What about Lawns?

What about Lawns?

Having just subscribed to Dave’s Garden Forums I was surprised to find tidbits here and there about lawns salted and peppered through many forums. Most notably, Grass and Bamboo, and then again under Wild Plants, sub-classification Dead Lawn Society. But no forum for lawns per se. After all, lawns are gardens consisting of lawn grasses – and I’d wager the most challenging of all gardens to successfully maintain, containing a hundred or more individual plants per square foot, demanding an array of laborious, expensive, and extensive chores encompassing weed, disease, insect, and pest control; not to mention fertilizing, mowing, watering, soil conditioning, aerating, thatching, and periodic renovation or even complete reinstallation.

Perhaps a Lawn forum is in order for those who have the fortitude, or whatever, to cope with the challenge of lawn gardening – if only when viewed from the other side of the street after mowing.

This message was edited Nov 27, 2004 6:12 AM

This message was edited Nov 27, 2004 6:13 AM

Many here are trying to get rid of their lawns... for example:

By the way, shakemh, Welcome to DG!

A lush green, healthy lawn is indeed a beautiful site to see! I cannot speak for everyone here but for many of us with smaller lots, we kind of have to chose the lawn or the flowers. It further complicates things once we start collecting certain families of plants. I had nothing but lawn 14 years ago when I bought my home. Slowly over the last 8 or so years, I have wittled away until I only have paths of grass between my various beds. One of these days when I get my acreage, I want a big lush lawn with wavy edges, room for the kids to run and all my various collections of plants at the perimeters somewhere. For now though, I can't have both.

Welcome to DG! Do you have any photos of your grass?
Michele

I have been whittling away at my lawn for the last 10 years I have lived here. I have succeeded in eliminating most of the back and am now also working on the front..

I went to master composting classes and the instructor mentioned that more money is spent on trying to grow grass than any other living plant..he was a big advocate of eliminating the grass from the landscape and using all that money more productively. I was a convert from that moment on...

edited to correct typos....

This message was edited Nov 27, 2004 9:14 AM

Lawn = daylily bed I haven't gotten around to digging up yet.
Don

As a charter member of the Dead Lawn Society I have to admit that if I lived in New Jersey as you do Shakemh, with rain that falls from the skies to take care of the watering I *might* not have been so ready to do away with my lawn.

I love the green of a healthy lawn. Where I grew up in the Catskills of NYstate folks just had grass lawns with a few dandys and other weed types intermixed. No one had special sod, or seeded special grass for their lawns and kids ran from one yard to the next with no fences to stop them.

Jerry Baker has a recipe for greening up lawns that a friend of mine used with great success - it had, as I remember, both beer and listerine, shampoo and some other stuff mixed up in a hose end sprayer and we giggled about how it smelled.
But then she sprays fish emulsion on her flowerbed and that smells pretty awesome too.

There MUST be some true lawn afficianados on here - some of the DG ladies have DH's that guard their lawns against flower encroachment.

There are a number of buffalo grass lawns appearing here in high desert Moab. Supposed to need much less care and water, seems to be working. ]:>) ~Blooms

Michele/badseed

I’m sorry being a little late with those “grass” pictures you asked for in your 11/27/04 response in the General Disc., Lawn thread.

Below are photos of the grassed areas in front of my house, so by definition, they are lawns. There are also other grass areas on the sides and in back that I have not included since, by def. they are not lawns.

I have also included a photo, for the fun of it, of the “alien”. It is a piece of driftwood I have stood on end at the end of the street in the midst of a wild flower garden. At Halloween, it wears a witch’s hat and rides a broom. At Xmas, a santa hat, and totes a sack. And, is spotlighted at night too boot.

the more it is trodden on the faster it grows
KING HENRY IV PART I (ACT II SCENE IV)

Photo 2

This green plot shall be our stage
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (ACT III SCENE I)

Photo 3

this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in every thing.
I would not change it.
AS YOU LIKE IT (ACT II SCENE I)

Photo 4

I must go seek some dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (ACT II SCENE I)

No wonder you posted for a "Lawn" forum... you actually have one! And I don't mean the postage-stamp size so many of us have. GREAT lawn, love it!

That IS nice! One question, you have a riding mower, don't ya? LOL I'd love to have all that lawn. Someday I will. Hubby and I are killing ourselves right now so we can move out of the city a bit in under two years. If I don't get my acreage soon and get my kids out of this school system, I may be on the news for taking over a farm somewhere. :)

Your lawn is gorgeous!

