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Little Lovelies

June 17th, 2014

I’m a big proponent of herbal lawns, meaning I don’t like to spray out the wild flowers that provide variety and food for pollinators. Often dandelions, creeping charlie and clover are the herbs that grow, but when you are far enough removed from spraying and chemicals. Here in Maine I have a few patches of Veronica umbras (aka creeping veronica) in the lawn. It’s quite lovely, small and with beautifully blue flowers. It’s a small plant, only growing to about 6 to 8 inches tall and will spread out a couple feet wide.
Veronica umbrasa 1
The flowers are tiny, smaller than a dime and the most lovely shades of blue and light purple.
Veronica umbrasa 2
Veronica umbrasa 3
Veronica umbrasa 4
In one area of the back lawn it has spread into the flowerbed and it’s quite lovely without the competition of the grass. I plan on taking a few starts to plant along the edges of the woods. The leaves durn reddish in the fall so they add even more color at that part of the year. This is another great reason to not add weed killer to your lawn!

What’s your favorite lawn “herb”?

9 Comments to “Little Lovelies”
  1. daisy on June 17, 2014 at 5:42 am

    What a delicate splash of color, so cute!
    Unfortunately, living in an HOA community, everyone’s law is required to be green-and only green. They sure take the fun out of things, no? ;0D

    When we move to our new property, I hope to have a low-maintenance “lawn”, with very little sod. Onward and upward!

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  2. Julie on June 17, 2014 at 6:06 am

    When I lived in Maine I had wild yarrow in my lawn. I transplanted a few of the plants into my herb garden and wow! They grew large and lush.

    Reply to Julie's comment

  3. ann roberts on June 17, 2014 at 6:57 am

    I like my wild violets. But they are actually all in flower beds and help crowd out weeds there. In the lawn I like the weeds that can be pulled and fed to my meat rabbits. So dandelion, dock, plantains, chicory and clover.

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  4. Laura @ Raise Your Garden on June 17, 2014 at 8:29 am

    Well, I like mint. I know, it’s invasive and is taking over my whole yard!

    But smells nice and seems to keep the mosquitos at bay.

    Reply to Laura @ Raise Your Garden's comment

  5. bonnie knox on June 17, 2014 at 8:48 am

    I have a good assortment of things besides grass in the lawn. The one I like is clover.
    I don’t see too much veronica in my own yard, but I do have the cultivar veronica ‘Georgia Blue’ in my flower bed. It is lovely. I gave a division to my mother. Either under her care or in her soil, it has thrived whereas mine has struggled.
    Blue is great to have in the landscape.

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  6. Nebraska Dave on June 17, 2014 at 9:25 am

    Susy, I’m not sure I would say that I have a favorite but I’ve become more tolerate of something other than grass growing in the lawn. I was never a proponent of giving the lawn a chemical bath six times a year but I did try to kill the crab grass and dandelions. Well, until I started reading your blogs posts a couple years ago. Now, I have many wild attractions that make the urban neighbors scowl. Some are wild African violets, wild strawberry, clover, dandelion, and, in the back yard, crab grass.

    When I was a kid many decades ago, the theory was to plant clover in the lawn grass to help put nitrogen in the soil to help with the lawn growth but today clover is eradicated from yards and perfect lawns must be the result. I must confess that I still use chemicals on occasion but not nearly as much as I used to use.

    I’m glad to be home from my Las Vegas grand daughter high school graduation trip. I’m trying to get caught up. You know how that goes. Two storms blew through while I was gone and I haven’t been to the garden to check on them to see if damage was done.

    Have a great wild flower lawn day.

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  7. Trish on June 17, 2014 at 9:26 am

    Years ago my grandmother rescued some of this from a garden at an abandoned estate and planted it in several areas in her garden. She knew that I always loved the tiny blue flowers. So when I finally had a garden of my own this is one of the plants that she gave to me. It has spread out and makes such a lovely ground cover. And is a wonderful reminder of a beautiful lady.

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  8. amy on June 17, 2014 at 11:30 am

    I love the jewel weed in my yard as well as the clovers and violets. My extended family not so much;) Everyone comes to our home when there is a holiday as was the case this past Sunday…..family on both sides to celebrate Father’s Day. Some of us were sitting on the front porch….It is my little haven….my sky chairs…a little brass water fountain….and a natural screen cover I make every season by growing viney climbers…..They loved the porch….and found it peaceful….but one or two were struggling with the height of my yard:) which is only maybe 5 to 6 inches tall. I keep it tall for the pollinators. They were distracted by the length of my grass…..”itching” to get out there and mow it!…..I explained why I liked to keep it taller….and how the root system equaled the height of the grass…and when it does not rain that this way is a healthier way for your lawn…..Went right over their heads:)…could have cared less….just felt it needed to be mowed into a nice flat sheet of green. After they all left my husband told me that our lawn had been remarked on by at least two others asking if we were planning to bale it:) I guess in addition to getting a good meal at our home they also got a lesson in tolerance;)

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  9. Jenn on June 18, 2014 at 5:57 pm

    We have that plant in our garden in the UK. We call it speedwell. I believe (if it is the same species) it is meant to be edible as a salad leaf and used to be used as a medicinal herb – maybe worth investigating? It would be another good reason to keep it around!

    Reply to Jenn's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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