You may be familiar with “no mow May” but what if less mowing could be a yearlong change? There are over 2 million acres of lawn in Pennsylvania, and from an ecological perspective, our lawns are sterile habitats, or habitats that lack the necessary conditions for supporting diverse animal and plant life. Lawns are monocultures (an area where a single crop is grown) of one or several species of cool season turf grasses that offer little to no food or shelter for native wildlife. These dense-growing grasses absorb minimal amounts of storm water and lead to increased run-off and poor water quality, especially when lawns are treated with pesticides or herbicides.
This spring, take some time to contemplate what your lawn means to you: how do you use it and how much do you really need?
Prioritize the areas of your lawn that offer the most value for playing or relaxing then consider how best to utilize the remaining areas. There are lots of options for ditching, or at least minimizing, the mower: creating native flowerbeds, converting a section to meadow, or even planting trees to create a patch of woods.
Even the simple step of forgoing the herbicides and pesticides and mowing your lawn at a higher level is beneficial. Natives like common blue violets (Viola sororia) and common selfheal (Prunella vulgaris) may start to grow within your lawn. These early bloomers offer food for pollinators (bees, butterflies, bats, birds, and others) and are host plants for caterpillars (or larval butterflies), including fritillaries (genus Speyeria) for violets and clouded sulfurs (Colias philodice) for selfheal.
Even the naturalized white clover in your lawn offers pollinators food and provides habitat to beneficial insects, like ladybugs and parasitoid wasps, that prey on garden invaders like aphids and caterpillars. Compared to turf grass, clovers enhance soil quality by adding nitrogen to the ground and may provide more drought tolerance and erosion control due to their long and fibrous roots.
Regardless of how your lawn works for you, this Earth Day let’s all take some time to appreciate how small changes we make can have big impacts on our environment!
If you’re an easement owner and would like more information on converting your lawn into a meadow or woodland, please contact Stewardship Coordinator Karena DiLeo at kdileo@frenchandpickering.org
