What does the perfect lawn look like? For years the answer to that question has been pretty simple: lawns should be green and moist and perfectly uniform, kind of like a big outdoor carpet. The problem is that those typical grass lawns are also a monoculture—a big expanse of a single type of plant that doesn’t offer much by way of habitat. They require a lot of water and fertilizer, all of which comes at a cost to the environment.
That’s why Burgerville is working with longtime partner, DeSantis Landscapes to transition the grass seed mix for all of our restaurant locations that have lawns. The new mix, Fleur de Lawn is from Pro Time Lawn Seed, a locally owned, Oregon-certified Women Business Enterprise. With its mix of ryegrass, fescue, clover and lots of flowers, it creates something close to a woodland meadow, instead of delivering the placid sea of green we’ve all been told to prize in a lawn.
Here’s what the mix includes:
- Banfield Perennial Ryegrass – Lolium perenne ‘Banfield’
- Eureka II Hard Fescue – Festuca trachyphylla ‘Eureka II’
- Quatro Tetraploid Sheep Fescue – Festuca ovina ‘Quatro’
- White Yarrow – Achillea millefolium
- Microclover – Trifolium repens var Pipolina ssp Microclover
- Baby Blue Eyes – Nemophila menziesii (annual)
- Sweet Alyssum – Lobularia maritima (annual)
- Strawberry Clover – Trifolium fragiferum
- English Daisy – Bellis perennis
We think it’s lovely, but more importantly, those flowers will provide the perfect habitat for pollinators, which is a big deal, because they need all the help they can get these days. The clover in Fleur de Lawn also captures nitrogen, helping the whole lawn stay healthy while improving the health of the soil, and ensuring that our new lawns won’t need any chemical fertilizers.
By making the switch, we’re able to do some good for the health of the region. Pro Time Lawn Seed developed Fleur de Lawn in partnership with Oregon State University, so the seed mix is designed to thrive here in the Northwest with minimal watering or maintenance. Over the next few years, we expect to see our water use drop significantly, a win for the environment and a cost savings for us.
Of course, the lawns at our Burgerville locations aren’t very big, but for us, it’s important to do what we can with the space we have—and to inspire our neighbors and customers to do the same. These new lawns are another good step in that direction.