Yeah! That's the kind of lawn I remember. :>)

Beautiful! My father's lawn looks like this. I have a lot more weeds and a lot more dogs than Dad does though! How do you get the grass right up against those tree trunks? I have rings around the trees where not much will grow.

Michele/badseed

Thanks again. Not only do I have a riding mower, but also a walk-behind for trimming, also there is the edging. Plus a Cyclone Rake for Fall leaf pick-up and shredding.

I am a lawn addict, but have experience as a turf consultant for golf courses. But even so, lawns are like black holes into which money drains.

Healthy lawns require pest controls, fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and watering; plus other laborious chores like you can't believe; all of which can become time consuming and very expensive, and don't always produce the results you'd like.

I guess you've heard this from many DG'ers. But even so, there is nothing like a great lawn to draw attention to a home-site and accentuate a house and its landscape of borders and other plantings,

Incidently, you live in great grass growing country.

shakemh

LOL I KNEW you had a rider! :) My yard is down to paths of grass between flower gardens now. It takes me longer to do all the trimming than it does to mow!! I can't wait until I get enough land to have room for all that green and not feel deprived.

Michele/Badseed

Based on the actions and contributions listed in your Garden Site I’d venture to say that if you acquired more land you would plant more garden plants and widen the paths. Meaning that if you did grow grass to any extent, other than in your pathways, you had better get a riding mower, and perhaps the services of a rider, or you won’t have enough time left in your otherwise busy day to do any gardening.

shakemh

Back to the original idea....what about a lawn forum?

While many gardeners are doing everything they can to minimize their turf area, the fact is most of us still have SOME lawn to maintain, and there are definitely some tips and tricks to keeping it lush and healthy without spending all our spare time and money on it (and using wayyyyy too many chemicals.)

ZD I love your post (lawn=Daylily bed not yet dug)......I have gone from 80% lawn to 10% lawn and love it love it love it.

I used to think of grass as a necessary evil. - somewhere for the kids to play.

But, I do see benefits to it - it cools the surroundings.
it gives me a comfy place to kneel and weed my beds around it
I can divert water runoff to moisture-loving plants
I can keep plants with similar needs closer in

Mine is small (just big enough for a slip and slide!) - I tore out about 1/3 of it last year, but I kind of enjoy mowing it. I use organic amendments and it doesn't need very much fuss here (Z5).
I, for one, would really enjoy a lawn forum, I could probably learn a lot! - Christie

OMG! I just saw this post again. It was lost to me since before the Dec 4th post! If I had more land, I'd have larger paths, more flowers, more beds and yes, more grass. :O) BUT, my eldest daughter is 11, soon to be 12 and I'd bet she would love to practice her driving on a lawnmower. LOL

Yeah, what Terry said....what about a lawn forum?

I have 5 acres, and the house and gardens take maybe two of those acres. So that leaves me with 3 acres of lawn to care for. We have two riding mowers, two push mowers, and all the other gadgets like leaf sucker, edger etc.

I do love my lawn, and wouldn't do away with all of it for anything. There's nothing like walking barefoot through a nice soft green lawn, and I can't imagine a baby playing out in the garden mulch. I do, however, have visions of grandkids playing on the lawn.

However, most of my lawn acreage isn't doing too well. The grass right around the house and gardens is doing fine, so I suspect the rest of it isn't getting enough water.

There's only so many hours in a day, and the well will only run so many sprinklers at a time....sigh...

Oh wow, a new Forum about Exotics?! I could go for some of that. ;)

*has a lawn area in dire need of something besides clumps*

Donna

As much as I would like to have nothing but flower beds, I do always need lawn help. A lawn forum would be great for me. :-)
Terrie

I'm with Terrie a lawn forum would be great as I can always use help with my lawn.

Vi

I'm redoing a small lawn. Any ideas about using a pre-emergent fertilizer?
Allen

ok, i finally got around to reading this thread...

and I see a post from my beloved... wherein she comments upon the negative aspects of my / our BEAUTIFUL LAWN!!! (ok, so its well mowed weeds)...

it does sorta look good this spring tho...

lol...

Arod

Okay, you lawn experts....I have a small backyard lawn of bluegrass. What is the best way to overseed with something less water hungry than blue. Help me!