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Creeping thyme bee lawn #935650

Asked June 15, 2026, 8:10 PM EDT

Hello! I have been attempting to establish a bee lawn for the past few summers and this is perhaps the first one where things seem to be doing well. However, I noticed on the UMN extension site that creeping thyme is no longer recommended for bee lawns after long-term observations were made. Creeping thyme is by far the most successful flower I have established. It has done better than clover, and much much better than self heal. If there was no creeping thyme, my lawn would hardly count as a bee lawn as my self heal dies off and does not return and my clover seems to lose out to fine fescue eventually. What observations were made that lost creeping thyme its place on the UMN list of recommended flowers? For reference, the quote is found at this website and a screenshot is attached below: https://extension.umn.edu/landscape-design/planting-and-maintaining-bee-lawn#flowers-for-bee-lawns-2939361 Thanks for your insight! -Steve Longley

Hennepin County Minnesota

Expert Response

Greetings.  Good for you with your persistence.  Bee lawns should come with caveats.  First  it is going to take about 3 years for them to come into their own.   Second is that whichever flowering seed is happiest will stay and you may never see the others.  

 Yes. We have changed our recommendations.  Over time Creeping Thyme gets very assertive, taking over most of the lawn.   It also becomes very woody and will stop blooming at mowed heights.   We are finding similar issues with Yak Yarrow taking over.  

Self Heal is great,  but I personally found it did not tolerate my dry boulevard.   

Clover is a short lived perennial that reseeds.  You will see an ebb and flow depending on the year.  I found this also was challenged on my boulevard.  With adequate watering, this should be doing a good job filling in between the clumping fine fescues.  Clover will also flower more if you are periodically mowing vs. No Mow. 

Are you doing any watering?  While this mix should be drought tolerant, my experience over the years is that it does better with periodic watering.   

You don't describe your conditions, but if your site is hot and very dry, I would make sure it's getting an inch of water every 7 to 10 days (stretch that to 14 if the weather isn't hot), and overseed with Dutch white cover.  You'll still be feeding more than 55 types of bees with good nectar and pollen. You don't need more than a few tablespoons of seed for a thousand square feet and clover has run about $15/lb compared to around $150 for self heal.

It's disappointing when you're expecting more variety from the mix.  It's like every other plant,  though.   They decide what they will tolerate and those are your survivors.  

Hope this helps.  



Kim Sullivan Replied June 15, 2026, 11:16 PM EDT
Hi!  Yes, it gets too woody and stops producing flowers.   It gets way too aggressive, too.  TCS exchanged that for Yak Yarrow and is finding the same thing with aggressiveness.   

I tell people the easiest bee lawn is to throw on some dutch white clover to an existing lawn if it is not too dense of a turf.

Pollinators gardens are much better options.  

On Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 10:16 PM Ask Extension <<personal data hidden>> wrote:
Kim Sullivan Replied June 15, 2026, 11:30 PM EDT

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