Gardening to Save the Bees

Spring has finally arrived here in the Great White North, and my mind has turned to gardening. Now, this may shock some of you, but I’ve never liked to garden. Don’t get me wrong – I love trees, great open spaces and wildflowers, but grass and straight lines of flowers do nothing for me. There’s also the fact that I find grass to be a pain in the butt. It needs watering, weeding, fertilizing and is the gardening version of a high maintenance drama queen. Plus, I don’t understand why we need a lawn that looks like it belongs on a golf course. No one plays golf at my house.
So, I did nothing with my garden until I came across the Bring Back the Bees campaign run by Honey Nut Cheerios Canada. They have an emotional TV ad. Imploring us to do what we can to save the bees. You can also sign up at their website to receive a packet of wildflowers. They are giving away these flowers in an attempt to help bee populations across Canada.
I was touched by the fact that a company like General Mills would devote time and money to an environmental program that brings awareness to such an important subject. And who doesn't want to help the bees, especially when you consider one third of our food comes from bee pollination.

I did some research and discovered that grass does very little to help the environment. In fact in areas where herbicides are used it actually causes harm. I also learned that before the 1950s, when herbicides became common, all grass seed was mixed with clover to prevent weeds. And then I discovered there are several municipalities in Canada that actively encourage their residents to grow clover lawns.
Apparently, clover lawns discourage the growth of weeds such as dandelions without resorting to the use of environmentally harmful weed killers, and are beneficial to urban wildlife such as bees, butterflies, and rabbits. 

I decided to introduce clover to my lawn and hopefully it will eventually takeover the grass.

I raked my lawn and mowed the grass so it was short

I sprinkled it with clover seed and then let nature do it's bit.

Within a week I saw results

I expect my clover lawn to be patchy this year, but I'm new to this. Next year I will fill the gaps and complete my lawn

If you’re interested in a low maintenance environmental way to have a green garden that will still hold up to foot traffic check out these sites
 
http://www.kamloops.ca/ipm/pdfs/Brochure-Clover.pdf
 
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/cloverlawn
 
http://cloverlawn.org
 
https://bringbackthebees.ca 

Do you do anything to help the bees? If so I'd love to hear about it.