Our featured verge garden in Cardiff Heights, is a wonderful example of low maintenance by design. The garden provides habitat and visual variety in place of the monoculture lawn. The photos taken from two angles illustrate how the garden can provide almost complete privacy to the house.
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Convert a grass lawn into a native habitat ‘lawn’
“By sowing flower meadows, we quickly create colorful habitats that are eagerly visited by city inhabitants.”
WHO SAID THE LAWN has to be an area of mown grass? Just as art is in the eye of the beholder, so it needs to be that the front verge lawn can be other than a strip of single species grass. It can be in the form of a biodiverse selection of native species of various sizes, shapes and colours – and that’s totally acceptable.
If it’s our intention to be different, by building what we think is a unique house, then what’s the issue with planting out a front verge garden with plants other than grass that requires constant attention by way of regular mowing?
The science has been confirming this for some time now, but it’s always helpful to have another study confirm what we already know. In this report by Cassidy Lovell: Study uncovers surprising fact about wildflowers in urban areas: ‘No difference … between the meadow types’, The Cool Down, December 28, 2024, Cassidy writes that …
A recent study from researchers at the University of Warsaw found that small patches of wildflowers can foster the same biodiversity as entire meadows.
Researchers recorded the number of species present in sown wildflower meadows and natural meadows and found “no difference in the composition of insect-pollinated plants between the meadow types,” according to the study, which was published in Ecological Entomology.
This is great news for homeowners and cities looking to boost the presence of pollinators — even a small patch of wildflowers will bring in those essential bugs.
Pollinators, including bees, butterflies, bats, and beetles, are extremely important to the environment. “Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35% of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators,” per the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Unfortunately, pollinators face many threats, which puts “one out of every three bites of food we eat” at risk, too, the USDA says.
Habitat loss is the main reason pollinator populations are on the decline as well as invasive species, harmful pesticides, and the rising global temperature. Restoring their habitat by converting urban areas — dirt, sidewalk, or grass — into wildflower gardens is a great first step to protecting pollinators.
You can take action from your own yard. Convert your traditional grass lawn into a native plant lawn to support local wildlife, all while saving time and money on maintenance such as watering and mowing. Even a handful of native wildflowers sprinkled throughout your backyard can make a big difference.
… From MMM Issue #48, Feb-Mar 2025