The turfgrass science team is responsible for conducting annual lawn vegetation assessments of 80 or so home lawns across the Twin Cities. These lawns span geographic area, neighborhood income levels, modeled pollinator abundance, and self-reported bee lawn or tra-
ditional lawn status. We just completed our fifth year of lawn assessments this summer. So far, we’re seeing that although largely turfgrass-dominated, lawns in the Twin Cities are actually quite diverse, with anywhere from 4-38 species per lawn. The next step is to pair lawn vegeta-
tion data with bumblebee survey data from these same lawns. This will allow us to see if bee lawns are actually doing what we hoped, by supporting pollinator populations. It will also help guide future research into bee lawn mixes and establishment and maintenance, as well
Clover Path.
55