April has brought warmer temperatures and some rain to Madison. Trees are producing their very first new leaves of 2022, spring birds are beginning to tweet their spring songs and crocuses are sprouting in yards. People are starting to think about gardening.   

Gardening can be a relaxing endeavor and provides beauty and healthy food options close to home. But keeping gardens blooming and fruitful is not effective without hardworking but neglected helpers – bees.  

Pollination is necessary for plants to reproduce. Most plants that humans grow for their fruits, nuts, seeds, fiber and hay require pollination. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 35 percent of food crops in the world depend on pollinators. Pollinators are also important for ecosystems, as most flowering plants need them.   

Bees are the main insect pollinators because they spend most of their time collecting pollen. Many food crops depend on bees, including broccoli, apples and almonds.   

Bees collect pollen to feed their offspring. When they visit a flower, pollen sacs stick to hairs on their feet. Then when they visit another flower, the pollen sacs fall off their feet and onto the flower.   

Natasha Kassulke, a part-time faculty member who teaches journalism and English courses at Madison College, is allergic to bees and carries an EpiPen in case she is stung. But she wants to protect bees.   

“Bees are essential as pollinators for flowers and agricultural products,” Kassulke said. “They need our help. Their populations have been decimated in recent years by the use of chemical treatments and disturbance of green spaces where they nest.”   

Bee populations are declining. According to preliminary results from a nationwide survey from the non-profit organization Bee Informed Partnership, honeybee colonies managed by beekeepers across the United States declined by 45.45 percent between April 2020 and April 2021.    

Kassulke is a fan of the trend called “No Mow May.” The No Mow May campaign was started by Plantlife, an organization based in the United Kingdom. The idea is to let lawns grow without mowing them for the month of May to provide habitats and food for early pollinators, especially in urban areas where there are few flowers. Plantlife also encourages people to reduce the use of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers on their lawns and gardens.  

The lawns of No Mow May participants have been shown to have many more bees than ordinary lawns. The larger the unmown lawn, the more bees there are.   

In addition to the benefits for food production and ecosystems, No Mow May also has benefits for property owners. By not mowing their lawns they can save money, gas and time; plus, their lawns become naturally beautiful.  

One challenge to No Mow May is that city ordinances often require property owners to keep their lawns short. Neighbors may complain if lawns are not mowed. No Mow May participants can put signs up on their lawns to let their neighbors know they are protecting bees’ habitats. 

No Mow May has spread to the United States, including to Wisconsin. Kassulke, who is an avid gardener and former editor of Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine, plants bee friendly vegetation. She was told of No Mow May by her friend, Frankie Fuller, a Madison College student and member of Heart of the City in Fort Atkinson. 

Fort Atkinson’s Heart of the City (HOC) promoted No Mow May in 2021 and is now promoting it again in 2022. They are encouraging people to wait to mow their lawns or not to mow them at all and to plant native flowers, shrubs and trees to provide food for pollinators. HOC will provide seeds of native flowering plants to feed pollinators for property owners to plant on Saturday, April 23 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Dwight Foster Public Library in Fort Atkinson.  

To support No Mow May, the Fort Atkinson City Council will suspend the eight-inch limit on backyard lawns.  

“With spring here, my new approach is to ‘bee friendly’ in any way I can,” Kassulke says. “It might take some education to convince my neighbors that not cutting my lawn for the first few months of spring is important — but once I start talking about why No Mow May, they are often convinced that it’s a great idea. We need to re-envision our lawns. The bees need us, just as we need them.”