More homeowners in Illinois are saying yes to No Mow May and letting lawns grow wild

In a neighborhood of neatly groomed lawns, Barbara Dolan’s stands out.

Emerald-green grasses compete for attention with knee-high dandelion puffs, while closer to the ground blue violets and yellow mock strawberry blossoms gleam like jewels. Bees buzz. Birds sing. Tiny seeds float through the air on fluffy white tails.

“Oh, look!” Dolan said, pointing at a flutter of elaborately patterned orange and black wings.

“That’s a fritillary butterfly on that dandelion.”

Dolan, 58, of Oak Park, is one of an estimated 5,000 Americans who are participating in No Mow May, a rapidly growing movement in which people let their lawns grow freely during the month of May, in the hope of feeding bees, butterflies and other beneficial pollinators.

The effect can be dramatic, with neat suburban lots growing shaggy and wild, and the jokes flowing freely along with the #lazylawn social media posts.

But the goal is serious. Scientists are increasingly concerned about studies showing key insect populations are falling due to factors such as loss of habitat, pesticide use and climate change. And the plight of these unsung heroes of the food chainhas proved difficult to publicize.

“The big issue is pollinator decline,” said Israel Del Toro, an assistant professor of biology at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, who organized the first American No Mow May in 2020.

“In the last 50 years we’ve really seen a global decline in insect biodiversity and pollinator biodiversity, and we need pollinators to survive. About a third of our crops in the U.S. are pollinator-dependent.”

A much-quoted 2017 study in the journal PLOS ONE found a 75% decrease in flying insects (by weight) in German nature preserves over 27 years, and in 2021 the National Academies of Sciences produced a special issue on insect decline, with the authors of one article writing, “Time is not on our side, and urgent action is needed on behalf of nature.”

Among the insects that have suffered declines are North American bumblebees and monarch butterflies.

Forty communities across the United States are offering officially sanctioned No Mow Mays this year, including Appleton, which has about 1,200 registered participants. Del Toro estimated that 5,000 people are participating nationwide.

The northern suburb of Northbrook suspended enforcement of its mowing ordinance and offered its first No Mow May this year, with free wildflower seed packs for participants. In Glenview, 292 residences signed up for a less ambitious No Mow ’Til Mother’s Day program offered by the village. In Westmont, 236 residences registered for No Mow ’Til Mother’s Day, up from 161 in 2021.

The Northbrook No Mow program was championed by the local group Go Green Northbrook and the Northbrook Garden Club, and the response has been good, with 70 residences signed up and many others joining in without registering, according to village Sustainability Coordinator Tessa Murray.

“We’ve seen a lot of people coming out of the woodwork, wanting to participate,” Murray said.

“We’re getting a lot of feedback that, ‘I’m seeing more rabbits, I’m seeing more bees than I’ve ever seen in my yard before’ — these exciting types of new discoveries made at the residential level. And of course, a lot of kids really love dandelions, so that’s a cool outcome.”

Not everyone is happy with No Mow May in general and those extra dandelions in particular. Northbrook received a public comment from a participant who said their neighbor mowed their lawn in the middle of the night. On Facebook, No Mowers said they were concerned about upsetting their neighbors and spreading dandelions. One woman said she had taken to deadheading dandelions to avoid seed spread, a time-consuming task.

Murray said a few people had expressed concerns about allergies, ticks, “dandelions in general” and whether the additional weeds would lead to an increase in pesticides in 2023.

There’s also pushback on Facebook, with some gardeners questioning the value of the nonnative dandelion in feeding pollinators. Del Toro said dandelions aren’t the perfect source of nutrition but they bloom at a critical time, producing pollen and nectar that allow pollinators to get off to a good start.

Then, when other, better flowers come into bloom, pollinators move on, he said.

“Why have a cheeseburger when you can have a filet mignon?” Del Toro said. “Dandelions are cheap corner-store hamburgers that are just to get them started.”

Among those who are trying the No Mow approach in the Chicago area is Migdalia Jimenez of Humboldt Park. A librarian who enjoys popular science books, Jimenez, 41, said she had become concerned about the decline of insect pollinators through her reading.

“I thought to myself, let’s see what I can do,” she said.

Last year, she planted milkweed and experimented with unmown grass. This year, she is doing No Mow May and plans to continue to let her grass grow throughout the summer.

Katy Schafer, 38, of Chicago’s Kilbourn Park neighborhood, said she was drawn to No Mow May for multiple reasons.

“It’s supposed to be helpful for the environment and for local pollinators, and I’m a pretty big gardener, so anything I can do to attract more insects to my garden is always a good thing,” she said.

Among the benefits: She said she recently counted 29 black swallowtail caterpillar eggs on dill that self-seeded in her unmown yard.

In a small study co-authored by Del Toro and published in the journal PeerJ, researchers found there were five times more bees on 20 No Mow May yards than there were in adjacent frequently mowed green spaces.

“There are (insects) out there that live their entire life spans in an area the size of a football field,” said Del Toro. “So when you think, is my little pasture of a lawn making a difference? Well, yeah. Of course it is.”

No Mow leaders hope the event will lead to larger efforts to increase pollinator habitat and reduce threats such as pesticides and climate change. For those who want to expand their DIY pollinator conservation efforts, Murray suggests growing native flowers, leaving leaves in your garden so insects such as dragonflies can overwinter there, and letting native plants stand after they bloom so animals can eat the seeds and insects can nest in the stems.

Dolan said she heard about No Mow May on Facebook, but she was already planting natives such as milkweed, Joe-Pye weed and golden Alexanders; feeding birds with her serviceberry shrub; and growing dill for swallowtail butterflies. When plants sprouted around a tree on the parkway in front of her house a few years ago, she let them grow, and when the village requested that she cut them down, she negotiated a truce.

“I’m sort of the Joan of Arc for ‘don’t call it a weed,’” Dolan said. “A weed is just a word, and we can live in harmony with what we consider to be weeds, once we pay attention to what the weed’s purpose is.”

During a sunny hour in her unmown backyard, bees fed on pale purple creeping Charlie blossoms, and black and orange butterflies fluttered above tall grasses. Two big white cabbage moths locked together in midair and then flew as one. Sparrows gathered at the bird feeder and a banana-yellow goldfinch perched on the apple tree.

It’s nice to just observe what grows naturally in spring, Dolan reflected. Still, she said, there are downsides to No Mow May, even for her. Her little dog, Ripley, gets soaking wet when he goes outside after a rain. The grass has grown so high she fears it may look yellow and raw when she cuts it.

Her backyard gardening plans are on hold, too, held hostage by bees and butterflies.

“I will be psyched for June 1,” she said with a chuckle.

nschoenberg@chicagotribune.com