Dakota Gardener: A bee lawn in progress

Last year, I seeded a small patch of bee lawn to see how it would work in my yard. It is an out-of-the-way area tucked behind a shed and spruce tree that I don't like to mow. I wanted to try it out before I committed to converting more areas of the backyard into a bee lawn.

A bee lawn combines flowering plants for pollinators with low maintenance turfgrass. Not just any flowering plants can be used for a bee lawn. The flowering plants have to be good sources of pollen and nectar for pollinators, and they have to be able to stand up to some foot traffic and mowing. Bee lawns will need full sun to part shade.

Common flowering plants in bee lawns for our area are Dutch white clover (Trifolium repens), creeping thyme (Thymus praecox ssp. articus) and self-heal (Prunella vulgaris ssp. lanceolata). I seeded Dutch white clover and self-heal in my lawn. There may be many common names for the plants mentioned, using the scientific name when purchasing seed will ensure that you are getting the correct plant.

Dutch white clover is considered an herbaceous perennial. During the growing season, it produces white or light pink flowers. Dutch white clover forms dense mats and produces roots at leaf nodes to help the plant spread. It is ideal for bee lawns as it will tolerate mowing and provide food for bees. A bonus is that clover is a legume and fixes nitrogen. This means the clover will add nitrogen to soil and reduce the amount of fertilizer the lawn needs.

Self-heal is native to North America, which makes it a better source of food for our native bees. Self-heal is a low-growing herbaceous perennial that produces purple flowers. It can adapt to a range of soil conditions.

Seeding can be done in the spring or early fall by either starting from scratch or over-seeding into your existing lawn. I started the area behind my shed from scratch last fall. While starting from scratch was more work and took longer, I was happy with the results. The creeping fescue turfgrass and Dutch white clover seeds germinated, grew well and survived the winter. I didn't have any luck with self-heal.

This spring I had some thin areas in my lawn, and I decided to rake off the dead grass and over-seed with Dutch white clover seed. The frequent rains helped, and I now have more Dutch white clover to feed the bees in my yard.

Where do I go from here? Well, I can sure tell you what was easier ... over-seeding. I think I will continue to over-seed Dutch white clover into thin areas of my lawn. As for the self-heal. I am going to start seeds like I would my garden plants and see if I can get better germination.

What are you doing for the bees this summer? If you are interested in learning more about bee lawns the University of Minnesota Extension has great information available at https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-news/extension-research-help-you-help-pollinators.

Happy gardening!