BS: Global cool your lawn

Subject: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 05:33 PM

I hate the sound of a lawn mower almost as much as much as the sound of a snowblower.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 06:54 PM

We have a very low maintenance lawn. It gets mowed (with a heavy duty weed wacker) a couple times a season. The rest of our "yard" (we own 33 acres of trees and rock on a south slope -- this is NOT "yard"!) is flower beds, including the area in the middle of the driveway turnaround. That's pretty low maintenance, too -- perennials, etc. -- planted specifically so it was less area to mow. The flower beds are seldom fertilized (except with compost), the "lawn" never. I did use a quick-to-break down weed killer in moderation a couple times when some burdock threatened to take over. Most weeds or annoying plants I pull or (in the case of thorn or blackberry bushes) cut into 6" pieces, remove as much of the roots as possible, and bag and put into the trash. My edible garden is mostly in pots on the deck. Some is in flower borders.

Besides wanting to do the best for the environment, we don't have the time to manicure lawns, etc. as some people think they have to. I like the natural look. I don't mind dandelions and other "weeds" cuz often I eat them. And my neighbors are too far away to worry about any seed proliferation.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 07:09 PM

Hardi hates to mow but thinks he must, so he does.

I tell him our yard is not lawn-type grass but tough pasture-grass trying to grow natural, because-- IT IS.

Since neither of us wants to put the foot down, we go around and around on this-- he trying to make a suburbia-acceptable yard in the middle of a cow farm, and me wanting the wild look.

We end up somewhere in between.

I would prefer to have the yard in crown vetch, and mow walkpaths thru it to the sitting corners.... I may transplant some and mark it with no-mow flags to see if it gets a start. I know once it does-- it will take over, heh heh heh, while he's out of town some summer week.

And if he sees it he will like it. That or phlox. Or both. Both are rampant in these parts, and he loves them both-- so why not in our yard?

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 07:39 PM

Thanks for the link, gnu. Water is at a premium here in the high desert so we are very careful. We have irrigation water, but no pump, so we have it come through in a long hose which Rog moves from area to area, about three spots all told gravity-fed, to water our big trees which provide shade, his rampant grapevine and a few other small things. The lawn never gets watered except by chance from the tree soakings. It does get mowed about once per month from May to last of August, but we use an electric, i.e. quiet, mulching mower and never rake up the leavings. In Wyoming we lived in a subdivision. Our neighbours hated that we didn't mow as often as they did, every week!, and that we had lots of dandelions. They called our house Dandelion Row which I was rather proud of...I made tincture for a friend with liver problems from the roots of a few "sacrifices." The perennials we had up there and here are hardy, drought-tolerant so watering is kept to minimum.

The one thing we've always liked to do is let the grass grow so high it goes to seed. The birds and other critters love it, it looks lovely, and just keeps getting better looking with a nice density. Can't do that here, though, as the foxtail weeds also go to seed and they are everywhere, so it's cut the grass and weeds time more often than we would like. If we watered more, the grass would crowd them out, but then it would be a stress on the water system, etc. etc. There are some other solutions, but none we are able to try at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 07:51 PM

I live in Australia's most densely settled area - about half a kilometre from Sydney's CBD - full of old & new apartment blocks & Victorian terraces. There are several 19th & early 20th century mansions with large grounds in the area, so no doubt they have lawns to mow.

So we don't have lawnmower noise - inner city folks have other noise! Naturally our local council has industrial mowers as we have lots of parks.

The only time I've ever seen a lawnmower around here was an old one - similar to this child's model - used on a tiny front lawn, maybe 10' x 6'.

I've also seen a bloke cutting his similar sized lawn using hedge clippers!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 07:58 PM

We inherited the lawn, like most people. So I cut it about once a week until around August and then cut back to biweekly. We're slowly installing perennials, and eventually it will look pretty nice -- as we install, we're cutting back on the amount that has to be mowed. Hehehehehehe!

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 07:59 PM

By the way, we have an in-ground sprinkler system.

I haven't yet turned it one this year, haven't had to. And it runs at 2 a.m. no more than twice each week for 30 minutes per section.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Bert
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 09:13 PM

"Dandelion Row" I'm proud of you too Kat, I love them.

If you want a low maintenance lawn try clover or yarrow for a rich green that is soft to walk on.

Use a top dressing on your lawn which is a mixture of steer manure and peat moss, one to one per cubic foot. mix it and sprinkle it thinly over the lawn and rake it gently. Do that a few times each season.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 09:23 PM

Now wait... Lawns are a total waste... They waste nitrogen... They pollute with fertilizers... The contribute to global warming becasue they need to be mowed (gasoline) and because grass (mowed) does not exchange CO for oxegen as taller and better developed plants...

