If you mow less often, you might just save more
If you are reluctant to pull the mower out of the shed, consider other options for managing your open, grassy areas.
Have you ever thought about the time and money spent managing your lawn or idle fields? From May to October, almost any land or home owner is tasked with mowing. Some may go a step farther to apply fertilizers and pesticides, irrigate, aerate or hire a company to keep the lawn looking uniform.
At my house we don’t do much to control weeds or pests, but we do spend two to three hours every weekend pushing the mower over our half-acre. That amounts to around 40 hours over the growing season — an entire work week of labor, just for mowing.
By the end of the season, I’m reluctant to tackle this chore. As I follow the mower back and forth across the yard, I think about how my time could be better used. I could visit with my grandparents, read a book or harvest the ripe tomatoes hanging in the garden.
The mower drones on, and my mind moves from time to the financial costs of this activity. We could have paid for a weekend getaway instead of attempting to make repairs on our old hand-me-down mower and buying a new one when the repairs didn’t work. Hopefully, the new mower will last, but I add fuel and maintenance costs to my mental accounting.
After cost comes a consideration of what fescue and Kentucky bluegrass contribute to my true passion: wildlife and their habitats. Aside from the occasional American robin picking a worm out of the grass, the lawn doesn’t attract many of the animals I like to see. What a waste.
If you are like me and are reluctant to pull the mower out of the shed, consider other options for managing your open, grassy areas. One possibility is to simply limit the number of times you mow each year. When done right, this strategy not only reduces fuel and labor costs, but also creates habitat for a handful of wildlife species.
Some Ohio songbirds will raise their young in tall grass between March 1 and July 15. Leaving fields undisturbed during this time frame allows birds to create nests and gives fledglings a safe place to run around. In June and July, deer may leave fawns in the tall grass, and lightning bugs will make an appearance.
If, in addition to freeing up time and money, the thought of wildlife visiting your property sounds interesting, you might consider converting mown areas to native habitat. Fields made up of native plants only need to be mowed once every three to five years, and they provide benefits well beyond just providing protection from the mower.
Native grasses grow in clumps, as opposed to lawn grasses, which creep along the ground. The bare soil left between the clumps allows critters to move around, nest and find food while they are sheltered from the grass leaves and stems overhead. Native wildflowers provide food for wildlife that is nearly absent in a typical lawn or old pasture. Nectar, pollen, leaves and seed from wildflowers attract bees, butterflies, deer, rabbits, birds and many specialist wildlife species that are picky about where they live and raise their young.
Creating high-quality wildlife habitat does take time, money and effort. However, a paper titled “Financial Analysis of Converting Rural Lawns to Pollinator Habitat” found an estimated $1,400 average annual reduction between the least-expensive method of maintaining 1 acre of lawn and the most expensive method of creating 1 acre of wildlife habitat. Though the start-up cost may be considered expensive, the average cost and time to create habitat spread over 10 years requires less from the landowner compared to caring for lawn.
Lastly, consider the beauty and entertainment provided by native wildlife habitats. Once the fields are established, you will enjoy the beauty of the native grasses as they shift from vibrant blue-green when growing in the summer to rich gold and red in the autumn sunlight. Native flowers turn the fields yellow, orange, pink, white and purple in turns across the seasons. Monarch butterflies, deer, turkeys, box turtles, rabbits and rare grassland-nesting songbirds will pass by to check out what the habitat has to offer, giving you and your neighbors a chance to enjoy wildlife most people travel to parks to see. Surely, time spent watching the beautiful world go by beats mowing every weekend.
Abby-Gayle Prieur is a Pheasant Forever Farm Bill biologist who works with private landowners to establish habitat for pollinators and other wildlife in Eastern Ohio. She can be reached at 330-577-3804 or aprieur@pheasantsforever.org.