The Mini-Meadow Experiment: Creating Pollinator-Friendly Yards

Transform a traditional turf lawn to a native wildflower meadow for pollinating insects and birds.

There is an American ideal about the perfect lawn: a sprawling green landscape, manicured and pristine with plenty of space for kids to play and pets to roam. While the aesthetic sounds good in theory, in practice grassy turf lawns can be pretty problematic to the tiny pollinators essential to our ecosystem. 

Butterflies, birds, bats, bees, moths and other insects that already experience troublesome disruption to their populations due to factors like pesticides, mowing, invasive species, urban sprawl and other human-related causes, cannot easily perform their essential pollinator duties when they must travel far distances to find food or habitat. When pollinator populations are at risk—so is the environment and our human health, with rippling effects that impact agriculture, development and even the economy.

“Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. That’s one out of every three bites of food you eat.” U.S. Department of Agriculture

Shifting the way we think about our lawns is a meaningful step homeowners can take to help protect pollinators, and we all can play a part—large or small. 

Over the past year through classes and guidance from my park system, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and our local chapter of Pollinator Pathway, I have been learning how to replace a portion of our grass lawn with native, pollinator-friendly plants. Working in small stages, this “mini-meadow experiment” has helped me garner new understanding about the impact of restoring pollinator habitats, with heartening results that demonstrate that if we offer nature just a little help, it can successfully take care of the rest. 

The following photos document my meadow installation process up to this point. Though I wanted to try a larger-scale project on about 1/10 of an acre, this same process could be applied if you are interested in creating a small pollinator patch somewhere on your property. The size of the project does not matter as much as the effort to create more pollinator-friendly yards.

Given Ohio's abnormally dry conditions this season as much of the state battles drought, many of us are looking out our windows to dry, dead lawns. Pollinator-friendly meadows have a higher resistance to drought while offering an abundance of value to the environment. By rethinking our interpretations of what makes a beautiful lawn and integrating more native flowers and prairie grasses into our surroundings, homeowners can make a true impact on the health of our ecosystem.

Creating a Pollinator-Friendly Yard

Meadow Installation Year 1: Transforming Turf to Native Plants

Step One: Site Preparation

While there are several different grass removal methods, I chose solarization for a few reasons: it is an ideal option for various size projects, it’s an organic removal method and it doesn’t require a lot of hands-on labor. The process involves securing tarps over the area grass removal is desired and letting the sun do the work. Depending on the type of covering used, the length of grass and the time of year the site is prepped, it can take 6 weeks to several months for the vegetation to fully die.

Once an all-grass lawn, this area was sectioned off into four 20X30 foot rectangles to begin the solarization process, Oct. through March. A mowed path in between was created to define the space and make the meadow more immersive later on.

Notes on how and when to prepare the site: 

*Cut the grass low and edge or trench around the area before securing the tarps. It’s a little more work upfront, but well worth it later to help keep the turf grass out. When turf grass begins to creep in, it wants to take over. Because I did not do this step thoroughly initially, I’ve had to do more damage control along the way.

*Use clear plastic tarps. I used dark-colored tarps purchased from a home supply store— and though they worked, the process was slower and less effective than clear plastic, which probably would have created a better greenhouse effect. 

*Cover the designated spot during the summer. I covered my areas October through March. The sun’s summer heat would have helped to kill the grass faster. 

Step Two: Sourcing Seeds

When solarization is in effect, it’s a good time to determine what type of seeds to plant and where to order them—whether from a local native plant nursery or an online native seed provider. To order the correct amount, determine the size of the area and its specific growing conditions.

This seed mix used was determined based on a 1/10-acre area, full sun and heavy seasonal wetness. It included 20 different native perennial varieties, prairie grasses and native annuals to give the meadow first-year color.

Online native seed providers include:

• *OPN Seeds

• Prairie Moon Nursery

• Shooting Star Native Seeds

• American Meadows

Step Three: Seed Distribution 

When it’s time to remove the tarps, rake out dead grass and lightly loosen the surface of the soil to begin preparing the site for seeding. Seeds can be broadcast by hand, using a carrier agent such as sand, sawdust or rice hulls to help with even distribution. 

By late April, the dead grass was raked off, edging was completed and the site was nearly ready for seeding.

Notes on seed distribution:

*Mix seeds with an even ratio of the carrier agent, and divide the mix into two buckets. Using sand as my carrier agent and scattering the seed mix by hand, I walked the length of the entire area distributing one bucket of seeds, and then worked 90 degrees to the first application using the second bucket until the entire site was covered.

*Seeds should be planted around 1/4 inch. Lightly raking the soil first helped to open the soil for the seeds. After all the seeds were distributed, I walked over the entire area by foot to help get good seed-to-soil contact, and then watered the area thoroughly.

Step Four: Management

To help the seeds get established, the area was watered manually for the first 1-2 weeks. But spring rains managed to do the rest and before long, we were able to sit back and watch the progress.

Early signs of growth 2-3 weeks after seeding. In the beginning, it was hard to distinguish if it was the right type of growth.

After a couple more weeks of growth, it was clear that we were on to a promising future with a variety of plant life popping up.

Though it has been a dry summer, a variety of plants have emerged in year one, including: Oxeye sunflowers, white prairie clover, Indian blanket, nodding wild rye, partridge pea, blue vervain, black eyed Susan and bee balm.

A mix of native perennials and grasses.

As we wrap up summer, I’ve begun the next phase of site preparation for the remaining half of the meadow, and will test the results of hand broadcasting the seeds through a fall application.

According to experts, it takes around three years for all plants and root systems to fully establish, so the next few years will provide continued knowledge and insight.

As the saying goes:

“The first year it sleeps. The second year it creeps. The third year it leaps.”

While this process has come with a lot of trial and error, it’s been rewarding to learn that it’s possible to help create useful pollinator-friendly corridors for our tiniest neighbors and surrounding wildlife. And when I look out my bedroom windows each morning to the flowering and lively field of native flowers we now have, I can confidently say that I won't ever miss the unused turf lawn (and all the mowing) we've replaced to gain something much better.

—Jill Span Hofbauer