For some reason that I cannot appreciate, people aspire to a lawn that looks like this:

Don’t get me wrong, this grass is lovely. It’s a gorgeous green, and feels good when I walk barefoot. I’ve got a whole swath of the backyard that looks like this. But it gets boring, don’t you think? I like to see some clover, too (and dog paws.) The clover blooms are good for the bees that I want to pollinate my garden, and the darker green adds an undertone to the lawn.

It’s hard to keep a lawn evenly green. These things appear:

I’d rather not have dandelions in the lawn, not because of the yellow flowers, which are quite pretty, but because the leaves muscle out everything else around them, and later in the summer look so ugly.

Of course, not all areas of the yard can support lush green grass. I could artificially boost the growth with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. But I don’t. I put up with this:

Because not much further off, at the margins of the lawn is this:

moss and ladyslippers – about as perfect a lawn as I can imagine.