The Spring lawns bless me with a breathtaking display - masses of violets and violas. In late May this will be a blanket of white clover. The bees and early butterflies gorge on nectar and pollen, a victory for both of us.
Every year I mount a watchful defense against overspray by golf course owners and certain neighbors who religiously treat their property with chemicals, their goals of green (and sterile) grass lawns.
There's just no comparison between a living, beneficial lawn and the artificial turf others aspire to. What's in your yard?
(Use links on top of sidebar to view my other garden pages.)
Beautiful shots and echo what you said. Leave the chemicals alone and enjoy the clover!
ReplyDeleteI love your lawn! I remember making chains with the clover blooms in our yard. My husband has recently agreed to start using Milorganite for fertilizer again. He had hired a lawn service for a few years, and I had to keep reminding I didn't want the stuff they put on the grass to get into my flower beds.
ReplyDeleteI am very excited about the next batch of lawn that is going to become a flower bed. I love the rain, but am ready for it to get dry enough to get the tree stump ground out. I have some cool ideas that I keep telling Larry he'll like.
Kris, that is my kind of lawn! I have sweeps of several colors of violets and I love them. I didn't mow them this year and next year they should really be wonderful. I have a new reddish one to plant this week from Iowa.
ReplyDeleteI have some clover too; but not as much.
ONG - ironically my lawn is greener and more robust (if patchy) due to all the nitrogen the clover produces. And leaves a lot of 'green' in my wallet too! ;-D
ReplyDeleteSue - you are so ambitious with your new beds. I'll bet you are enjoying the design and planning and really looking forward to getting some planting done soon. Just wish this weather would settle down for both of us. Have fun!
Glenda - as far as I'm concerned, a lawn is just to keep the dirt from blowing/washing away. LOL I know that some neighbors see these swathes of glorious color and shudder as if at an indecency. At my last house one neighbor even offered to PAY to have my lawn sprayed for 'weeds'. Talk about different strokes!
Your lawn looks great! Now I'm wondering if, this morning, it's littered with fallen trees and perhaps cows or golf carts that were blown into it overnight!?
ReplyDeleteJeph - lots of small branches, a real pain to gather up.
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
ReplyDeleteToday I found your blog with the great Bee Lawn post.
We're building a new Bee & Pollinator Discovery Center at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Its Garden for Pollinators demonstration area outside will include a Bee Lawn. I'm doing an interpretive sign for it. Your second image of your lawn would be a wonderful fit for the text, that promotes thinking both spring & summer bloom when adding flowers into low mow turf. Would you be willing to let us reproduce it, as a educational non-profit institution?If so, we'd need a resolution of 300 dpi at 8X10 size. Thanks so much for considering this request! Sandy (a fellow Ohioan, born in Columbus, transplanted to MN many years ago)
Leave me an email for me to contact you, Sandy. I found the original pics.
DeleteKris,
ReplyDeleteSorry for the long delay! Oops, I just found this message, as I was going to contact you and ask again. My email is tanck001@umn.edu. Wonderful News you found the original. I'm esp interested in the distance shot of the blooming Bee Lawn. Thank you so much. Sandy