57. LET THE LAWN GO AND THE FLOWERS COME BACK

An estimated 80 percent of American households have a turfgrass lawn—that’s a lot of fertilizer, fungicide, and afternoons spent mowing grass. And it eats up a lot of water. Why not let your lawn go natural? It would help the environment and free up some time for you to do other things in the garden. So let the lawn go and let the flowers come back!

Want more encouragement? The chemicals that you apply to the lawn reduce the populations of microbes, earthworms, and fungi that maintain fertility and the health of the soil. Rain washes the lawn pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers into local streams, polluting our waterways and harming the amphibians that live there. This sad situation must be changed.

A more diverse natural landscape will bring songbirds, pollinators, and wildflowers into your yard. A good way to encourage wildflowers in your garden is to leave a part of the lawn to its own devices during spring and summer, with a few mowings. Add some wildflower seeds. The lawn will become a diverse palette of flowering plants that support bees and other wildlife. You may find dandelions, violets, white clover, creeping Charlie (ground ivy), speedwell, and buttercups showing up. These low-growing vigorous “weed” plants will endure shade, some mowing, and light foot traffic. And they will be visited by pollinators! White clover, for example, is a lawn “weed” that is a summertime flower especially loved by honeybees. Clover has edible leaves and flowers and is also a nitrogen fixer. It assimilates nitrogen from the atmosphere.

To go natural, start by mowing your lawn less frequently. Allow the dandelions to bloom. Do not apply chemical fertilizer. And do not apply pesticides—many invertebrates control pests, pollinate flowering plants, and provide food for other wildlife. Scatter a wildflower and grass seed mix that is blended for your region. This will introduce wildflowers to your natural lawn. An online resource for this is the Xerces Society (www.xerces.org), a nonprofit organization. They sell a variety of pollinator conservation seed mixes.

Clover, dandelions, and violets have all taken root in this natural lawn. The flowers appear in early spring. Wild violets (Viola spp.) can become quite aggressive in the lawn and are hard to eradicate. But the yellow, purple, or white violet flowers feed early and efficient pollinators, such as the native blue orchard bee. Hardy in zones 4–9.

A solid white fence and gate create a beautiful backdrop for black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, and ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum. The climbing morning glory vine by the gate adds to the lushness of the scene. You may choose to paint the fence a dark color such as a deep black-green if you want to add some drama to the garden.

Red daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.) with their bright red trumpets and contrasting lemon-yellow throat bloom in midsummer in front of a dark-leaved background of a ‘Royal Purple’ smokebush. Varieties of smokebush have deep burgundy to purplish leaves. Daylilies grow from thick, tuberous roots that are easily divided.

Large, yellow Mexican marigolds (Tagetes erecta) stand out against a dark green, ivy-covered wall. This is an excellent choice for summer-long color in a sunny location.