A lush carpeting of immature extends in all direction at calf - height , covering what used to be a irksome lawn quad with a vibrant community of blooms hold up a premium of buzzing bees , butterfly stroke and other beautiful bugs . This is abee lawn , a space where people and pollinator toy together .
The first time Iinstalled a bee lawn , I had to wonder what my grandfather would have thought . Here I removed a perfectly green , weed - spare turf and intentionally overspread seed of skunk the previous Edwin Herbert Land - owner had work diligently for decennium to keep at bay . When we think of lawn , we might picture a postcard image of a golf course mowed to a uniform tiptop . Anyone who ’s labored in the lawn understands there ’s a price to pay to keep this European aesthetic alive on American land . Exhaust fumes , chemical smells of freshly apply herbicides and ear - ringing engines need to be answer for for , along with our precious clock time . Life was n’t quite so hectic when grandpa used to spend half the weekend saddled up on the John Deere . Who has time or energy to spend maintaining the lawn any longer ?
Bee lawnsare getting a lot of bombination lately . Between their abject - maintenance appeal and the ever - develop knowingness of our want to help pollinators , people are swarming toward bee lawn transition . Just this year , the stout greensward masters of the City of Edina pass a“No - Mow May ” resolution , inviting resident physician to forego the haymow for a whole month each bound . This official policy encourages people to let white clover and other bee habitat weeds have a chance to blossom and provide nutrient for pollinators . When suburbs like Edina twist over a new foliage in the lawn care kingdom , you know the times they are a - changing .
When I first commence try out with bee lawns 15 years ago , I had a lot to learn . What plant belong in a bee lawn ? What work in the ghost or full sun ? What does mowing do to advance or discourage a passage ? When my company first started advance bee lawn , we had to make our own seed portmanteau and experiment to obtain the best plants for any give site . Now we ’ve avail over 200 properties transition to bee lawns . While we ’re still learn every day , our experience has encouraged us to expand our crusade and help as many people as potential make the transposition .
After over a decade of installing and managing bee lawns , I can insure anyone who ’s ask , this is not your grandpa ’s lawn . Bee lawns grow love for satellite and pollinator . They merchandise in the old suffocating aesthetic of success for a pleasing palette of pollinator health , watershed protection and , above all , a low - maintenance life-style .
Most days , I secretly felt like some sort of innovative Johnny - trefoil - seed , but it ’s not exclusively selfless . Helping people changeover to bee lawns is more spiritually renew than anything meditation or yoga have ever done for me . Something in me feels safe , fitter , felicitous every time another country owner decides to make the electric switch . One of my short - term goals is to start seeing lightning bugs and frog in my neighborhood again . foresighted condition , it would be amazing to see the whole neighborhood return to healthy landscape painting substance abuse . The thought of achieving these goals is enough to keep me circulate the seeds of change in the hearts and minds of my friends and neighbors .
Minnehaha Falls Landscapingowner Russ Henry has guide and performed organic transition in hundreds of family landscapes and several schools , parks , condos and office landscape . His practices are rout in healthy dirt , grow abundant and tidy landscapes without using any synthetic fertilizers , pesticides or herbicides . Russ is passionate about the Minnehaha Falls Landscaping constitutive lawn programme , utilizing training and interview from renowned dirt wellness and constituent greensward experts Dr. Elaine Ingham and Chip Osborne . To usher in the future of goodly lawn caution , Russ help the state of Minnesota launch Bee Lawns , a lawn care political program that can protect bee and save landowners thousands of dollar per year .
