Media Contact: Paul Murphy, pfxmurphy@gmail.com; or Beth Plummer, beth@sustainablesaratoga.org

Sustainable Saratoga announces NO MOW MAY, joining the nation-wide effort to encourage all homeowners, farmers, municipalities, highway departments and businesses to rest their lawnmowers through the end of May to help our highly at-risk pollinators.

Populations of pollinators and insects are being impacted the globe. Pesticides and habitat loss are the primary killers of these vital insects who pollinate 70 of 100 USA major crops. In 2021, 45% of bee colonies in the US were lost. Since 1998, 88% of Monarch Butterflies disappeared in the Eastern US and 95% of Monarchs have perished in the Western US.

Paul Murphy, Chair of Sustainable Saratoga’s Pollinator Committee, says about NO MOW MAY, “Our Earth’s pollinators and all insects are fighting for their very existence. Pesticides and habitat loss are the primary killers of these vital insects. NO MOW MAY is a Fundamental Assist for the Bees enabled by not cutting the pollen portals of the Clover, Violets, and Dandelions in May. The Net truth is: If you do not cut these wildflowers that appear in lawn acreage in the Spring, pollinators will leverage this pollen source to gain strength and nourishment during the tough May transition period.

We can all help increase pollinator populations by keeping mowers in garages and sheds and letting our lawns go natural through the end of May. This will allow the bees, moths, butterflies, and other pollinators to safely exit their winter ground homes and find the only nectar nourishment available during late April and early May.”

Across the country, communities who launched NO MOW MAY have experienced nice increases in bee and butterfly populations (5x more bees and 3x more bee species) just by delaying spring mowing and lawn treatments through the end of May.

To help spread the word, Sustainable Saratoga has NO MOW MAY lawn signs available for people to place on their yard announcing support of the effort. Signs come with a $10 requested donation and will be available at pick-up locations in Saratoga Springs and Stillwater. Signs can be purchased online by following this link  or by emailing pollinators@sustainablesaratoga.org. Pick up only; signs cannot be shipped.

Sustainable Saratoga | PO Box 454, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 | www.sustainablesaratoga.org

For more about NO MOW MAY, visit https://sustainablesaratoga.org/no-mow-may/

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ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION
Sustainable Saratoga is a not-for-profit organization that promotes sustainable practices and the protection of natural resources, through education, advocacy and action, for the benefit of current and future generations in the Saratoga Springs area. Since 2008, Sustainable Saratoga has been a leader in promoting awareness of environmental issues and what we as a local community can do to minimize our ecological impact while maintaining a high quality of life.

By Dianna Goodwin

If you are planting a tree this spring or working on landscaping around existing trees on your property, consider the needs of pollinators and other small creatures who live in your yard.

Give them a Soft Landing

“Soft landings” are natural landscapes designed for the area under the shade of a tree that take the survival of critters like fireflies and bumblebees into account. Insects need habitat for shelter and egg laying. In nature, that habitat is often under trees. If you think about a natural forest floor, it is covered with decaying plant parts like leaves, twigs, and rotting logs. Collectively, this forest floor covering is known as “duff”. You can create a healthy and ecologically significant microhabitat under your suburban trees by leaving the leaves and twigs that falls from a tree under the tree’s dripline (that is, under the circumference of the canopy above) and planting a diverse array of native shade plants in the natural flower bed that results. The duff provides a soft landing for insects seeking a vegetative substrate or connection with the ground for hiding from predators, pupating, finding moisture, or, in the case of many ground bees and beetles, excavating small burrows for egg laying.

Keep it natural

In order to create a soft landing for wildlife, you need to avoid conventional gardening practices like mowing under the trees, putting down landscape cloth, and adding “neat” wood chip mulch. Wood chip mulch creates an impenetrable barrier for insects trying to reach the ground. And never, ever apply any chemicals to a soft landing natural garden bed, or any pollinator garden. Don’t use insecticides or fungicides or herbicides or fertilizers. The native plants are nourished by the decaying leaves and do not need any other artificial input. Avoid damaging your tree’s roots: start planting about 3 feet away from the tree trunk. Plant seeds or small plugs which require minimal digging. Heather Holm’s website provides detailed information on how to create a Soft Landing bed.

Go native

It is important to use native plants that have been grown without insecticides in your soft landing bed. Avoid cultivars since they are usually less attractive to insects and birds than the original native plant and may provide inferior food rewards for pollinators and sap suckers. Sustainable Saratoga will be selling a number of native perennial shade plants that are suitable for a soft landing bed at the Pollinator Palooza Native Plant Sale on June 1, 2024. Plants anticipated to be offered in this year’s Palooza that will do well under a shade tree are included in this list.

