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Thread: Bee lawns

  1. #46
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Putney, Vermont
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    1,042
    Jim. If flower has a yellow center it may be forget me nots flower. or it is a grass with blue flowers. Hard to see in the picture.

  2. #47
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,685
    John, yes, the buttercups are not good for many kinds of livestock, including horses. Same with other things that "just grow", so folks who have livestock need to take care in that respect.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #48
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,685
    Quote Originally Posted by michael langman View Post
    Jim. If flower has a yellow center it may be forget me nots flower. or it is a grass with blue flowers. Hard to see in the picture.
    If I actually remember, I'll try to take a close up shot.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #49
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
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    12,298
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    John, yes, the buttercups are not good for many kinds of livestock, including horses. Same with other things that "just grow", so folks who have livestock need to take care in that respect.
    My friends in vet school all have the same 1st year assignment - to collect as many toxic plants as possible and make a book with laminated leaves, drawings, descriptions and notes on the potential physiological effects that plant has on certain animals. (Some may kill after eating a single leaf!) Although I keep several books of toxic plants, field trips to help locate, ID, and collect these plants have been a great education for me as well. We were scouring my property, friend's farms, roadsides, even commercial nurseries! (That's the only place we found oleander)

    There are toxic plants everywhere. Fortunately, in general an animal usually will not eat most toxic plants unless confined with nothing else to eat. I have seen goats eat the flowers of buttercup but I think the nasties are concentrated in the leaves which they wouldn't touch. I don't like to spray herbicides on the fields but I will use 2-4-d every few years when I see buttercup starting to come back since it chokes out the grass. (it will take out the horse nettle and pigweed too)

    Wilted back cherry leaves are a special concern since the trees are everywhere - I recently removed a 120' tall cherry tree well outside the llama fence but with the potential to drop branches in the field during a storm.

    JKJ

  5. #50
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Michiana
    Posts
    3,046
    Dad kept bees when I was growing up. We lived in the country and didn't have a lawn. We had a yard. There was a large patch along the lane from the house to the barn that was nearly 100% clover. When blooming it was a bee carpet. You didn't dare walk there with bare feet.
    Sharp solves all manner of problems.

  6. #51
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Northern Oregon
    Posts
    1,820
    Quote Originally Posted by michael langman View Post
    My yard is like a Monet painting every spring and summer. My wife is a wild flower fanatic, and I let the yard go to seed and hay it.

    Bluets,white and purple violets,moss,daisy fleabains, white and yellow daisies,indian paintbrushes, wild strawberry,dandelions, and some grasses that flower. We have ground bees and bees that make nests along with bumblebees, lunar moths, hummingbirds. She also has large patches of bee balm,flocks,giant sunflowers that come up every year and are about 9 feet tall. and other flowers I cannot recall. But the bees love the holly bushes hydrangea tree that is about 18 feet in diameter, and other bushes planted for the birds and bees.

    We also feed hundreds and hundreds of birds,as their habitat is disappearing and they find our place to be. One mulberry tree feeds dozens of waxwings,oriols, catbirds and all the other regular birds we have all year. I have planted a few more mulberry trees about the yard for them.

    When I step outside I am greeted by bluejays, we feed almost 100 every winter, and a family of crows that nest on our property every year. I am greeted by dozens of crows all over the surrounding towns, when I go out to the store or appointments. They all acknowledge my wife and I and people just look at us with wonder when they see it. Most of them were born at our place and we were given the duty of watching them after they fledged the nest. We also have a family of Ravens that follow us and acknowledge us every day. The stories I could tell.

    We do not have cats and dogs and the birds have become a part of our life these past years.
    I admire your connection to Mother nature! I saw a documentary about the intelligence of crows. They even teach their chicks to recognize good and bad humans!
    "Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right."
    - Henry Ford

  7. #52
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Putney, Vermont
    Posts
    1,042
    Thankyou Andrew. My wife deserves a lot of the credit also.
    It has taken many years for the crows to trust me being a man. They took to my wife after a few years.
    This is because men hunt around here, me being a hunter when I was younger. They truly appreciate our help in leaving food for them in our yard.
    Every spring the extended family returns to help protect the young and feed them.
    I make sure to buy a big ham with plenty of fat for them, after we have eaten our fill of course, and buy whole chickens so we can leave the bones and fat. But it is the hot dogs that really get them excited. At a buck a pound it really is not as ridiculous as it seems.
    We buy 50 lb bags of dog food and give them that mostly. The blue jays really like it also, and the red bellied wood pecker and nut hatches.
    Friends for life as the saying goes.

  8. #53
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Location
    Maryland
    Posts
    337
    Quote Originally Posted by Rob Luter View Post
    Dad kept bees when I was growing up. We lived in the country and didn't have a lawn. We had a yard. There was a large patch along the lane from the house to the barn that was nearly 100% clover. When blooming it was a bee carpet. You didn't dare walk there with bare feet.
    Yeah, thanks for the bees and bare feet reminder, it's an issue we've been trying to figure out. So far it looks like a partial bee lawn away from the front of the house, and no bee lawn in the back yard where the kids play.

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