Erika and Helge Wehmeier hold hands as they walk along a wide, mowed grass path surrounded by three acres of wildflowers swaying in the breeze in the Sewickley, Pa., area.

The high-pitched chirps of goldfinches can be heard across the meadow as they harvest seed from the incredible palette of colorful wildflowers.

This is the highlight of the season for the Wehmeiers’ wildflower experiment. They decided to replace their lawn with native plants for a reason most gardeners can relate to:

“We got a little tired of mowing the lawn,” Helge Wehmeier said with a laugh. They hope to inspire others to let wildflowers bloom in place of grass.

In the spring, with help from Patrick Greaser of Franklin Nursery, they killed the grass and planted hundreds of pounds of wildflower seed from Ernst Conservation Seeds in Meadville, Pa.

The worst part, according to Helge Wehmeier, was the ugly brown remains of the lawn before planting began.

“Someone said in a low voice, ‘You know your front lawn looks terrible.’ It’s the first comment we ever got about the lawn,” he said with a smile.

Once the grass was gone and the seeds planted, the couple waited for rain, which didn’t come for weeks. But once it did, the field first turned a beautiful shade of green and then, a few weeks later, the wildflowers began their amazing show. Each morning offered something.

“Every day we came down here, the color composition changed,” Helge Wehmeier said.

Some varieties are only a few inches high, and others are 6 feet tall. Cosmos and coreopsis dominated the landscape on a recent visit, but there’s a long list of flowers that will bloom all season.

“The other day a woman stopped here and said, ‘Whenever I have a headache, I stop here and look at your meadow and my headache is gone.’ In 20 years, no one has said this about the lawn,” Helge Wehmeier said, laughing.

The acres of flowers hold a special place in his wife’s heart; it reminds her of the fields near the German Alps, where she grew up.

Butterflies, bees and birds fly in and around the meadow in search of nectar, pollen and seeds.

“There’s a lot of activity on the flowers. That is very nice to watch,” Erika Wehmeier said. “Every day I come out with my camera and take new pictures.”

The field of flowers has exceeded their expectations, and they’re hoping to get four or five years out of this planting. After that, they’ll start all over, unless the wildflowers persist.

Each fall, the flowers are cut high and the seeds are left to germinate the following season.

“Erika smiles every morning and every afternoon when she walks through this,” Helge Wehmeier said as his wife nodded.

“The best part is that Erika is happy,” he said as he and his wife laughed together.