You can also buy native plants online from Prairie Moon or from local native nurseries like Wild Things Rescue Nursery or Catskill Native Nursery. Do not buy plants from any nursery or big box store unless the plants are certified to be grown without pesticides. American Beauties plants are sold in nurseries throughout the region and are safe for wildlife. All other nursery plants are suspect and should not be placed in soft landing gardens as they may be death traps for insects.

Perfect for them and easy for you

Soft landing beds are easy to maintain once established. They don’t need raking or watering or spraying. You just leave them alone and enjoy the show.

Resources

See Heather Holm’s website for more information. Download a printable PDF including plant list.

Find more resources on our Pollinators and Native Plants pages

If you are a reader of our posts, you probably have some interest in wildlife and pollinator gardening. You may already know how beneficial it is to plant native perennials to support native insects and birds. You may also know that the single most important thing you can do as a wildlife gardener/responsible citizen of the world is to stop using insecticides on your lawn and garden.

What is the next step in your gardening odyssey from turf grass desert to regenerated biodiversity?

The next step is to stop chopping and/or bagging your leaves in the fall. Leaves left on the ground provide overwintering protection and insulation to bumblebees, butterflies, fireflies and a whole host of invertebrate and small vertebrate species that sleep in or on the soil in the winter. When you chop leaves with your lawn mower, you are also chopping up the small critters that live in the leaves. When you bag leaves, you are sending a generation of fireflies to the dump.

Leaves contain a treasure trove of nutrients that return to the earth to feed trees and other plants as they break down. They are also an excellent mulch. Unlike dyed wood chips, which many people use as mulch, leaves break down quickly and feed plants in the spring only a few months after they are shed by the trees. They are an important part of the nutrient cycle that goes on all around us.

The best practice is to leave the leaves where they fall, but if you really don’t like leaving leaves on your grass, you can rake them on to flower beds, under trees, or into piles at the edge of your yard. While you may not want a thick layer of leaves on top of your lawn, a thin layer doesn’t hurt the grass and actually helps to feed it. By spring, scatterings of leaves will disappear into the lawn. You don’t need to remove them from flowerbeds in the spring, the perennials will push right up through them. The remaining leaf litter will help suppress annual weeds in your garden beds.

Leaves are a valuable natural resource, and an important part of our environment; they should not be sent to the landfill.

This fall, please leave your leaves

For more information see:  

https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2015/OctNov/Gardening/Leave-the-Leaves

https://xerces.org/blog/leave-the-leaves

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2022/10/17/fall-leave-leaves

https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/blog/leave-leaves-help-pollinators

Visit our Pollinators and Native Plants pages

Action Plan: Take No Action!

During the critical month of MAY, Sustainable Saratoga asks all to participate in NO MOW MAY. That means keep your mowers in your garages or sheds and let your lawns go natural in May. This critical transition month allows the bees, moths, butterflies and other pollinators to safely exit their winter ground homes and find the only nectar nourishment available during May… nectar from beautiful Clover (great nitrogen source for lawns), cheerful Dandelions, native lovely Violets and the few other Wildflowers that bloom and go to seed in May prior to mowing.

Across the country, communities who have launched NO MOW MAY have experienced nice increases in Bee and butterfly populations (5x more Bees and 3x more Bee species) just by taking the Month of May off… no mowing, no pesticides and no herbicides.

Our Earth’s Pollinators and all insects are fighting for their very existence. Pesticides and habitat loss are the primary killers of these vital insects who pollinate 70 of 100 USA major crops

• In 2021, we lost 45% of bee colonies in the USA
• Since 1998, 88% of Monarch Butterflies disappeared in the Eastern USA
• 95% of Monarchs have perished in the Western USA

Please consider just relaxing in May

We have a NO MOW MAY Bee Lawn Sign for your yard announcing you’ve signed up to help “Save The Bees”

Just let us know if you’d like a sign or have questions by e-mailing us at pollinators@sustainablesaratoga.org and we will be delighted to get you a sign. We have NO MOW MAY sign pick-up locations in Saratoga Springs and Stillwater. We are requesting a $10 donation to Sustainable Saratoga to cover the cost of the sign. These signs can be used each May for at least 10 years.

Here is our very cool lawn sign… Join Our Movement… Save The Bees, and Take The Month of May Off for…

For All of Our Pollinators,

Murph
Chair, Sustainable Saratoga Pollinator Committee

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For more resources about pollinators and native plants, see our Pollinator Pages

Check out Bee City USA for more information about No Mow May