to mention the kids love playing on it.
As for water I live in an area where you can’t really “waste” water. Mowers can be electric as well.
Mowing may also be necessary if you live somewhere with a rodent problem, or particularly if you live somewhere with a rodent and snake problem. You don't want rats nesting right up against your house, nor vipers (attracted to the rats) nipping at your heels every time you go outside to check your mailbox.
Of course there are outside-the-box solutions like surrounding your house with gravel.
I have a lot of space around the edges that have trees (fruit trees, nut trees and decorative native trees as) I pull out the plants I want to discourage (hemlock, stinging nettle, dock by the roots...) and other plants like ferns, flaxes, butter cups fill in the spaces.
I mean what would I do with it? Play croquet?
I mow about twice a week and keep my lawn at 3” - 4”. I like it a bit longer.
If I let it grow for 2 weeks I’d be chopping off 50% or more of its length which puts the lawn under so much stress. It would be wide open for disease and it would actually be wasting water.
mowing twice a week on what is almost certainly a two-cycle engine is very, very unlikely to be a carbon sink.
It’s hard to find 2-stroke gas engines today. Even cheap gas mowers use 4 stroke.
Not in all areas. Some grasses grow much more quickly, especially in warmer areas. Many areas require a lower mow to inhibit mosquito reproduction. Every 2 weeks tends to work well for my lawn.
They require stagnant water. Do people in power worry that rubbish in the lawn will harbour water?
(I do not have mosquitos where I live)
West Nile virus and Dengue virus are serious health hazards transmitted by mosquitoes, and many places try to contain it.
I do not mow in in the winter months, at all.
Seasonal.
Does the abundance of color in the modern world harm bees in any way? I ask this because I've seen bees repeatedly fly into modern packaging, signage and bright clothing. I can imagine that the wasted energy flying into a sign that is as colorful as a flower harms bees.
But I'm not sure if there's studies on this or if it is even a big deal. So opportunistically asking here in this semi related thread to see if others have thought about this.
I wondered if it was helping a lot until I took a few walks in the grass and nesting birds were startled by my presence (I let them be after I knew where they were!). I don't think they'd had the chance to nest there when it was being cut for silage.
This is happening in my front yard literally as I type this!
The colony in my tree is electing a new Queen. Last week half the colony left with the old queen - and a bee-keeper noticed they were all bunched up in the yard and brought a hive and harvested them off the lawn. (Ill ad pics of that later)
I havent needed to mow the lawn in months, and this literally just happened in the last 30 mins as I returned to costco...
Listen with audio they are swarming like mad!
https://imgur.com/gallery/2nnZBy4
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What was crazy is I read this article this AM before heading to errands, and then I came home to this!
And I was recognizing the hive was there, and I was recognizing I havent mowed in months! and I planted a crap-ton of bee friendly stuff in the yard last summer...
Kind of a thing like this https://www.treehugger.com/tree-arborist-redondo-beach-mayor...
I would expect a decent number of them to consider throwing ‘invasive’ seeds onto their lawns some kind of terrorist act. And almost all of them would comb over every legal resource they could find to try to nail you with something over it.
This is definitely a case where you’d be better off just avoiding it entirely.
Well, I'm just passing by, and whoops I need to tie shoelances, and here I drop some super tiny seeds for the bugs, birds and wind to do the rest. Planting them is super easy.
I wish you luck.
Also, some folks like having a small army of busy bodies go after folks doing things that they don’t like.
I (DIY home owner) don't schedule, I mow on demand. That said, if the lawn gets too long our electric mower struggles.
Finally, wouldn't longer grass also be a better environment for ticks? Don't get me wrong, bees are important. But grass length has been a constant, and while this information is helpful it's not doing much to address root cause (without that its influence could get worse).
> Summarized bee abundance and richness in relation to lawn mowing treatments were as follows: weekly mowing = 1425 bees representing 72 species, mowed every two weeks = 1903 bees representing 60 species, and mowed every three weeks = 1259 bees representing 62 species (Fig. 2, Appendix A1). Our rarefaction analysis reflected these overall abundance and richness values, showing lower bee richness in the two-week treatment
The only way to avoid frequently cutting grass and not having your lawn look unkempt is not to have grass. Either replace with some other short green or keep a neat garden with nothing else. Culturally people just don't do that. But you'd sooner see a trend shift towards alternatives than "just don't cut as often".
Go ahead and let the cat shit in your meadow, everyone's happier that way.
It would mean a lot to me if you took a quick survey so I could understand if there's value in the idea:
> Bee abundance differed among mowing treatments (p = 0.002), such that lawns mowed every two weeks had significantly more bees compared with the weekly and every three-week treatment (Fig. 4c, Tables 1, 2).
Leaving the lawn to grow out for more than three weeks makes it pretty unusable, especially for our dogs, with giant weeds (with spikes that hurt the dogs' legs) and thistle bushes and whatnot, and when you do mow it takes 2-3 times as long and the mower tends to get clogged up a bunch, and you need to extra careful about not hitting a rabbit or other nest, which might have been built in your yard because the weeds got so deep.
When I do mow I do try to leave some patches of clover for bees, though, and let some thistle plants grow in a few clumps.
I do wish people wouldn't obsessively mow and poison their lawns with weed killer to keep their lawns only consisting of grass, though. Nothing wrong with dandelions and clover and the occasional thistle.
As for polluting, I use a plug-in electric mower, so it doesn't really pollute much. I do wish electric mowers were the norm.
This is not considered a fire hazard here, but yeah we do not have that many trees close to the house.
Edit: I'm not particularly attached to grass. If clover took over and pushed the grass out, I wouldn't be upset about it.
Another edit: A clover lawn also might not be durable enough for the usage much my yard gets.
This is an interesting word choice to use as pollinators approach endangerment.
Akin to suggesting that deer hunting season should be extended until there are no longer any deer near roadways in FL.
I use a push mower, about once a week (and I leave the clippings on the lawn). It's really enjoyable.
Not for everyone, but sure an interesting solution.
Even the idea of dandelions being "weeds" is ridiculous as the dandelion is an incredibly useful plant that can be used in a variety of circumstances. I really suggest that anyone interested in these topics check out a book called Lawn People How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are.