I have plenty of bees.... I don't mow my lawn.....

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

They love my lawn. I am surrounded by bees, birds, all kinds of beautiful critters....

Unlike my neighbors, I do not mow my lawn until nature is in full bloom.

Which means, for upstate New York, around Memorial Day.

Yes, the place looks a little ragged - long grass, wild flowers, dandelions.

To make up for it, my house and the surroundings are immaculately well kept.

Don't mow your lawn until the leaves on the trees are out fully. You are helping the planet.

[lagomorph777]

1. And don't put pesticides on your lawn.

The amount of poison we put on our property, to support a crop which we harvest, and then discard, is appalling.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

2. I just mow.

I even hate doing that.

No chemicals.

[lagomorph777]

5. I am not surprised.

[tonyt53]

3. I mow the lawn - but because I have grandkids that love to play ouitside

I also have a farm that has no home on it, just a couple of old barns. The guy with the adjoining farm plants on it. I have a beekeeper with two sites on the farm. Gotta have those bees!

[LiberalArkie]

4. That is what I do, when the heat goes up and they start to wither I start mowing. By that time

all the bees are are gone.

[felix_numinous]

6. Great post CompanyFirstSergeant

Chemlawn chemicals have estrogenic properties, which end up in the groundwater, every neighborhood should ban using them. They should allow meadows for butterflies, bees and beneficial insects--and to allow people to grow their own food. It's time

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

10. Obsess...

.....with something that will go dormant in the fall (which starts in late September around here)????

Too busy doing other things, thank you.

I give myself 1.5 (that's one-and-half) HOURS hours per week on lawn care.

Past that.... weeds!!!

[felix_numinous]

13. Yes!

Lawns are an obsession to control nature

[My Good Babushka]

8. Me too.

I let it go, let the dandelions grow and the clover flowers. I say my yard is full of hardy, native perennials.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. i'm sure my neighbors hate it, but

I don't pull dandylions until the blooms fade. And my back yard hasn't been touched this year yet, the grass is calf high and the birds and critters love it

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

11. Oh, and one other thing....

Please keep your cats inside while the spring birth (rabbits, squirrels) are still young.

[MH1]

12. I mow the front in order to avoid a citation, back yard is a meadow :)

[safeinOhio]

14. 25% of my 2 acres is set aside

as a butterfly habitat. Lots of milkweed grows wild.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

15. It's about 1.5 acres of lawn....

...and 1 acre of trees.

Minus the house, of course.

My neighbors grumble that I leave patches of wild in various places throughout the season.

The bees, butterflies, rabbits, birds, squirrels, deer (and a bear, once) thank me.

[Bonx]

16. I mow my lawn so I don't get plenty of ticks when i'm enjoying it.

[Atman]

17. i have plenty of ticks. I don't mow my lawn.

Snakes and mice are an added bonus.

[B2G]

18. You evidently don't have an HOA to contend with. nt

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

19. No

I'm in a rural county that has a live-and-let-live attitude.

Unless you pollute. Then the hammer comes down hard.

NYC watershed.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/dep_projects/catdel_wide.shtml

[MineralMan]

20. I mow my lawn, and have plenty of bees, too.

The creeping charlie, wild violets, white clover and the lower-growing dandelions survive my 3" height setting on the mower just fine. The bees are everywhere in my lawn. In fact, one of my dogs stepped on a bee yesterday and yelped a bit. I patted him on the head, and he was just fine after that.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

21. Hieght setting.

Good idea. I'll try that.

[Mariana]

23. That's what I do too.

It has taken a while, but I have finally convinced my husband that the white clover and the violets in the lawn are not weeds.

[IcyPeas]

22. bees are very attracted to Lavender

my mom has it in her garden and there are always bees around it.

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. I have a bottlebrush tree, and it is loaded with honey bees right now.

I mow the lawn every week (HOA) throughout the year pretty much because this is Texas. But, we have plenty of bees as well.

[KamaAina]

25. Dandelions are among the most underrated of plants

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum#Edibility

Dandelions are found on all continents and have been gathered for food since prehistory, but the varieties cultivated for consumption are mainly native to Eurasia. A perennial plant, its leaves will grow back if the taproot is left intact. To make leaves more palatable, they are often blanched to remove bitterness, or sauteed in the same way as spinach. Dandelion leaves and buds have been a part of traditional Kashmiri, Slovenian, Sephardic, Chinese, and Korean cuisines. In Crete, the leaves of a variety called 'Mari' (Μαρί ), 'Mariaki' (Μαριάκι ), or 'Koproradiko' (Κοπροράδικο ) are eaten by locals, either raw or boiled, in salads. T. megalorhizon, a species endemic to Crete, is eaten in the same way; it is found only at high altitudes (1000 to 1600 m) and in fallow sites, and is called pentaramia (πενταράμια ) or agrioradiko (αγριοράδικο ).

The flower petals, along with other ingredients, usually including citrus, are used to make dandelion wine. The ground, roasted roots can be used as a caffeine-free dandelion coffee. Dandelion was also traditionally used to make the traditional British soft drink dandelion and burdock, and is one of the ingredients of root beer. Also, dandelions were once delicacies eaten by the Victorian gentry, mostly in salads and sandwiches.

Dandelion leaves contain abundant vitamins and minerals, especially vitamins A, C, and K, and are good sources of calcium, potassium, iron, and manganese....

Historically, dandelion was prized for a variety of medicinal properties, and it contains a number of pharmacologically active compounds. Dandelion is used as a herbal remedy in Europe, North America, and China. It has been used in herbal medicine to treat infections, bile and liver problems, and as a diuretic.

All continents? Even Antarctica?

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

26. And we just poison them out.

Shame.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. I got rid of my lawn altogether

a couple of years ago, and planted shrubs, flowers and fruit trees on my small city lot. Most of the plants are native, which tend to attract more pollinators. I pull weeds that are actual weeds (nettles, etc.) or suppress them with mulch, but everything else that has a flower gets to stay. I planted lots of Monarda (bee balm), coneflowers, echinacia, and other colorful native flowers. The wild ginger has spread enough to make a good ground cover.

One of my next door neighbors hates my yard because it doesn't look like a golf course, and on several occasions has called the city to complain that I was harboring poison ivy, which I was not, but his complaints provided me with a chance to give the inspector a botany lesson.

It's nice not to have to mow.

[Warpy]

28. Well, unless you live in snake country and your little kids play out there

Otherwise, let it grow, especially if you've had the foresight to throw out a lot of clover seed.

[ileus]

29. I thought everyone in NY used goats chained to dog houses

with wheels and handles...

I remember doing an install in St Johnsville back in the early 2k's and seeing bunches of those setups.


Our leaves are still not out completely...I just mowed a section of my yard I'd only mowed twice this year yesterday grass was over 15" high (temporary dog lot I put up in Feb for the pup, I took it down yesterday) It was actually higher than my hay field out back in most places.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

30. Not me!!!

Only my neighbors.