Knowledgebase
Creeping thyme bee lawn #935650
Asked June 15, 2026, 8:10 PM EDT
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.