(pensive music) - [Narrator] The endangered rusty patched bumblebee became the official Minnesota state bee in 2019 to draw attention to pollinators in decline.

Homeowners like Dana Boyle of Woodbury, Minnesota, are concerned that bees, birds, and butterflies need more habitat to thrive.

So she turned her neatly manicured turf grass lawn into a bug hotel.

- This isn't for everyone.

I get that.

What I am offering here is an alternative vision for people to be able to say when the time is right if they want to, here's a way to do it.

It was obvious that first year that the flowering plants came around, that there are way more pollinators.

But last year it was really exciting.

I saw my first rusty patch bumblebees and they were coming on the red monarda, and that was so exciting knowing that they are an endangered species and very rare.

- [Narrator] Dana learned about native plantings when she volunteered at the Minnesota State Fair's Blue Thumb booth that promoted the state's new Lawns to Legumes program.

- I really got to know a lot more, and I became inspired.

So I thought, how can I bring this back to my own garden?

(relaxing music) - [Narrator] Funded by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, and designed by the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, Lawns to Legumes was launched in 2019 with three main components, $350 cost share grants to help residents with native plantings, large demonstration neighborhood grants of up to $40,000, and online education to help anyone design pollinator-friendly yards.

- These projects can be really rich sources of pollen and nectar 'cause we have around 450 species of native bees, but there's butterflies and moths and beetles and hummingbirds.

Lots of different pollinators that can be benefited.

The more of these projects we have across different areas, the more insects we can benefit.

- Lawns to Legumes provided me with was a $350 grant which was a very small portion of what I spent to convert my yard from basically sod to native Pennsylvania sedge.

But the educational value was really a treasure.

The first year was probably about four years ago when I started to make this change.

I asked a friend of mine who is a professional landscape architect and designer to help me make a plan.

They started with areas that I knew were kind of marginal, and I call those sort of the parentheses around the main front yard, which was all sod.

When it came time to actually convert the big picture, I hired a different landscape designer who is known for gentle transitions is what he calls it.

(upbeat music) The Pennsylvania sedges here.

I think I bought 1200 or 1500 plugs, and they were probably $3 each or something like that.

They mechanically removed the sod, and then they laid down brown paper, followed by mulch and wetted that whole area down, and that allowed them to then plant the plugs of the Pennsylvania sedge.

(upbeat music) This one was chosen because it works well in sun and shade, and it only grows about seven inches or so, and then it flops over.

It spreads really quickly through rhizome so little sprouts will come up from under the mulch.

The roots are very deep, so you know it's picking up water from under the ground without needing to be watered unless it's a really, really dry spell.

- [Narrator] The native sedge is bordered by plants and wildflowers that attract bugs and birds.

- This is a primarily sunny spot, and so what we have here are some wonderful purple comb flowers native to Minnesota.

Here is a blooming Missouri primrose.

The ground cover is wild strawberry.

This really spreads, and it smells so delicious when the strawberries are out.

There's butterfly milkweed.

Baptisia has already bloomed, as has the prairie smoke.

Here is some monarda, native monarda that'll be blooming pretty soon and attracting the bees.

We've got hyssop here.

(upbeat music) I had a bee house installed.

This is for solitary super pollinator bees.

You can actually see where the bees have gone into these channels to lay their eggs, and they fill 'em with pollen, and the people who made the bee houses are friends of mine.

And they will come later in the summer, collect the eggs, store them in refrigeration, until next year and then bring them back.

(upbeat music) Here's a fun little tableau.

(Dana laughs) We've got some prairie drop seed.

I love these.

This is a coneflower that is not native to Minnesota.

Not everything has to be native according to some people's theory, and I really love that because if there's a plant that you really like or a color that you really wanna add, it's fine.

There's blue vervain here which is a lovely native-to-Minnesota plant.

(upbeat music) I use zero chemicals on this property.

We are located close to a really special wetland called the Tamarack Nature Preserve.

So everything that comes from my yard is gonna flow through it.

The maintenance for this yard is so minimal, and that's one of the best parts about it.

It's already early July, and I have never watered yet this season.

- [Narrator] Except for a few questions from her Homeowner's Association about how quickly the such plugs would fill in, her neighbors approve.

- [Dana] I hear people say all the time yours is my favorite yard in the neighborhood.

(upbeat music) (relaxing music) - [Narrator] The nonprofit Metro Bloom's Blue Thumb program distributes the cost share grants that come with guidance.

- They might do something in their yard like installing bee lawns or native plantings in their yards.

And they do that a lot with the help of coaches like Master Gardeners and Minnesota Water Stewards that help guide them through their project and answer questions about what they're doing.

- [Dan] With the cost share grants, we'll be funding around 4,000 grants that is distributed around the state.

- And that's not just limited to homeowners.

Renters who have their landlord's permission can also apply for the program, whether that means putting in a traditional garden or putting in potted plants or raised bed gardens on balconies, for example.

- [Narrator] Because smaller bees can only fly about 200 meters, the more places they can stop and refuel, the better.

- [Lauren] We need plantings every couple houses so that we can create pathways for those pollinators.

(upbeat music) - [Dan] And then we have a demonstration neighborhoods component that's focused on developing habitat corridors.

Local organizations can apply for funding to develop these corridors in partnership with residents.

We currently have 26 of those established around the state.

We have some in north Minneapolis that are very urban.

We have others that are more rural like in Cottonwood County or up in Carlton County.

Theirs goes through much of their county into the Fond du Lac Indian reservation.

There's one down in Winona that's been very successful down through Oklee, and they've been spotting the rusty patch Bumblebee there.

(upbeat music) There's many other environmental benefits to these projects as well.

They collect excess rainwater, they provide bird habitat, they sequester carbon, they decrease emissions from mowing.

There's human health benefits to these types of landscapes as well.

- [Narrator] Besides grants, Lawns to Legumes provides online education and Blue Thumb workshops.

- And that's a time for people to come and learn about trees and rain gardens and native plantings and bee lawns and all of the exciting things that we can do in our own spaces.

They are virtual so they are open to anybody, very accessible statewide.

- I've had people come up and say, "We're gonna start to do something like this in our yard, and we're gonna start small," and I'll give them some ideas.

- It's something that regular people can do.

It's something that we can each individually take action on.

We can each plant something in our yard that's going to make a difference.

(upbeat music)