Organic Lawn Care For the Cheap and Lazy
richsoil.com
richsoil.com
The rough idea is to use local, endemic plants. They'll have a much higher tolerance range for your area's pests and climate conditions. I understand the appeal of grass, and certainly love lying down to read on a slightly sloping lawn, but there are certain areas where the combination of soil and climate should make it inordinately expensive to grow and maintain one. We just collectively happen to provide huge subsidies (in the form of extremely cheap water and minimal restrictions on use) for households that want to have a lawn in those areas. That's also ignoring all of the other negative environmental and infrastructural externalities around everyone having a lawn.
It's a cultural thing, afaik. Somehow (during the previous century I assume) it became important, or a sign of wealth, or maybe even a display of 'I'm living the dream' to have a nice green lawn. Without any impurities of course. And as flat as possible. So it turns into something that is considered aesthetically pleasing as well. I noticed that whan asking people with such a lawn why exactly they want it like that, they mostly remain pretty vague and cannot give much reason to it - which for me is a reason to support my belief it's purely cultural, as it doesn't have much, if any, benefits. Not for the people having to keep it like that, nor for nature.
That last thing bothers me most: for most animal life not bound to soil, a lawn without any weeds wahtsoever is essentially worthless. If you're lucky you'll get some birds able to get the earthworms out but that's it. Bees and butterflies and the likes don't benefit from it. Which is why natural landscaping (or basically, just let nature have it's go at it without much human intervention) is imo always better. We have a couple of acres of land like that: it is mainly left as-is (apart from getting rid of occasional non-local plants and making some pathways through the grass with a mower) and it's a home to a wealth of local plants and animals. The neighbour's land however is dead in comparision, no matter how green his lawn is shining.
Watering deeply and infrequently is very good advice though. If you have a sprinkler system with zones, it's good practice to run 10-15 minutes per zone depending on the type of sprinkler head in each zone. Do that for all zones then repeat. This will result in a much deeper soaking and lower runoff amounts.
Check your sprinkler heads yearly and replace ones that are broken or misdirected.
Fertilization should again be according to the type of grass you have. You would never fertilize corn the same way you fertilize beans (trick question, you shouldn't fertilize legumes) so you shouldn't expect to fertilize different grasses the same amount or time.
Lawn care in Boston is going to be drastically different from lawn care in Dallas. Do a little bit of research for your area and your grass type and then you can develop your own guide for the cheap and lazy.
(I live in NJ, I have Bluegrass, 6-zones in my sprinkler system)
About "Watering deeply and infrequently": I thought 30 minutes per zone, 2x/week accomplished that. Are you suggesting watering for 15 minutes and running through the zones 2x each time I water?
It's "landscaping and gardening that reduces or eliminates the need for supplemental water from irrigation," frequently with native species.
We xeriscaped much of our yard in Austin, Texas, and if it can work in Texas, then it can work anywhere. My wife took great care to make sure many of the plants were attractive to wildlife (bees, butterflies, hummingbirds) which was an added bonus. (Did you know that hummingbirds are crazy aggressive and territorial? They are!)
"Native plants" doesn't just mean ugly scrub brush either: plenty of beautiful plants grow natively where you are - but you'll probably have to look further than Home Depot to find them.
In re native plants, it is possible to grow a quasi-traditional grass lawn using native grasses, like Buffalograss. It will look like prairie grass, and not necessarily like the archetypal, deep-green fescue patch. But if you're living in a drought-prone area, you really shouldn't be growing thirsty, exotic grass lawns in the first place. It's bordering on socially irresponsible in certain parts of the country (Southern California, I'm looking at you).
And you're right on about Buffalo grass - it was pretty popular in the Austin, TX area.
I have one of the manual reel mowers listed. I love it. Not only does it give a better cut, it uses no gas and doesn't have all the associated hassles (pull start etc) of a gas mower. It's only slightly more effort to use than a gas mower too. And it cost like $100 as opposed to 3-$400. I predict it lasts much longer as well.
I worked on a golf course when I was a kid and they used high dollar gas powered reel mowers on the putting greens and rotary mowers on the rest.
