Community News

NO MOW MAY ENCOURAGES LETTING LAWNS GROW OUT

ACCORDING TO THE NATURE CONSERVANCY OF CANADA, CANADA IS HOME TO ABOUT 6.2 MILLION LAWNS

ABBY GREEN agreen@metroland.com

You've heard of Movember, but what about No Mow May?

The initiative, which originated in the U.K., aims to encourage Canadians to grow their lawns out in the month of May.

"Right after the snow melts, there's not a lot of food immediately available for pollinators. Some of the first things to offer food and nectar grow in our lawns, whether we like it or not," said Jensen Edwards from the Nature Conservancy of Canada. "If we let the lawns grow a little bit taller, then clover and dandelions and plants like that can grow and feed those pollinators."

Aside from just letting lawns grow out, Edwards said growing a garden of native plants is integral to maintaining local pollinator populations.

The difference between a flower that is native to somewhere like California, versus something that would grow naturally, said Edwards, is that the native plants will grow better because they've evolved and adapted to the climate, and so have the pollinators.

"A lot of times we look at beautiful ornamental flowers that make our gardens lovely, but they might not be the most nutritious for the pollinators that we have," he said.

But why are pollinators even important?

Edwards said if we don't foster biodiversity with pollinators, then if a disease goes through a specific species of plant, it will wipe them all out.

"If we foster a variety of plants and a variety of populations that will ebb and flow, then we can maintain a certain consistency," he said.

Additionally, Edwards said supporting pollinators is supporting our own food systems.

"If we look at agriculture practices in Canada, we've got everything from community gardens to giant orchards and everything in between. Different pollinators offer different services to different crops," he said. "By ensuring that there's a variety and a large population of native pollinators, then we know that the plants we rely on will have a better chance of success."

For example, the monarch butterfly will only lay its eggs on milkweed. If there's no milkweed around, we aren't helping monarch butterflies.

"These are a really important species for us," said Edwards. "Not just because they're lovely to watch, but they actually do a lot of pollinating. So we need to foster the growth of the species that were here before we tore them up and put our lawns in."

With about 6.2 million lawns in Canada, Edwards said if every Canadian took a fraction of their lawn and dedicated it to native plant species, it would "make a pretty big impact."

"We sometimes think of our lawns or our gardens as extensions of our living rooms." he said. "They're art pieces with manicured carpets, but that's really not the case. No Mow May, or planting a native garden, these are ways to feed into the natural world around us and play a supportive role in helping nature, which in turn will help us in the long run too."

COMMUNITY

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2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://communitynews.pressreader.com/article/281745567995058

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