I read somewhere that grass is the most essential part of lawn, we can compromise on flowers and other decorative items but not on grass. Is it?
My lawn looks like the devil, but my garden is lovely. I am sure the landscaping would look better if I attended to the lawn more. I just hate to use chemicals & my yard gets a lot of shade. Do you have experience with lawn care or own a lawn care company?
A healthy lawn that is well maintained also offers benefits to the environment. A nice lawn with a deep root system provides erosion and runoff control and water purification, meaning that water seeping into the subsurface groundwater is cleaner and healthier
Now tell us how to achieve the perfect lawn. My lawn is a lawn of every weed under the sun, also patches of thatch...not good. I did have lawn carers but I still had lots of weeds after treatment so I sacked them. K
I have always been so proud and attentive to all my garden beds, but in the 11 years that we've resided at our home, I barely gave the grass a second thought. It wasn't until a lawn care company accidently did weed control and fertilizer applications to the grass did I realize just how much it needed some care! The poor kid who worked at the company came to the correct address on the wrong street; I felt like he saw the grass and figured we had called LOL Heck. I worked for a landscaping company, so I could learn from my co workers in the lawn division. So I began to research, ask questions and get advice. Since that time, I have been using timely applications of fertilizer and weed control. It has made a huge difference, and requires little effort. I live in a tidy neighborhood and feel as though it is nice to keep up this practice. I didn't want to be the house with all the crabgrass and dandelions. So now, along with my flower gardens looking great, I can enjoy prettier grass too. I am not worried about the chems, I feel as though I can follow label instructions, keep product off sidewalks and the street, and not over do it. For those of you that live in the country, I can understand why it would not be a priority. When we lived in the country we never fertilized.
In a drought prone area it was costing us a fortune to water the lawn weekly, or even the two days a week we were allowed and even that often was only allowed when there was water available ( the lake suppling the city was frequently close to being out of water several times.) The noise and fumes from the lawn mower were sickening...literally. So starting in 2009 our lawn started disappearing..I dug it all up a little at a time (no machinery or chemicals used) and turned the entire yard area at the front of our house into gardens. I had already done the same to the back yard. Hubby gave the lawn mower and edger away to a friend and was thrilled to not have that chore to do any more. Over the years we have notice a few more homeowners doing the same to their lawns.
We have never mowed our lawn in 3+ years since changing it to Dichondra Repens which grows about 1" high at most. Only downside is the Rabbits love it so they keep it about 0.25" high. They are cheap, fuel efficient and ecologically friendly Long Eared Mowers, occasionally we feed them some carrot slices to complement their Dichondra Diet...
Elevated Bins (8'Lx2'Wx1.5'H) on wheels (hard rubber) for mobility, used just for vegetables like tomatoes & kohlrabi, these are easier to weed and tend to keep other pests such as slugs away. Here in the Pacific Northwest, Rabbits have a hard time with all the predators around such as raccoons & eagles, guess that is maybe why evolution has favored their multiplicity "Multiply like Rabbits".
