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I heard an interview where the scientist said that we need to stop mowing our lawns. This will help the butterfly and bee population to thrive. We need to chang
by hi41 8y ago
I heard an interview where the scientist said that we need to stop mowing our lawns. This will help the butterfly and bee population to thrive. We need to change our township laws so that we can do that. That is a tough challenge but something we can achieve if we work together.
- cwkoss 8y agoI don't think grasses, even tall ones, are particularly useful for butterflies and bees. I think you may find it more effective to create some some mulched areas for growing wildflowers and perennials like milkweed. Mowed lawns are silly and ecologically destructive for several reasons, but I think re:insects its more about habitat loss than any properties of the lawn itself.
- ip26 8y agoWildflowers and perennials and so forth are by far the best- but my small lawn, ringed by native xeriscape, is significantly more "alive" with grasshoppers, insects, and spiders when it's long than when I mow it. Sample size of one.
- cwkoss 8y agoSounds nice! Yeah, I probably should have said pollenating insects don't get so much benefit from long grass. I've also heard that 'edges' of ecosystems tend to be the most productive (as it gets the interaction between two ecologies). Your xeriscape is probably making your grass ecosystem healthier too.
- hi41 8y agoIt was noted in the interview that tall grass and wild flowers that grow with it help the bees.
- mac01021 8y agoAn unmown, unmanicured lawn, will have a much larger variety of weeds, plants, flowers, etc. I bet that, after some time, the density of ecologicially-good stuff that sprouts up will be much greater than what you'd get in a manually maintained mulch patch.