Well, this is interesting. Huffingpost has some "green" lawn care tips, and they actually say NOT to fertilize your lawn. Now everything I’ve ever read has said that turgrasses – not sustainable plants, mind you – need 2 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet every year or they’ll turn sparse, thin and patchy, and weeds will take over. If grass clippings are allowed to stay on the lawn (called "grasscycling") that contributes about a half pound of nitrogen per year, but that’s not enough. If the writer had recommended adding clover – THEN there might just be enough nitrogen to create a full, weed-preventing lawn. (Here’s my ode to clover.)
Here’s a reputable source of advice about lawns and the need to feed them. The HuffPost blogger quotes two writers whose expertise includes energy, water, and the greening of offices, but there’s no mention of plants.
Photo by Selva.
{ 8 comments }
Don’t fertilize my lawn (what’s left of it, since I am trying to get rid of it as much as possible) and it grows fine, thanks!
My neighbor, who has spent many years and lots of money perfecting her lawn, told me the other day that she was letting it grow long this week so it would “choke out the underlying weeds.” The man who cuts her lawn complained to me the other day (behind her back of course) that she’s making him wait too long to mow her lawn — by not cutting it now, he says, she’s “letting the underlying weeds grow strong and hardy and they’ll be harder to get rid of later.” One of them has to be wrong, right?
You know how Garden Ranter Michele said “There is no scientific consensus on even the most simple issues in backyard garden-making”? I suspect that applies to lawn-making too.
Longer blades is definitely superior, as it not only shades out sprouting weed seed but also shades the surface soil to slow the surface evaporation. As for fertilizer, a lot has to do with the inherent fertility of the soil below. If you have a low-nutrient, sandy soil, of course you’ll need more fertilizer if you ascribe to that Scott lawn mystique. Personally, I can’t imagine a more boring garden feature than an uninterrupted expanse of even colored green. Forget about the environmental cost. Boooooooring. At least mix it up with a variety of native bunch grasses and sedges, some naturalized bulbs and a sprinkling of yarrow.
My lawn is in a sad state of repair at the moment, I think I need to take your advice and put it into practice
We have a lot of ground to cover, so to speak, in terms of welcoming clover (and perhaps a few dandelions) back into our lawns. …Maybe it’s that word, “lawn” — inextricably connected to status and class — that’s the trouble. Can we start referring to it as the yard again — would that make a difference?
I’m totally with you on clover. And, as the ever enchanting Billy Goodnick suggests, lawn is so yawn. Why not mix it up au natural? (Oh, right. HOAs.)
If you don’t know about this already, its a great resource for people who want to have a reasonable size and healthy lawn: http://www.safelawns.org/
Paul Tukey also created an organic section of lawn on the National Mall and has a book published about growing lawns organically.
I think this New York Times writer got it right, for most situations:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/garden/02GreenHome.html?_r=1&ref=earth
He recommends, instead of fertilizer products per se, the application of compost, and introduction of clover.
I have a yard with some grass, dandelions, clover, mint and some other green stuff that looks just fine enough to play croquet on. I mow it fairly high. There is a farm across the river from me that has bees and the clover needs to be mown before those grandkids show up or there will be a lot of wailing and screaming. Which can sometimes happen anyway.
Comments on this entry are closed.