Hey, whose house is that, the one with all of the wildflowers in the yard?”
This is a question Aurelio D’Amico has heard frequently since he replaced his front yard with wildflowers.
“I was like, ‘You know what? I have this lawn. It’s boring. It’s the same as everybody else’s. Let me replace it with wildflowers,’” D’Amico said. “The reactions from the neighborhood and people walking by have just been great.”
This is the first time D’Amico has replaced his yard on Laurel Road in Swampscott with wildflowers, but he plans to continue doing so every year.
In April, after careful thought and consideration, he planted more than $500 worth of native seeds in his front lawn after removing all of the grass.
D’Amico purchased a ground thermometer to take the temperature of the soil so he could plant the seeds when the ground was exactly 65 degrees.
He said he had to mix the seeds with sand in a bucket and sprinkle it in order to see where the seeds were being placed.
“I’m learning as I’m going, so it’s kind of fun,” he said.
D’Amico’s neighbors are enjoying the wildflowers, and they are not the only ones.
“We have a lot more butterflies and bees and pollinators and I see more birds,” D’Amico said. “I know this is going to sound corny, but you never take the time to stop and look, but there’s actually like hundreds of bees in my yard that I didn’t notice, and they’re just quietly pollinating.”
D’Amico said that before, his lawn was dull and “just another thing to mow.” The wildflowers actually take less maintenance than the grass.
He said he is happy he does not have to use any fertilizers or harmful chemicals on the ground.
D’Amico added that it has also cut down on his water use and reduced his water bill, because he only has to water the flowers approximately once a week.
He said the first two weeks of the growing season had a slow start and it took roughly a month before any flowers started to blossom.
“And I honestly thought I messed it up, like I must have done something wrong,” he said.
He said that changed when one day, he walked outside to get the mail and saw flowers everywhere, which amazed him.
D’Amico said every day after work, he would come home and there would be a new flower sprouting up in his yard.
The success of the first year of flowers came as a surprise to D’Amico.
“If anything, I have a black thumb,” he said.
D’Amico said he is still learning how to properly care for his house plants.
He said he has always loved nature.
“I’ve always liked things diverse, variety, a little crazy, you know,” he said. “Trim, but rough around the edges sort of too.”
D’Amico said that next year, he will plant a slightly different mix of flower seeds and see how that goes.
