{"id":48371,"date":"2021-05-13T13:26:27","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T17:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/?p=48371"},"modified":"2025-07-02T04:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:09:12","slug":"the-no-mow-may-challenge-is-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/story\/48371\/the-no-mow-may-challenge-is-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Your Yard Sleep in: No Mow May & Biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ah, the arrival of spring. The days are getting longer, the sap is beginning to flow, the flowers are coming back…and so are the lawn mowers. One might feel that spring lawn care is a must. But where does the urge to have perfectly mowed yards, gardens, parks and roadsides come from?<\/p>\n\n

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Photo \u00a9 David-Pierre Mangiapan<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The awakening of the vegetation in spring and its faithful procession of dandelions is a necessity for pollinators – insects that are at the very heart of nature’s reproductive system – to find shelter and food so that they don’t starve<\/a> before the summer season gets underway.<\/p>\n\n

But with the ever-increasing use of pesticides, and the social pressures to maintain and mow our lawns as soon as the temperatures rise, the survival of honeybees and wild pollinators is under threat. And their struggle is only getting more real.<\/p>\n\n

Well-mown lawn or flowering meadow: let’s take stock<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

By compiling several European and American studies in a meta-analysis, the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Trois-Rivi\u00e8res has revealed that lawns create manufactured ecosystems with low biodiversity<\/a>, a condition that worsens as the intensity of mowing increases. Lawns that are mowed more frequently are linked to a decrease in the number of invertebrates and have less plant diversity, while the presence of pests and invasive species goes up. We have every reason to think twice about our obsession with perfectly manicured lawns.  <\/p>\n\n

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Photo \u00a9 Jeffrey Hamilton<\/a> via Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n