No Mow May: Give Up Your Lawnmower & Give Bees A Chance

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Put your lawnmower aside for the month of May to help save our bees and the planet.

The City of Saratoga Springs is joining with Sustainable Saratoga to launch No Mow May, a national movement to help highly at-risk Pollinators transition from barren winter to blooming spring.

Action Plan:  Take No Action!

During the critical month of May, the city of Saratoga Springs will encourage all to keep your mowers at rest and let lawns go natural in May. This critical transition month allows the Bees, Moths, Butterflies, and all other Pollinators to safely exit their winter ground homes and find nectar nourishment available during May…nectar from beautiful Clover (great nitrogen source for spring lawns), cheerful Dandelions, native lovely violets and the few other Wildflowers that bloom and go to seed in May prior to mowing.

Appleton, Wisconsin was the first U.S. community to adopt No Mow May, in 2020. It proved exceptionally successful in supporting pollinators: No Mow May lawns had 5x as many bees and 3x as many bee species as lawns that were mown, according to scientists in Wisconsin.

Sustainable Saratoga has NO MOW MAY Bee Lawn Signs announcing you’ve signed up to help “Save The Bees.”  Get a sign by emailing pollinators@sustainablesaratoga.org. The organization requests a $10 donation to Sustainable Saratoga to cover the cost of the sign. The signs can be re-used each May for at least 10 years.