Our front yard is mostly moss mixed with weeds and some grass. It looks terrible and I am thinking about replacing it, but the whole neighborhood has grass in the front yard and the curb strip. I don't want to ruin the look. The mature maples just suck up all the nutrients so I would have to seed and fertilize (and edge) to get the grass to look good. In the backyard, we have more of a meadow situation with clover, violets, wild strawberries, and other weeds amongst the grass, but I don't mind that at all.

a) Green. I guess if I need a more specific answer, I'll check with the gurus over on the Lawn forum
b) God didn't create the Lawn of Eden. Always trying to convert, much to the dismay of DH.

I've got centipede and bermuda in the back yard. I have some fescue that I planted to cover bare areas. I have more clover than actual grass. The front yard is slowly being taken over by violets. I spent last summer making the back yard grass area larger. I'll spend this summer making it smaller as I add more beds. It's way too green back there.

I have no idea what kind of grass is in our lawn? :o). It has a few crocus, lots of creeping veronica, white violets, different kinds of moss, clover and this year the english daisies I planted last fall came back managing to keep their heads under the lawnmower. I keep making the garden beds bigger so eventually I guess it will be green paths that go dormant in the summer because we do not water to keep it green. The only thing we pull are the dandelions.

Annette

We have almost a full acre of lawn, mostly grass though I'm not sure what kind, about 20-some trees, a giant patch of vegetable garden that is so out of control right now it hurts to look at it... and one tiny strip of perennials that I am trying to enlarge. I think we have plenty of room here to have lots of lawn and lots of garden - so I am working on the "lots of garden" portion of that equation! :)

I believe we have primarily kentucky blue grass. The grass in our back yard is in better shape than the grass in my front yard. I have been doing a lot of work on the grass in the front yard. I run an organic lawn care program. To do so, first you stop using chemicals on your lawn. I fertilize several times a year with organic lawn food like soybean meal, alfalfa meal, etc. Yes, I am out there pushing a spreader. I also applied corn gluten meal to the front bed as a preemergent this spring. You have to apply it before the forsythia bloom in order for it to be effective, and you want to apply it when there are going to be five dry days in a row. Last summer I had tons of weeds (I think prostrate knotweed) in my front bed, and I spent hours upon hours hand pulling it to try to prevent it from going to seed. I also have been treating both lawns twice a year with milky spore to try to prevent japanese beetles. Last fall, I had skunks digging in the grass for grubs, so on the advice of the garden center, I applied Milorganite and Molemax, which seemed to be effective in getting rid of the skunks. I also use my weed hound every spring especially but all summer too to get rid of dandelions and other weeds. I don't envision getting rid of any more of the front lawn. I also have the lawn service remove the grass cuttings in the spring instead of leaving them on the grass because of the weed seeds.

For the back yard, the grass is in better shape so I am just fertilizing and applying milky spore back there. I may do the corn gluten meal next spring, too. Right now we have a big swingset with rubber tire mulch under it. I figure we'll have it for another four years. Then I want to take it out and turn it into a beautiful potager. I do worry a bit about what chemicals may have leached out of the rubber tire mulch and into the soil, but I'm sure I will use raised beds with fresh garden soil, and really, it's probably no more chemicals than what you buy at the grocery store.

The only exception to my organic lawn care program is that I have a patch of evil creeping charlie that I am trying to eradicate. I read the the best time to do it is in the fall when the leaves are sending nutrients down to the roots, so I sprayed them with Weed B Gone max last year and I will do so again this fall.

In our immediate front yard I tried hard to get a nice stand of grass, and we have some pretty decent-looking Kentucky Bluegrass. I did the same thing in our side yard with poorer soil and it's on the clumpy side, with room for weeds to get footholds, and they have. The back yard is a mix of perennial rye, bluegrass, and weeds.

I live in the country on a few acres and the rest of the grass in front, and in back around my gardens, is a real mixture of wild stuff with a couple of areas where there are thick patches of smooth bromegrass growing. That's a forage grass, apparently a holdover from the days long ago when it used to be a farm here.