Reel mowers do really give a nice cleaner cut... particularly if the blade on your gas mower is a bit dull. They don't rip the top of the grass leaves like a rotary mower.
For $100 it might be worth experimenting. You may really enjoy using it. I know I do and wouldn't go back to a rotary mower. There is something fun about the way the reel slices the grass. Something like a paper cutter.
You have to stay on top of the length with a reel mower which means regularity. You can't plow through really long grass like you would with a gas rotary mower.
Fortunately I really enjoy it and look forward to mowing. It's a break from sitting in front of a screen and is kind of like a long walk with a little arm activity too.
It is a topic of great argument if you'll get bit by more mosquitos using the manual or powered mower.
Not to ruin the love fest but my experience is manual mowers don't tolerate rocks and kids toys.
But, then again, they don't chuck rocks through your neighbors car window either. Power rotary mowers are a bit dangerous sometimes.
But I guess you can do it yourself... (this is actually interesting).
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/06/28/how-to-sharpen-a-re...
I am thinking about getting a reel.
North American native grasses are the best way to go. Search on "north american native grass" for a window on more appropriate grasses.
Here's a link[1] to an article on grass types and drought by Texas Cooperative Extension (via Texas A&M University).
[1] http://publications.tamu.edu/TURF_LANDSCAPE/PUB_turf_Keep%20...
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_State_Research,_Edu...
So when I see clover getting dispersed through my grass, I get quite happy. Much better than bindweed, which took me a few years to get out :-)
http://publications.tamu.edu/TURF_LANDSCAPE/PUB_turf_Maintai...
This is probably because the previous owners of the lawn didn't take great care of it and there's already some thin spots.
So I have to cut it to about 2 inches to allow all the grass a chance to grow.
It's got to be cleverer than mowing less frequently. Surely there's some way to hack lawns so they require almost no care at all right?
(Short of buying a townhome?)
Seems like something that you might not necessarily want to introduce.
Have to shake your head when you see people with artificial turf that has weeds sprouting through it too. Worst of both worlds - dorky looking surface, plus still get the weeds!
The key isn't infrequent mowing, it's letting the grass grow tall, especially in the spring, before bringing it down. I mow just as often as others, just not as short. The article nicely lays out the reasons why one would do this.
Nature doesn't need hacking. It needs to be understood. Learn about the root systems of grass, and that stuff on top everyone seems to care about is simple.
That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid! :)
(Thank you for your post though, interesting clarification on how that approach to lawn care works.)
It is a great resource for public spaces like parks and sports fields but maintaining it domestically seems to belong to a distant past. Domestic water has to be potable. Parks can use lower quality waste water and they can manage it better. Some people have huge rainwater storage but even then lawn has to be scaled back in a dry climate.
When I was a kid just about everyone had a quarter acre block with a house and shedding (garage, garden, tools etc) a veggie garden and a big front and back lawn.
I learnt to ride my bike on our big lawn. Played backyard cricket on it. Got stung by bees on the clover. And summer meant playing under the sprinklers running during the daytime with no thought to waste or expense. Golden age.
Drought water restrictions killed most lawns where I lived and when they were lifted most people didn't bother to reestablish them. Most of the green yards of my youth are now bark and natives, glyphosated bare earth or weeds. It sucks for kids. Kicking a ball around without lawn isn't the same. It is another of those childhood freedoms people used to take for granted that seems to have disappeared.
Clay soil is a bear, especially when it's been compacted. I had to deal with it for many years when I lived in LA. There are no fantastic solutions that don't risk making the problem worse than it already is. The best you can do is compost generously, and hope for a slow improvement over time. Do not attempt to till the soil or mix in sand. This can actually make the problem 10x worse, creating a sort of concrete-like substance as the clay and sand particles interlock.
I'm surprised that many years of people mowing their lawns hasn't evolved plants which don't waste resources growing above the mow height. Perhaps the trait could be selectively bred into them manually.
*bacteria in certain temp ranges obviously, a boston winter won't be any good for this.
THis only works if your waters has been chlorinated. chloramine is much more stable and is also commonly used - it does not break down in the water over short periods of time, so letting it sit for a couple of days won't remove it.
I believe that should be the other way around.