A new trend has been spreading around Norway, nurtured this spring by unusually warm temperatures. It’s become fashionable to let lawns grow, and especially all the dandelions, clover and weeds that quickly pop up.
No fine edging on this lawn in Oslo’s Vika neighbourhood downtown. It’s one of many that’s been allowed to grow without any mowing, at least for now. PHOTO: NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
It amounts to a form of what newspaper Aftenposten called “sensible laziness” in a recent editorial. Norway’s biggest and rather conservative newspaper took a recent break from chiding politicians or pontificating about other pressing matters of public interest. It was time to explain why, all over the national capital and not least around many public buildings, lawns aren’t being tended this spring.
“Bumblebees and butterflies need flowers to land on, not closely-clipped lawns,” Aftenposten editorialized. The newspaper went on to tell its readers: “Don’t cut your grass in May.”
It was following up on recent pleas from the environmental organization WWF and other groups that think bees should be allowed to buzz and especially pollinate in peace. Spring is a growing season, and in Norway there’s a natural abundance of wildflowers that seem to appear earlier and earlier. “They must be allowed to spring out,” urged Aftenposten, free of robot lawnmowers that have become so popular in an affluent country like Norway.
State meteorologists have also reported unusually high temperatures in Southern Norway this year which they believe are tied to climate change. March temperatures were more than 2 degrees higher that normal, they report, while April was as much as 2-4 degrees warmer.
Trees have also blossomed much earlier than normal, by as much as three weeks for for the cherry trees. Apple growers in Hardanger are expecting an early harvest, but also fearing frost at night. Among flowers, the rhododendrons that usually don’t bloom until early June have already sprung out around Oslo. Lilac is starting to bloom, too.
But it’s the lawns that can provide perhaps the best source of revival for important natural habitats and their insects, and not just bees. That’s why no one should feel they’re neglecting their gardens, but rather preserving them in the long run. “It will contribute towards important ecological consciousness,” editorialized Aftenposten, “if hundreds of thousands of garden owners show some responsibility and care for pollinating insects on their own property.” Instead of feeling guilty about an unmowed lawn, simply pull out a garden chair, sit in the sun and listen to the buzzing for the next several weeks. Mowing can wait until well into June.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund