Eat Your Weeds Don’t Mow Them! Try These Wild Spring Greens Popping Up In Your Yard

This post was originally published on March 26, 2015.

Written by Kate Grimes

Confession: I haven’t mowed the front lawn in a while, and with the warm days of late winter, it’s starting to get a bit “shaggy.” The front yard had become a nagging and guilt-inducing chore when its sad brownish hue burst into a soft pink glow just the other day. 

It was the Henbit (Lamium ssp.), rosy pink and everywhere. The Henbit convinced me to take a closer look, and upon inspection, I found an incredible diversity of plant species in what before had been a green blur. 

The grasses were just coming out of dormancy, and there were sweet little flowers everywhere; the tiny yellow blooms of horse herb (Calyptocarpus vialis) and the tall white inflorescences of shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris), the stellate blooms of chickweed (Stellaria media) and the tall shocks of the purple…