Are you on the fence about installing a flowering lawn because you are worried about walking on it or playing with your kids or pets? Well don’t be! The low growing flower varieties that make up a flowering lawn are resilient to foot and paw traffic and will be just fine. Let’s review some of the top flowers to incorporate into a grass lawn and go over some simple maintenance tips for walking and playing on your flowering lawn.
Before jumping in head over heels, it’s best to take a bird’s eye view of your property and think about how each area is used. You may have a front lawn that you keep looking “neat” but never really use, two small side lawns which are basically just walking paths to the backyard where it may open to a larger space where you play with the kids or dog or just like to sit and relax. That may be the typical layout of a home and surrounding lawn area, but everyone is a little different so take a minute to think about your different lawn spaces and how they are used to determine the best flower varieties to add to each area.
A Flowering Lawn starter kit includes Dutch White Clover, Self-Heal “Heal-All”, and Creeping Thyme seeds which get over-seeded into an existing grass lawn to create about a 50/50 mix of grass and flowers that bloom white to purple to pink from spring all the way into late summer and even autumn. All these varieties are great at tolerating heavy foot traffic so there it is a great selection for the larger open spaces of your property that you walk and play on regularly.
If you normally maintain your flowering lawn above 3.5 inches, it is best to mow to at least 3.5” before heavy foot traffic is expected which will reduce the trampling effect and speed up the recovery process. Watering your flowering lawn after a period of heavy use can also help the plants bounce back more quickly and within a day or two you should see new growth and little trace of any tracks. It's true that you will likely be able to see footprints in a flowering lawn, and if you have a full-on soccer match it’s probably going to look like a herd of cattle just stampeded through your yard! Don’t worry, it will recover.
Avoid heavy traffic on your flowering lawn during times of stress such as the middle of summer. If the grass and flowering plants are yellowish brown, they have gone dormant and slowed down or completely stopped growing and would not be able to recover from heavy traffic. Avoid frequent mowing during times of stress and water deeply to the roots if dry conditions extend more than a week or two. It’s best to check the soil moisture by digging down a couple inches to where the roots are.
So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and enjoy your flowering lawn to its fullest! A flowering lawn isn’t just for looking at.