As I was listening to Sir David Attenborough promoting the Big Butterfly Count on the radio this morning, I looked out at our very green garden. Not many flowers to attract the butterflies out there yet. There’s a single buddleia, some lavender, and the plants I’ve brought in pots. And that seemed to be about it as far as the nectar offerings went.
But look a little closer and there’s a whole larderful of sweet, flowery nectar. It’s just that most of it is in the lawn rather than the borders. There are a whole range of weeds/wildflowers (depending on your point of view) thriving among the grass and moss. Lots of clover – a great nectar plant for bees.
Only a few dandelion flowers at the moment, but there are plenty of leaves showing that the plant is established in the lawn, along with yarrow and bugle. And nestling in low among the blades of grass and buttercup leaves, there’s a healthy population of selfheal. Another nectar rich favourite with the insects.
The bright yellow buttercups are doing a good job of attracting hoverflies. And this handsome looking beastie. I’ve no idea what it is, but it was having a good feed while I took its photo.
The hoverflies are also liking the hawkbit. It only seems to flower at the edge of the lawn – presumably in a patch where the flowering stems have missed being mowed down.
The daisies have shorter flower stems and are dotted about all over the place.
And the tiny, star-shaped flowers of mouse-ear chickweed add a scattering of white in a sea of green.
So there we are, not such a nectar desert after all. There may be enough out there to attract at least some butterflies for us to count… we just need some warm, calm weather now. What about you, will you be joining the Big Butterfly Count?
The Garden Deli 
Great post. I love having little flowers in our lawn and just this year I decided to seek out different types to seed. I am so glad you posted the names of these little beauties. Especially interested in the little daisies. I see these in public parks all over the city. Do you know if it is possible to just go to the nursery and buy flowering lawn seed?
Hi, and thanks for your lovely comment. I’ve just been across to your blog and now have summertime corn soup on my menu plan for next week! I’m not sure about buying flowering lawn seed (the lawn here was already full of wildflowers when we moved in). I did a quick search, and there are online sites offering seed, but I don’t know about buying it locally – maybe if you ask at a local nursery they could get hold of some for you?
Thank you. Will do. You should see our Transfer Station here in Seattle (the dump). If you can believe this…it’s gorgeous! 🙂 The lawn is full of low lying flowering grasses. I have googled and searched and can not seem to find anything on what they used. My search continues… Hope you enjoy the corn soup! 🙂
It amuses me that people buy expensive packets of wild flowers to sow in their flower beds while ruthlessly cutting down and killing the ones that grow in the grass. It’s surprising what you find when you look. We took part in the Pollinator Survey as part of Open Farm Sunday which had some surprising results.
All that money spent on killing flowers in the lawn and sowing the same wild flowers in the border just goes to prove that a weed is any plant growing in the wrong place! The Pollinator Survey sounds interesting, are the results being put together somewhere do you know?
What beautiful photographs. This post has inspired me run an audit of the “nectar oases” in and around my own lawn.
Thank you Steve. I did a quick count of the non-grass plants in the lawn here… there are at least 10, which is a positive sign for trying to establish a small area of meadow.
It’s amazing what a lawn can hide, as it really does look just like grass in the first picture! I wish we had a butterfly count too. I was reading about the English one in a gardening magazine my sister brought over. It also reminded me how different gardening is here. Hope you get the right weather, and a few butterflies visit you.
Your butterfly diary is going to provide you with a longer term picture of the butterflies visiting your garden… and maybe it will grow to include more gardeners, you never know where these things will lead.
The only butterflies I see are cabbage whites but I’ve also seen plenty of bumble bees as well as a few honey bees and some hoverflies.
Interesting what a lawn can hold 🙂
It is indeed! Sounds like you have plenty of flowers to attract pollinators. We have some way to go in this new garden – lots of work to establish some good nectar rich plants in time for the autumn.
Try some quick growing green manure like buckwheat – fills up space easily and attracts beneficial insects.
Thanks for the idea – I’ll get hold of some seed and give it a go.
You’re welcome – hope it works!
This is a wonderful year for butterflies. I haven’t seen so many Small Tortoiseshells for a long time. Thank you for reminding me about the butterfly count, I shall certainly be joining in.
That’s great – apparently there were more than 90,000 records submitted last year and they’re hoping to get to 100,000 this time.
So beautiful, all the flowers and the green green grass.
The grass is usually very green in Yorkshire… lots of rain!
I have a lawn full of clover at the moment, as well as some other flowers at the edge. I’ve noticed bees enjoying it. I’ll have a look at the big butterfly count; I think the allotment might be a good place to do it. CJ xx
Clover is supposed to be one of the best plants for bees, just need to be careful not to step on them as you walk on the grass… Hope you enjoy doing the butterfly count – will your boys be helping you?
It’s amazing what you find when you look closer!
It is indeed – although sometimes it’s better not to look too closely… I’ve since discovered what I think is ground elder growing in the grass at the far end of the garden!
Wonderful post. You prompted me to do my own check and I’m nowhere close to the variety you have but have spotted 3 butterflies today so we can’t be doing too bad 🙂
It’s amazing how a few flowers can draw in the insects, even if they are in the lawn! You sound to be doing well with the butterflies, just as long as they’re not those pesky white ones that eat all the cabbages, kale, broccoli…
Oh we have do many if those on the allotment 😦 kale almost all eaten.
So even a lawn that looks very green can be full of life!
Those weeds get everywhere! But then, some weeds are more desirable than others.
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