Hello all! Anyone have any luck with seeding wildflowers (or any flowers) directly in grass. Tired of mowing and always want more pollinators.
Moderately rich well draining clay here. Thinking lupine maybe? Suggestions?
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I think someone did something with one of the clovers, I forget who tho. Might that work ?
I’ve killed the grass 1st in early fall, then seeded into the dead grass. the seed grew like crazy the next spring. used perennial wildflower seed from TSC and wild lupine seed i collected the summer before.
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I am experimenting with this right now. Ping me later this year for the results but it looks promising so far. However, I do use native grass, which at least here tends to grow in bunches / clusters, leaving space between them to stick some wildflowers into.
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You could try a mix or something specific from somewhere like prairiemoon.com that are native to your area. I’ll be getting a bunch of things to make a pollinator garden soon. You may need to kill your grass for some of them to compete better
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native violas come to mind instantly
there’s also frogfruit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkhgGn3qQ0E
there’s a sterile version that could be used for ur lawn callded kurapia https://kurapia.com/ it blooms and feeds pollinators but won’t spread by seeds so non-invasive
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I have sunshine mimosa, our native frogfruit and perennial peanut fighting an all out battle with the lawn grass. In most places, sunshine mimosa seems to be the best spreader. I get cute little powderpuffs flowering wherever it is. Not sure if its cold hardy at all and it was not by seed, but its getting the job done.
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We’ve very unscientifically overseeded our lawn with white clover. Seems to have a good effect. Nice flowers, helps green it up some, and the rabbits seem to prefer the clover to most of what I’m growing in my beds, which is a nice bonus! I’ve heard you have to worry about stepping on bees with clover, but we have a healthy honey bee population and three barefoot kids and have never had an incident 
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I have a few areas in my yard seeded with white clover too and can confirm that it works well for distracting bunnies, and makes for a nice play or picnic area. We’ve never had an accident with bees either and if it ever does happen, I don’t think it’s the end of the world; in either case beats having one of those golf-style lawns devoid of life. My only caution above clover would be to be careful where you plant it because it’s very aggressive and invasive, which can be a blessing or a curse, depending on what your long-term plans for the area are.
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Our yard is filled every year with tiny wild violets that are short enough to evade the mower.
I bought some Fusilade II to kill grass to make room for clover and wild flowers. I bought red clover.
ive tried seeding the same spot with the perennial flower seed without removing the grass and you get about half as many flowers than if you kill the existing grass and weeds 1st. i made the mistake of seeding crown vetch in my other ditch where it quickly took over. put some mint in there so now its about 50/50. both flower so I’m cool with that and when its starts to encroach on the lawn the mints smells great when mowed.
Gaillardia and lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) self-seed throughout my orchard, comfrey as well but less so.
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