Wildflowers bring the Chittenden couple joy, connection, and bees

Jonathan Yako and his wife, Natalie Gilyard, grew up on Long Island. They moved to Chittenden in 2019.

They loved their new, big yard but hated all the mowing.

“To be honest, it was kind of depressing to look at this sea of ​​grass,” Gilyard admitted.

A friend suggested they plant wildflowers. So they did, and eventually the land was worth more than an acre.

“I’ve always loved bees and we’ve been wanting to do this; we’re on board, let’s find out!” said Gilyard.

“We actually started during COVID,” her husband explained. “Nat was unemployed. She lost her job during that period, and my hours were cut in half. So we had a lot of free time.”

Their first meadow was near the road. “We picked up all the rocks, dug up all the grass, and planted all the seeds,” Gilyard explained.

We weren’t sure it would work, but they were finally starting to see little shoots appearing, she admitted. “We were looking out the window and saying, ‘They’re coming! The flowers are coming!'”

It started with an explosion of tiny white flowers. “Gypsophila elegans“Yes, same kid,” Gilyard says, double checking the name on her iPhone.

Then came all the colors: the red and yellow poppies, the pink flycatcher, the bright orange brimstone cosmos, the red columbine, and the purple foxglove.

They were so happy with their first meadow, they planted a second, larger patch of wildflowers this summer.

“Here, you can really get into it without stepping on any of the flowers or worrying about disturbing any habitat,” Gilyard said, carefully stepping onto a patch of dirt among the flowers.

“There’s a lot of forget-me-nots in bright blue,” she says, bending down for a closer look. “And right behind them are all the yellow cores.”

“Oh here’s something new!” She says as she points to a bright pink star-shaped flower. “That’s nice William.”

The colors look like a patchwork quilt, sparkling with butterflies and the soft buzzing of bees.

“It’s amazing to watch them,” Gilyard says with a smile. “It’s mostly honeybees and some bumblebees, but a lot more honeybees than I’ve ever seen in one place, which is very exciting to me.”

“The great thing is that the lawns look completely different every two weeks,” Yako adds. “You don’t know exactly what’s going to happen or when it’s going to come, and that’s part of the magic.”

The other part of the magic is the way the wildflowers helped the couple become part of their small town community. When they moved in they knew no one and the pandemic was depressing.

Flowers penetrated it all.

“We had an amazing response!” Yako says. “People brought us bouquets they had made. I’ve met so many people at the transfer station who say, ‘I saw your lawn,’ and I have no idea who they are. ‘We love driving around and seeing it’…and I say, ‘Oh, this is amazing.’ “!”

“When we meet new people,” Gilyard adds. “We can say, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re the house with the wildflower meadow.'” And people say, “Oh, I love this meadow!” so cold! He made us so happy!”

“It was amazing on so many levels,” Yako says.

He says the second lawn was a collaboration. The land is owned by their next door neighbor and they have planted about three-quarters of an acre. Another farmer’s neighbor helped them till the soil. “Having people we’ve never met before stop by or send us cards thanking us for doing this — it’s that community I want to live in.”

“And it’s nice to be able to bring back some of the joy we’ve had since moving here,” Gilyard adds.

What’s really cool is that “the wildflowers are starting to spread,” the couple says, pointing outside their yard.

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