This spring and summer I’ve decided to go “no mow” for my lawn – and it’s going pretty well so far. I’ve had some concerns about invasive plants, snakes (specifically copperheads), and ticks/mites. My plan was to mitigate the ticks with chickens to eat the ticks, and tackle the mites (like chiggers) with ladybugs. To control the invasive plants, I just need to pull them up before they go to seed. Snakes? Well, I hope I’m just stomping around enough that they’re afraid to come near me. So, maintaining a no mow lawn means adjusting to new wildlife dynamics.
The benefits so far have been numerous: the fireflies have returned (also thanks to leaving my leaves), there haven’t been any bugs on my front porch as I’m assuming they’ve found better homes in the yard. I’ve leaned to identify more native plants that I once considered weeds, but now I just let them do their thing. I also have to assume that my soil is getting better to grow the fruit and nut trees that I’ve planted since I’ve allowed a lot of clover to grow, and clover is a nitrogen fixing plant (clover is technically in the legume family). Allowing the no mow lawn concept has revived local biodiversity.
I’ve thrown a bunch of native plant seeds around my property in the last few months, and some stuff seems to be cropping up. Even so, I’ll probably throw down some more native seeds in the fall so they can cold stratify over the winter and pop up next spring. Though, I’m also hoping that many of the current batch of native flowers will go to seed and spread, contributing to the no mow lawn vision.
No Mow Mentality
It’s kind of funny that so many people scoff at the idea of not mowing a yard. I obviously blame Monsanto/Bayer – and by extension the restrictive HOAs – for that mentality, but it seems that being anti-lawn (or pro no mow) is generally an unpopular sentiment – for now. With all of the water, energy, time, and effort wasted in maintaining a lawn, I think a short grass lawn will become a thing of the past in a few years. Encouraging a no mow lawn approach reflects a shift towards sustainability.
To flip the script, what are the issues with not mowing? Some people consider it to not be aesthetically pleasing, but to those people, I say you have a poor sense of aesthetics. You don’t like flowers? You don’t find insects interesting? Butterflies beautiful? C’mon, live a little and learn about the natural world around your rather than trying to snuff it out in pursuit of some pristine ideal. The no mow lawn helps embrace nature’s beauty and diversity.