Folks who know me know I am not particularly fond of turfgrass (think bermudagrass, centipede, etc.). I have a high level of respect for property and golf course managers that keep the turf maintained and functional for recreation, and I am happy to provide research-based information to help any homeowner to help them reach their turfgrass goals.

As with most things though, turfgrass is a management choice you have to make and work towards, and in my own garden it is not where we dedicate our management energy. We seek for our yard to provide wildlife habitat and increase local biodiversity. One of the reasons for this is there is so much life out there and if you leave your grassy areas a little long in the tooth it makes more space for more plants and animals to live. The rewards can be serendipitous and fleeting, so I wanted to share some of these dividends from my own in my garden.

May is Maybe Not the Best Time for “No-Mow” in NC

The “No-Mow May” campaign originated in the United Kingdom a few years ago and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation brought it to the United States in 2018. The idea is that “mowing less creates habitat and can increase the abundance and diversity of wildlife including bees and other pollinators” (Xerces Society) and there is research to support this claim. There is less disturbance to the insects as they emerge; there are more flowers present because they haven’t been mowed down; and there are more places for insects to perch and hide.

The campaign has since taken off in the US, and every year it spurs a hot debate about the benefits of dandelions and the potential futility of the effort itself. In 2023, Grady Miller, a turfgrass specialist/guru at NC State University, made the case that is probably should be “No-Mow March” or “Low-Mow Spring” in NC, rather than in May, because of the timing of our seasonal transition, insect emergence and the cycle of flowering plants during the spring transition to summer.

Some Mowing Best Practices for Turfgrass Maintenance

“No-Mow May” is not going to work for folks who choose to have specific managed turfgrass areas. Our favorite turfgrasses need specific management, otherwise their performance will be negatively impacted. Mowing is not simply firing up the lawnmower on Saturday morning. You need to know what you are doing to get the perfect lawn.

First of all, if you are maintaining turfgrass, you need to make sure that you are mowing at the appropriate height for your chosen turfgrass. For example, tall fescue gets its name for many reasons, but one of the main ones is that if you cut it too short it will struggle; while bermudagrass can tolerate a closer cut and not suffer. Different turf types need different heights at different times of year as well, so make sure you are keeping an eye on NCSU TurfFiles to know where you need to set your deck height to!

On the flip side, you should not let your turf get so long that when you do mow that you are removing more than one third of the height of the turf. If you remove too much at one time you can also stress out the turf and potentially get a poor cut that can lead to future fungal infections.

Lawn mower maintenance, or lack thereof, can also lead to poor performance when you are growing specific turf types. You need to calibrate your mower’s deck height occasionally (some say before every mow!), because the heights printed on your mower may not be accurate after a few passes over uneven or bumpy ground.

You also need to make sure that you sharpen your mower blades, because dull blades can lead to jagged cuts which can lead to fungal infections if the turf is unhealthy and a fungal pathogen is present.

Finally, it is critical to blow off debris from your mower if you are moving from a weedier, wilder area back into your managed turf. That debris can hold weed seeds that you can infect your managed area with. This also applies when you are hiring a service! They shouldn’t be bringing weeds from someone else’s garden into your turf.

Ladies’ Tresses Orchids Have Multiplied

The zero-turn mower at our house was not working during the month of May (let’s just say a copperhead had a bad day!), so we involuntarily participated in No-Mow May. Only as we were fixing the mower for June did I notice a few unusual, white exclamations in the turf. Patience and misfortune have allowed the local population of ladies’ tresses orchids, in the genus Spiranthes, in our yard to have a boom! We have had a couple of Spiranthes flower spikes pop up in May in the past, but this year is really something. More than 15 stems so far!

Ladies’ tresses orchids are a diverse group of about 30-40 species of terrestrial orchids native to the Southeast. Most of them are uncommon or rare in the Southeast and a couple are endangered. Identifying them to species can be challenging and requires a microscope to look at some of the flower characteristics.

I am not sure if this year’s population boom is because of reduced mowing over the last few years and the preservation of flowering stems to allow for seed dispersal; or if, even with the reduced mowing, we were still knocking down flowers and this year’s lack of mowing has allowed more to come up.

The emerging flower stalks, or inflorescences, blend in with the grasses and seedheads well, so you really have to be looking for them. I have marked the flowerheads with flags to signal where they are and hopefully help justify to our neighbors what we are up to! Thankfully I found them before we took them out with our newly-fixed mower!

Lightning Bugs By the Dozens

Our lightning bug population in the yard has also been very active this year! We had an emergence event in mid-April and then another emergence in the last week. There are about 30-40 species of lightning bugs or fireflies native to North Carolina. These insects are neither bug nor fly though; they are beetles! Identification can be tricky, so if you have them in your yard consider gently catching one and snapping some photos for iNaturalist to help entomologists who are still working to understand this elusive group of insects.

Our yard, because of the reduced management, has become the ideal habitat for lightning bugs. The grass has been longer, and we’ve had more rain and consistent moisture this year than in past springs. There is an area on the edge of our woods that stays moist, but doesn’t necessarily have standing water. We have large areas that don’t get disturbed, walked or driven on, so the larvae and females that can’t move don’t get crushed. I leave fallen sticks and logs in small piles on the edges of our flower beds. All of these favorable conditions and practices contribute to a beautiful lightning bug show.

Maintenance Choices for Turf and the Local Ecosystems

It is important for you as a land manager, no matter how large or small the piece of land, to: make a conscious decision about what you want out of your land; set goals for what you want; understand the benefits and consequences of those goals; and then utilize maintenance practices that enhance those goals.

Maintaining turfgrass is a conscious choice you have to make for your yard, and it is an okay choice! We are here to support your turfgrass goals if that is what you would like on your property. Turf can be very satisfying to look at and be important to keep for entertaining and recreation! On the flip side, there are some maintenance choices and challenges with turfgrass that can sometimes put your turf at odds with supporting local ecosystems, or are not the best to support native plants and animals. As with all things, it is a cost-benefit analysis and making conscious decisions, and then utilizing research-based information! We are here to support your horticulture goals here at N.C. Cooperative Extension.

Amanda Bratcher is the Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension in Lee County.