Bee in my bonnet

[lauradi7dw]

Or in my yard. Over the years, I have been letting our yard become more and more meadow-like, while still treating it mostly like a lawn, in that I mow it. I like violets better than grass, but since it was a lawn when we bought it, everything flowery is intermingled with foreign grass (there is no lawn grass variety native to MA). I want to encourage my bee visitors. All the neighbors have monoculture heavily groomed lawns. Nobody has said anything to me about our yard since the neighbor on the corner died ages ago (he had the strong opinion that I was encouraging "thatch" by letting the clippings lie in place after mowing, and I'm sure he'd have a cow about the wild flowers all over the place now). Once the pink rhodedendron bushes started blooming, the bees abandoned the violets and switched over, but I have left a swath of three kinds of purple flowers in the yard, mowing the rest to lawn height. I am thinking about turning the whole front yard into a bee diner, but I think that might require expert help. The article on this page lists many bee-encouraging plants for the Lexington area, none of which I know how to grow.
http://www.lexingtonbee.com/news
I do not want to keep bees myself, or have a hive in our yard kept by a professional. I am content to visit the hives behind the Interfaith garden from time to time.