Nope, I'm not wanting to do away with it. I like grass, probably because I literally grew up on a golf course and spent lots and lots of hours trying to make the greens, fairways, and tees look really good. I do have limits though. When the water is coming out of your own well, it's amazing how stingy you can be with it. I only ever water the front lawn, and then just enough to keep it from turning crispy during a dry spell.

ThinMan

I don't know what kind of grass we have. THe lawn is my husband's baby and I do the gardens. Which would explain why the lawn sucks and the garden is awesome! Every year I make the beds a bit bigger and am hoping to eventually do away with the lawn!

What Kind of Grass is in Your Lawn?
I have no idea. And it fends for itself. I spend my time on trees/shrubs/perennials.

Do You Want to Do Away with the Lawn?
Last year I thought about eliminating the front lawn, but now I think I'd like to get the lawns and borders at about a 50/50 ratio. We have to leave a bit of grass in the front to accommodate people getting in and out of cars and piles of shoveled snow in the winter, and in the back we need room for the kiddos to play.

The grass really is greener on the other side since my neighbor runs a lawn service and I run a haven for dandelions, clover and creeping charlie.

The entire front edge of my lawn on one side of my driveway has been turned over to flowers - 10 feet deep by 30 feet long. It runs right along the street edge.

We used to have Bermuda here till about a month or two ago. It has been covered with newspapers and cardboard with top soil and mulch on top. Since that time it has been playing pick-a-boo with us, especially in the places covered by paper. From what I have heard - one can never get rid of Bermuda, only hope and dream and try. That's OK, I've accepted it, and don't mind pulling the occasional strands of grass here and there. Flowers are being planted where the grass used to be. It will be a beautiful cottage garden, where most of bare spots will be blooming and dancing.
"Steppables" will replace patches of grass, and I will invest money in flowers rather then cutting-feeding-chemically treating grass.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE green healthy lawn, it is just trees were getting taller, and Bermuda was getting less attractive and more expensive to maintain, not to mention broken rose bushes and statues my grass cutters would leave behind.
So, the decision was made to make it a flower garden. And I am glad I did!

We have St. Augustine, and if I have to have grass, it is the only kind of grass I want. We do not water it, unless it crunches under your feet. (If you stay on the brick patway, you won't crunch the grass.) I love it.

However, I think grass is really a guy thing. Females are seldom really impressed with grass to the point that they obsess over it the way males do.

I am lucky in that DH lets me do whatever I want as a rule. He realizes my value....wait, that is, he knows I can throw a real hissie if I don't get my way....no, that is, we really always agree on everything.... Really , he is a real sweetie....

Well, the grass is gone on almost all of our property. We rented a sod cutter and removed it, and I have been spending a lot of money.... wait, that is, I have been busy putting in my lovely cottage garden for a couple of years now. DH is wondering if I am ever going to get it finished...

DH did get to keep his mowers tho. We have a very small amount of grass- on the outside of the property, by the street, and he maintains (2) 26 horsepower, 42" cut riding mowers to maintain this amount of grass. Good thing we don't have acreage...we would have to have a tractor and shredder.

Next thing we are gonna have to be discussin' those pecan trees...There is way too much shade over my garden. Pecan trees are also a guy thing...

Janie

We have Zoysia up around the house - it seems to love heat. When all the other grass is crunchy underfoot, it is still thriving and green. The rest is a mixture of Creeping Red something or other - weeds, CRAB GRASS, Ugh, and clover.
I actually only mow an acre or so. The rest is in Hardwoods and Pines, and we're trying our hand with market gardening this year and have 3 acres in flowers and vegetables.

We don't water grass - it just has to suffer. We're on well water with no access to city water.

No plans to get rid of the grass - I love to mow. I do have plans to add more gardens, but here's how the conversation with Sweetie goes when I talk to him about it. "Where can I put it?"
"Doesn't matter"
"Then I think I'll do it here"
"No, don't put it there"
"But, I thought it didn't matter"
"It doesn't"
"Then, I think I'll do it over there"
"No, Don't do it over there"
"But, I thought it didn't matter"
and it just goes on and on......