Is this your yard? No shame! Many people inherit landscapes like this when they move in and haven’t found the time to make a change. Check out the sidebar for resources on how to get started on a more pollinator-friendly landscape!
You don’t have to remove the whole lawn at once if it seems overwhelming. Even a small insect-friendly garden area or changes in how you manage the lawn can make a big difference.
We literally didnt even need to do anything. We just mowed the lawn every couple of weeks and left some areas to grow as they please and now we have an assortment of the strangest plants ive ever seen. No idea what any of it is but theres an insane number of bees wasps and other bugs in the bushes in the summer now. The only downside is im scared to walk past a particular bush in fear that i mighr get stun so i might need to remove that one bush :D
It’s not perfect, but I spread a lot of regionally appropriate clover all over my existing lawn. By getting a variety of colors it means I get pretty flowers, it doesn’t grow tall which keeps the neighbors from being too unhappy and I regularly have a decent number of polinators just doing their thing.
It hasn’t killed the grass, but it is doing a good job stunting it.
I’m still occasionally required to mow by code, but when I do it doesn’t eliminate the flowers and just lops off the top few inches of grass and clover.
Is this your yard? No shame! Many people inherit landscapes like this when they move in and haven’t found the time to make a change. Check out the sidebar for resources on how to get started on a more pollinator-friendly landscape!
You don’t have to remove the whole lawn at once if it seems overwhelming. Even a small insect-friendly garden area or changes in how you manage the lawn can make a big difference.
This Xerces Society article also has some basic and easy steps: https://xerces.org/blog/bee-friendlier-with-your-lawncare
That’s what I’m here for. Thanks!
I appreciate the regular advice here, and that is what I’m starting with.
We literally didnt even need to do anything. We just mowed the lawn every couple of weeks and left some areas to grow as they please and now we have an assortment of the strangest plants ive ever seen. No idea what any of it is but theres an insane number of bees wasps and other bugs in the bushes in the summer now. The only downside is im scared to walk past a particular bush in fear that i mighr get stun so i might need to remove that one bush :D
That’s my approach. Let things grow for a few weeks after the last freeze, then mow regularly. Now my yard is basically all native plants
It’s not perfect, but I spread a lot of regionally appropriate clover all over my existing lawn. By getting a variety of colors it means I get pretty flowers, it doesn’t grow tall which keeps the neighbors from being too unhappy and I regularly have a decent number of polinators just doing their thing.
It hasn’t killed the grass, but it is doing a good job stunting it.
I’m still occasionally required to mow by code, but when I do it doesn’t eliminate the flowers and just lops off the top few inches of grass and clover.
Same! Clover is great ground cover.
Its not, I found the picture somewhere else.
Haha I meant to direct more at the general audience, as in does your yard look like this?
Ohh, right. also, the resources are really useful btw.
I figured it out from context, but you could add "Readers, " to the beginning of the comment to make it clearer.