May is the month when the forget-me-nots come up all over our lawn. The plant can stick up about 7 inches (18 cm) above the ground and on the top they have a cluster of tiny blue, pink, or white flowers. Most of the forget-me-nots in my yard have petals that are translucent light blue color, surrounding a tiny yellow center.
The forget-me-nots in our neighborhood, originated with Mrs. Nail, an elderly woman who lived next door, when we first moved to McBride in 1977. She was a member of the Alpine Club of Canada, and if I remember correctly, she got the seeds through them. Over the years, they have spread from her property, across to our yard.
As you can see from the photo, I have a lot of them. I really like to have them in the lawn, so for years now, when I mow, I always mow around clusters of forget-me-nots, so that they will be able to go to seed and spread. Had I mowed them all down year after year, I doubt that I would have any in my yard today.
Mowing around the forget-me-nots does cause some problems. Often there are things like dandelions growing among them, and so they will also go to seed, but since I already have hundreds of dandelions in my yard, it doesn’t matter that a few more dandelion seeds hit the air.
After several weeks of mowing around them, the forget-me-not patches of the yard do start to look a bit ratty, so eventually, after the forget-me-nots have had time to develop their seed, I do finally, mow them down, and next year, new ones will come up, and again make me happy to see, that I have a lawn like a flowery meadow.
Take a look at my paintings, at: www.davidmarchant.ca
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