A Lawn Full of Weeds (That I Mow Around)
I have mixed feelings about lawns. I hate those perfect golf-course lawns that line the streets of suburbs and cookie-cutter housing developments. The ones where little yellow tags caution about the poisons sprayed after the lawn service does their thing.
But I like my lawn. I still mow it, but my lawn isn't a monocrop of bland green carpet. It's a biodiverse mix of grasses, but also broadleaf and narrow leaf plantain, Heal-All (Prunela vulgaris), clover, wood sorrel, wild thyme, ground ivy/creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea) — full of pollinator-friendly flowers in the spring, and makes a healthy tea, dandelions, and a few other things.
And this year, these big-ass mullein, which I happily mow around.
No, my lawn will never be a model for the suburban ideal, but it is home to healing herbs that I use in my herbal preparations, garter snakes who guard my garden, birds that find delectable worms and bugs to feed their demanding nestlings, bees that freely gather nectar from the mints and dandelions.
And free mullein.