First, to vent. I haven’t posted in a few days because my whole photographic world is in shambles. I won’t burden you with the details but think New Editing Program, New Pixel-Packed Camera, the Burning and Copying of countless CDs and their subsequent Storage for ready Retrieval, and finally, Old Editing Program that suddenly won’t even talk to me, complaining of a "full scratch disk." I’ve heard that one that before. But because we Southerners know how to carry on in adversity, I’m choosing lawns as a good photoless topic and forging ahead.
Lawns are a huge topic these days, specifically how to reduce their size or even get rid of them altogether. Then there’s the more moderate approach that I took in my recent column, "Earth-Friendly Lawn Care Throughout the Year," in which I lay out the consensus among environmentally responsible experts – to use only organic products, mow higher, tolerate some weeds, and so on. I think I even slipped in a promo for clover, to no one’s surprise.
Next up is a column tackling a much more controversial subject: are turf grasses inherently bad, even if they’re cared for using these environmentally correct techniques? And what alternatives really work? I’m hearing totally contradictory statements by seemingly unbiased, well-informed sources – so I’m loving it!! I’ll let you know my take on the subject as soon as I have one.
FOR MY OWN LAWN I do have a position and a plan: I’ve reduced the size considerably but will keep what’s left for utilitarian reasons – like walking, hauling a garden hose in every direction, and occasionally mowing. And I’m keeping my lawn because – don’t let anybody fool you – most alternatives are more maintenance than the lawn itself! Yes, as heretical as it sounds, ask people who’ve gone lawnless how much less maintenance they have now and they’ll laugh. Seriously. That’s because it’s really the traditional, perfect lawns that are so much work, not the profoundly imperfect kind of lawn I have. And most borders, god love ‘em, are a lot of work.
And here’s the other part of my plan: to gradually transform the lawn I have left into a healthy patch of biodiversity, to include turf grass, clover, attractive weeds like violets, and anything else I can find that might work. So what do you suggest? Remember it can’t be so tall that a garden hose would catch on it, and it has to be drought-tolerant, walkable and mowable. Perhaps a touch of thyme?
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I like Johnny-Jump-ups too (they are really violas). They are super hardy, spread like mad, and I don’t really think it’s possible to kill them (although I’m sure my dogs would try). When I was a kid, in Arkansas, I planted them in one of the raised, brick flowerbeds on the front of the house, and now they are scattered across my parents whole lawn, 20 years later. I haven’t a clue where you get them, though.
Lawns are a great subject. They’d be ridiculous, if they didn’t offer such a nice calm empty surface for a dynamic border to rise above.
My town has rotten soil for turf grasses, so there are two types of lawn: sod rolled out and maintained with poisons; and patchy, weedy messes.
Only the first kind looks good. My comfort is that the first kind is inevitably on its way to joining the second group.
You’re right to point out that alternatives to lawn are often more work than a (less-than-perfect) lawn. Garden books advocating lawn removal promise the opposite.
I used to be in the no-lawn camp. Get rid of that water-wasting monoculture, I preached by example, removing every last blade of turf grass. It worked for me—up to a point.
But as a family with young kids, we’ve all missed having a patch of lawn, however scraggly, for slip-and-slide or kicking a ball. As a gardener, I’ve missed that cool, restful green space among busy perennial beds.
So I’m working right now on reinserting a lawn—a very small one—into my back garden. Since it will be small, I’ll probably try for a monoculture of our native buffalo grass, but I’ll see how it goes. If it’s too much work, I may try clover!
The lawn that came with my house is St. Augustine, a coarse leafed grass that grows by runners. Where it’s established nothing else grows. So I don’t have any suggestion on that front. Over the years, as patches of it died out, I replaced it with flower beds. But, you’re right! Flowers are much more work than grass. I’ll never get rid of all my grass because down here that patch of green is such a relief for our sun-drenched eyes.
Like Pam, I also put in buffalograss–in the area that was supposed to be my mini-meadow. However, over the years my yard has gotten shadier and shadier which buffalograss can’t stand at all. I have rainlilies and other small bulbs like fall crocuses planted among the clumps of buffalograss.
http://www.zanthan.com/gardens/plants/zephyranthes1.html
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