evtubbergh
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Posts: 532
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:52 am
Location: South Africa

Bee lawn with yarrow, thyme, clover, etc.

I am starting a lawn of yarrow, clover and ground covers. We have a patch of space that we wanted to put a lawn on but I realised that it really does not need to be grass.

Has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing?

I will also put crimson clover in my new terraced playground. And I may put clover in the existing lawn too.

I am terribly excited so I may have overdone my list but I will go slow in buying and planting. I have self-heal, falkia (for the path), speedwell, heal all, chamomile, English daisy, African violet, mother of thyme, golden alyssum for the edges.

These are the resources I used.

https://www.smgrowers.com/gardens/yarrow.asp
https://protimelawnseed.com/products/fleur-de-lawn
https://blog-yard-garden-news.extension. ... en-in.html
https://www.arboretum.umn.edu/UserFiles/ ... ite%20.pdf
https://www.slideshare.net/OSUExtBenton ... are-9-2310

thanrose
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Posts: 716
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:01 am
Location: Jacksonville, FLZone 9A

Haven't done this, but will be interested to hear how yours works out.

I currently have what folks in my area would call a cracker lawn. Crackers were the original Florida cowboys, named so for the crack of their whips. Anyhow, those old timers wouldn't have bothered with a lawn, but just let whatever grew do so. No watering or weeding or seeding or fertilizing or raking. Just my style of lawn. I'm thinking of plugging perennial peanut when I move this summer. Well, as long as there is no neighborhood association demanding conformity. It's too hot here for yarrow and clover.

It also would be relatively easy for me to introduce native species of meadow plants.

Do you have a gardening council in your municipal area to advise? How about a native plant society? Generally, at least in the US, the native plants people are all about eliminating lawns, and love to say what will and won't do well.

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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

All of those sound great, except I was wondering about the yarrow. It is a tall growing plant and I would think wouldn't survive mowing. But you could use perennial chamomile instead; it is ground cover-y growing.

There are people who sell flowering lawn seed mixes: https://www.americanmeadows.com/wildflow ... r-seed-mix https://protimelawnseed.com/collections ... tive-lawns etc

Of course if you want it to feed the bees, you will have to let it grow tall enough that the little flowers will bloom.

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pinksand
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Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:13 am
Location: Columbia, MD

RBG - Many of the Protime Lawn Seed mixes actually come with yarrow! It's a very soft dainty low growing white yarrow, not the tall yellow yarrow... though mine rarely gets a chance to bloom, the texture of the leaves is really nice.

Here are the seeds included in the Fleur De Lawn mix:
Banfield Perennial Ryegrass - Lolium perenne 'Banfield'
Eureka II Hard Fescue - Festuca trachyphylla 'Eureka II'
Quatro Tetraploid Sheep Fescue - Festuca ovina 'Quatro'
White Yarrow - Achillea millefolium
Microclover - Trifolium repens var Pipolina ssp Microclover
Baby Blue Eyes - Nemophila menziesii (annual)
Sweet Alyssum - Lobularia maritima (annual)
Strawberry Clover - Trifolium fragiferum
English Daisy - Bellis perennis

I've purchased the Fleur De Lawn mix as well as one of the others... can't remember which, but both included the yarrow. I used these to overseed sections of lawn destroyed by a construction project. Honestly, after the first year all I notice being left is the microclover and yarrow, with a bit of fescue. The sections where these have done well are my favorite spots to walk with bare feet because the clover and yarrow are so soft and tender underfoot. I honestly wish I could entirely start over and just plant these mixes, but it would be terribly expensive and a nightmare of a project since we have so much lawn space at this point (though it's slowly being replaced with garden).

That said, I have no idea how well these will do in South Africa, but I've personally been really happy with them so I say go for it!



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