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There is hope for the bees when there’s clover in the lawn. Researchers discovered that lawns in Springfield Massachusetts when cut every three weeks instead of weekly resulted in as many as 2.5 times more lawn flowers, mostly clover and dandelions, and a great diversity of 93 species of bees.
Thursday, May 20 this the sixth annual World Bee Day. Celebrate bees by joining with others in pledging not to spread quick-release fertilizer, herbicides or pesticides on your lawn. Toxins must follow the applied nutrients because grass is developing an addiction, is thinner with less fiber, easy forage for pests, while sunspills dry and bake the soil. Established lawns should not need fertilizing. They, like the grasslands of old, are quite capable of taking care of themselves.
The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources recommends one application of 100% slow-release fertilizer in the fall (one-half pound per thousand square feet of lawn). Do not apply quick-release fertilizer because it interferes with grass roots going down below the surface to establish symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizae fungi and bacteria. One application of Roundup will kill a quarter of the mycorrhizae. Lawn care companies should instead…