I'd like to see as part of a new energy policy a one acre rstriction on mowing... There is no need to have 20 acres of mowed grass around anyone's home... The exceptions would be parks and golf courses... But residential??? Screw 20 acres of grass... There are grasses that are just fine that grow to 15-24 inches and lots of wild flowers that can grown amongst them... That is the way we will one day live... Smaller lawns and more natural palny material... Okay, they will always be some weed amterial but if we were to but an emphasis on hibridizing grasses and wild flowers that are tough then they will beat out the weeds...

Time for ending big grass lawns... Very irresponsible and not good for anyone...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Janie
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 09:30 PM

Thanks, gnu!. I also shared your link in the gardening thread.

I have what amounts to the mid-southern USA equivalent, by accident, not design. Now I don't have to view it as "neglected"!

Seriously, I have a large corner lot with 24 trees - mostly tall, thin oaks, so I have a high canopy that amounts to bright to filtered shade, and the trees greedily suck up most of the moisture and nutrients. Even so, the ground is green with soft fescues, mosses, bluets, some clover (but clover goes dormant here in summer heat), and a few interesting weeds that can be a problem if I don't mow before they set seed. (mostly hawkweeds, trefoils and "pussy-toes." Also have a pretty interesting selection of mushrooms and fungi that appear at various times of year. Right now, a red bolete is cropping up. Haven't keyed it out to see if it is edible.

Anyhoo, it needs mowed every 2-3 weeks April, May, and possibly early June. After that, every 6-8 weeks will do, and then, only to neaten things up a bit and control some of the woodland vines and 1000's of oak seedlings that spring up everywhere. There is a strip and ditch along the front that gets more sun, is more grassy and has more invasive weeds that ought to be mowed weekly, but does OK with being mowed every 2- 2 1/2 weeks. (and the ditch is a bear to mow.) 80% of my lawn maintenance happens for 6-8 weeks October through December. Oak leaves, oak leaves, then more oak leaves.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Bert
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 09:36 PM

Don't mess with lawns under trees, try Vinca or sweet woodruff.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Janie
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 10:25 PM

I love sweet woodruff - but it does not naturalize here in our heat and summer drought. I've grown it before (at another house in this area) and it required a loamy raised bed and frequent irrigation just to survive. My whole yard is under trees that are pretty evenly distributed throughout the property. Vinca is fine, and I am planting it bit-by-bit along a long, exposed clay bank on one side of the property, but would not want a large yard covered with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: LadyJean
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 11:11 PM

A year after I moved in, I dug up the 8x10 patch of grass and turned it into a flower bed. I have Mexican evening primroses. I can reccomend them. They are lovely, low maintenance, and prolific as hell. I started with 3 scrawny plants. Now I must have 30 0ut there.

Much of the back still has to be mowed. I have a rotary mower. The hellhole I call home has a code officer, the wife of a borough councilman. We don't actually have a code, but that doesn't stop the bitch form fining people, so I cut that stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 11:30 PM

Bert!!!
Yes!
Sweet Woodruff is amazing.
My lawn shrinks every year. bought the house with 1.5 acres of grass.
Shrunk it to about 1500 sqft now.
Couple years - nada.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 03:50 AM

Thanks, Bert! I love dandelions.

Yarrow? I have four plants of it and they are very tall, not what I would call great low cover and they do not spread very much at all. I am wondering if you know of some kind of yarrow I am not aware of?

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: gnu
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 05:53 AM

George doesn't like dandelions. His lawn is perfect, front and back along with carefully planned flowers, shrubs, trees, vegetables, fruits, stone walkway... you know, beautiful. This year, he transplanted hostas and purple violets from his backyard to the boulevard (city property between the street and sidewalk). He used to spread the Weed-n-Feed twice a year but it is banned here now. He was out every day with a Weed Hound unmercifully extracting dandelions. He had a fair amount of them because I have about ten million on my lawns.

So, any tips for harvesting and eating my crop of pretty yellow perrenials?

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Janie
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 06:53 AM

Kat, not all species of yarrow would be suitable. common yarrow (a.millefolium) would work here in the east, for instance, while fern-leaf yarrow (a. filipendulina) would not.   

