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Managing overly large lawn areas (?)

sujiwan_gw 6b MD/PA

13 years ago

We have a farmette with an area the previous owners devoted to grass that is hard to keep up with. I've been concentrating on putting in orchards, windbreaks, a large vegetable garden and many perennial borders and beds and haven't had much inclination or time to look after the lawn. Even mowing the remaining grass takes a long time and is for us, more than a one day job on the riding mower.

I wouldn't mind having an area close to the house that gets more attention and regular mowing--we kind of have a smaller triangle of grass between sidewalks that serves that purpose, but even that isn't mowed as often as it should be because there is so much else to maintain. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the yard has become much more weedy--I have a real problem infestation of the buckthorn plantain--I see more of that than grass n certain places-thousands of this weed. There's also a constant battle with sprouting poison ivy in other sections under trees.

I see many houses in the country with insanely large areas of just grass around the house and wonder how they manage to keep up. I can't imagine the costs of fertilizer or weed killer for multiple acres of grass. Is there a maintenance method that gives better weed control? How do I rid myself of this buckthorn?

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