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Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

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Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#121

Post by dimitrios1 »

tiahura wrote: post #103
candiddevmike wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a waste of time, energy, and resources to maintain something so unnatural. Truly a testament to man's hubris against nature.

Do you feel the same way about body odor?

Or people who live in extreme climates and rely on HVAC systems to pump air conditioned / heated air in their homes and environments the majority of the time?

The reality is the majority of our modern world and lives can be seen as a waste of energy, resources, and, "hubris against nature" and it seems like there is some subjective line for each person that delineates what is too far.

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#122

Post by worik »

sokoloff wrote: post #14

Regardless of whether I mowed 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 times per week, my lawn already has no “lawn flowers”, aka weeds. We keep some milkweed along one fence and have a bed of local wildflowers along the roadway and a vegetable garden for the bees, but this article is about increasing lawn flowers/weeds rather than directly about mowing frequency.

Perhaps you should introduce some?

Flowering lawn weeds are such a wonderful addition to a lawn.

The bees will be pleased, but you may need to get a hive nonce you have flowers established. From the complaints here about local by-laws you may need to have a stealth hive.

Worth the effort.

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#123

Post by worik »

giantg2 wrote: post #85

"Mowing less frequently [than 3 weeks] is practical," Not in all areas. Some grasses grow much more quickly, especially in warmer areas. Many areas require a lower mow to inhibit mosquito reproduction. Every 2 weeks tends to work well for my lawn.

Mosquitos?

They require stagnant water. Do people in power worry that rubbish in the lawn will harbour water?

(I do not have mosquitos where I live)

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#124

Post by silisili »

maguirre wrote: post #54
candiddevmike wrote: post #24

Also stop using herbicide and plant some clover. My neighbors hate me but I (and the bees, bunnies, and other critters) love my almost white lawn in July. It smells great, and the clover keeps the grass healthy.

Do you have a picture of what it looks like in full display? I have been thinking of trying clover on mine.

Not OP, but here was my yard a few years ago. I never planted any, it just spread itself I guess. Very beautiful and attracted bumble bees and rabbits. Apologies for the quality, cheap Android cam 4 years ago, zoomed in at that.

https://ibb.co/nsB7fFT

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#125

Post by thenerdhead »

aimor wrote: post #19

Would someone with access say how short they were mowing?

> Lawns were mowed from May through September in 2013 and 2014, using a Toro 19″ self-mulching push mower, (mowing height set at 6.35 cm). Grass clippings remained on the lawn. We assigned each yard to a mowing frequency regime: mowed every seven days (oneweek; n = 8 yards), 12–14 days (two-weeks; n = 7 yards), or 18–21 days (three-weeks; n = 8 yards) to represent the range of typical mowing behaviors (one to two weeks) to a more extreme frequency (three weeks; Robbins, 2007). Seven yards participated in both years of the study and thus these repeat yards were assigned a different mowing regime for the second year of the study. To ensure households adhered to the experimental restrictions (e.g., frequency and height of mowing), we provided a free lawn mowing service and mowed all participating lawns for the duration of the study

> Summarized bee abundance and richness in relation to lawn mowing treatments were as follows: weekly mowing = 1425 bees representing 72 species, mowed every two weeks = 1903 bees representing 60 species, and mowed every three weeks = 1259 bees representing 62 species (Fig. 2, Appendix A1). Our rarefaction analysis reflected these overall abundance and richness values, showing lower bee richness in the two-week treatment

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#129

Post by jws »

swayvil wrote: post #115
odonnellryan wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What clover? Would love to do this even though clover is really expensive. I planted some last year but it only half kinda took.

Where I am, having a lot of clover in your lawn is considered to be a sign that the soil is short some nutrient. Nitrogen or potassium or something. My lawn is about 1/3 clover. Just grows wild. The dirt here is mostly clay, if that significates.

Nitrogen. Clover can fix its own nitrogen so the game gets tilted in its favor when other plants are struggling for nitrogen.

Re: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity (2018)

#130

Post by thenerdhead »

kingkawn wrote: post #33

Not mowing at all works even better

https://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/pubs/jrnl/2018/nrs_2018_Lerman_001... may suggest that is not the case.

> Bee abundance differed among mowing treatments (p = 0.002), such that lawns mowed every two weeks had significantly more bees compared with the weekly and every three-week treatment (Fig. 4c, Tables 1, 2).

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