Chamomile seems to work pretty well and be quite tough in the lawns surrounding the county building where I work.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Janie
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 06:58 AM

gnu,

More than you ever wanted to know about fixing dandilions.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Midchuck
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 07:02 AM

How about simply prohibiting riding mowers? I mow somewhat under an acre, largely sloping, with a push mower (i. e. powered blade but I have to move it). Letting it go back to jungle is not a reasonable option, but I would have to spend that much time walking or jogging anyway, out of concern for health, and this is better upper-body exercise.

But I see my neighbors on both sides riding on their machines, burning several times as much gas to do the same job, and getting plumper. I suppose it's all a matter of degree, but still...

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Janie
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 07:36 AM

My old Dad could not possibly do his yard with a push mower, even if he went for a low maintenance lawn that only needed mowed every 6 weeks.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Bobert
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 08:14 AM

I kinda like the idea of making the riding mowers illegal or at least one having to get a special handicap permit to own them...

Think about this... The amount of gasoline (oil) that is required to run these things over the billions of acres of useless grass has to represent one heck of alot of gasoline... Also, just gassing them up exposes gas to the air... Oh sure, there are these new gas spill proff gas cans but they are so pooply designed that you end up spilling more with them than the old fashioned ones...

But I reckon this is one of those things we will get around to once we have internalized that we **are** the source of global warming...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: gnu
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 08:37 AM

Thanks, Janie.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Charmion
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 09:00 AM

We joined the no-more-lawn brigade several years ago. Our handkerchief-sized city lot features a raised bed in front dominated by an ash tree that shelters the house from the northwest wind, and rather a lot of periwinkle. In back we have a teeny-weeny patio with a barbecue, a climbing rose, a lilac bush, and some hosta for the cat to lounge under.

Works for us.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: LilyFestre
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 10:41 AM

We mow a modest area of our yard....no fertilzing or pesticides or any of that but basically to keep the snakes at bay and keep the ticks down for our 4 legged babies. I have to admit, I do like it mowed...not grass course kinda mowed but just neat and sorta tidy.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: gnu
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 11:35 AM

Most lots here are 60' X 100'... ya gotta mow to keep the skeeteers down.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Bert
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 10:52 PM

...Yarrow? I have four plants of it and they are very tall, not what I would call great low cover and they do not spread very much at all. I am wondering if you know of some kind of yarrow I am not aware of?...

Kat, I'm sure that there are low growing varieties that you can buy. We have some wild stuff that is growing in Ma in Law's garden It is very low and would be perfect. I can send you some if you like. or you can wait until it seeds and I could send seeds.

But I think most varieties would spread if they were mowed.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Janie
Date: 09 Jun 10 - 12:10 AM

There are 80 some species of yarrow. Common yarrow and fern leaf yarrow are the two most common cultivars in North America. Common yarrow is native. Fern leaf yarrow is not, (I think it is from the Caucasus (sp) but has naturalized on the West Coast (and maybe in the Rockies)

Common yarrow (a. millefolium) forms low, (dense, if conditions are right) mats of small, finely cut, dark green leaves that readily spread by rhizomes. In the garden bed, the foliage will form into rounded mounds from which the flower-stems emerge (and the after a couple of years, will sprawl and spread everywhere, including into the yard.) If mowed, the mounds do not form, and the plant does not have the opportunity to send up flower stalks, but will colonize or run along just underground to sprout up in bare or thin places in the grass. It does well in a mixed lawn with plenty of sun. It is drought tolerant. I had a 4'x25' bed of a. millefolium "Colorado Mix" at my old house that readily spread into the surrounding yard, where it got mowed every week. The whites and burgundies were hardier, and spread more readily than any of the other colors. The a. millefolium "Cerise Queen," and some wild white a. millefolium I had transplanted from a field colonized the yard even more successfully. Fern-leaf yarrow - most North American cultivars with those fern-like gray-green leaves and tall, yellow flowers are cultivars of a. filipendulina. (or hybrids with the greek a. taygetea) is a wonderful garden plant, as long as it gets divided every 2-3 years, otherwise, it can get to looking quite squirrelly. It is not at all suited for inclusion in a lawn.

Achillea millifolium is highly variable by region, and it is not clear if different species and subspecies have evolved, or if it is all the same species. If I were going to use it as part of a lawn, I would either transplant wild plants growing in my region, or obtain seed or plants from seed or plants developed in my region. And if it wasn't commonly found growing in pastures, meadows or roadsides in my area, I probably wouldn't expect it to do very well as part of a lawn mix in my yard.

Subject: RE: BS: Global cool your lawn
From: Bert
Date: 09 Jun 10 - 06:16 AM

Thanks Janie.