Hmmm, I just had a thought. What happens in winter??? Dirt?

I, too, am currently loving when I see 'drought tolerant,' as the watering can get so cumbersome when you're using a hose, esp when already tired for the day.

Our grass is way too brown right now. Lots of weeds.

I have waaayyyy too much lawn right now, but I'm going to work on it. ;-)) Voles attacked last winter, at least I think it was voles, not moles, but who knows. They did a lot of damage, so I stomped the hills down and added grass seed in the bare patches. When the spirit moves me, I do fertilize, though not as religiously as I do in my gardens. No chemicals - I give neighbours who use them the evil eye - lol. I like it to look nice, but sure ain't the 6th green at Torrey Pines!!

Nancy- who needs to cut her grass tomorrow. 8-(

There was a time that clover was part of lawn seed mixes on purpose probably because it was good for the soil.
Remy
Oh and I don't care about my lawn : )

Here is a link that might be useful: Clover

Our "lawn" isn't a seeded lawn. It's an old dairy meadow. Survival of the fittest...whatever is out there! My DH just mowed it (almost 2 acres). He mows it once a week and it looks good from the road considering all the bare spots. According to our covenants, the grass height can't exceed 9" or we get fined.

Hi,

Im in the same place you are. I don't care about it. I mow it when the tops of the clover tickle my legs. I like the clover as my lawn is mostly purple and white clover. Its such a nice green purple and white. When a wild daisy or black eyed susan shows up I mow around it until they are done blooming, when I get the time I will dig it up and move it.

I haven't any neighbors so no one cares. Well the ones down the road hay their lawn, no kidding.

This works for me and I can be happy im in good company.

:)
Karyn

I do, but I cheat, I do all my own garden work but I pay for lawn service, my husband and I have not the desire to mow lawn..tho we do like it to look good. We spend our free time gardening and pay for lawn maintaince. I like it nice tho, weeds bug me for several reasons, I don't like the look, I don't like them appearing in my beds, and I consider the nice green lawn a "Picture Frame" for my flowers. If the frame looks good along with the picture, it doesnt get any better than that. On the flip side, my neighbors don't do anything other than mow...and the weeds they breed seed into mine. But weed and feed several times a year works wonders reguardless.

I do care about my lawn. I've got lots of weeds and a mix of fescue and bermuda grass but as long as its green I don't mind. I love to mow. I have a riding lawn mower, but I'd love it even if I had a push mower. Up until this year I paid the boy across the street to do weed wacking for me. He has better things to do now that he's out of school and I didn't want to pay $50 every time the curbing and my flower beds needed edging...so...I bought a battery operated weed wacker. It's WONDERFUL. Very light and easy to use. I usually can't get all the edging done with one charge but that's fine, I finish up the next day. The weed wacker is perfect also for triming back creeping phlox, lirope, dianthus...etc. It's probably one of my smarter purchases.
Vikki

Here is a link that might be useful: Hedge Hog

Vikki, how do you start your weed whacker? Is it push button start?

-Sharon

Oh, that's got my attention too! I've been thinking about something non-gas like that, too, the last few years. The ad doesn't say much, though. Wondering more about it and how heavy-duty or long it will last -- you just got it this year? Is it nylon or another type of string? What type of battery/charge does it take? Is it heavy or awkward to use? No safety hazards?

I am envious of our neighbor who lives on her own, and has gotten rid of all of her grass. That's what I'd do if it were up to me. At least there would be less of it than there is now. We live in the house my dh grew up in. It's a corner lot. We just found out our part is only 40 by 120 feet, so we can't have a shed built where the old one is because it is too close to the city's part of the property, and doesn't line up with the houses behind us. We are pretty bummed they would rather have that falling apart thing there than a nice new one. We're thinking about getting one of those plastic dealies, but it will be so uncottagy!

DH does the mowing, and keeps it quite short. He'll go out and mow when it doesn't look like it needs it to me. He goes around each spring with his dandelion stick to get rid of the weeds. It bugs him that the neighbors don't do the same. We do have a patch of some kind of creeping weed with roundish leaves, Creeping Charlie, maybe, that dh planted from Boy Scout Camp when he was a kid. It gets into one of my flower beds, too. He also hired a service to do the fertilizing and they do the pre-emergent and whatever else they do. I remind them each year to keep that stuff of my flower beds I'm trying to keep organic.

Do I care about the lawn? I guess it's OK. I'll live with it.

Sue

Well, a few people, one in MA, say their clover doesn't die off during the winter and is green! Came across something about clover mites (darn!) but apparently they love clover and grass, esp the beautiful fertilized lawns. I'm wondering if I'd regret spreading some low-growing Dutch clover seed : )

So lvtgrdn, what does your neighbor have going on that she has no grass anymore???

We have lawns to hold the flower beds together. When the grass is mowed, from a distance it looks cared for even when the flower beds are ratty.

He-who-mows mows around the house and in the front with a riding lawnmower, then the perimeter with a tractor-drawn 7 foot mower and then outside that with a 14 foot mower behind a bigger tractor.
Clickable photos, right click for options.

We never fertilize or put out weed killer. Centipede grass near the house, Bahia farther out. Only water around the house in worst droughts when DH worries about fire near the house, the rest goes dormant. If I think of it, in fall I scatter a bag of rye grass seed to have a green lawn in winter.

Nell

I just keep it mowed and trimmed. I am not a lawn person at all. It would cost a fortune to keep mine weeded and feeded!
I did spray for dandelions a few years ago but they are back again. At a distance,it looks OK, at least it suits me fine.

Yes and no. I seeded the front yard in a bluegrass blend that is now pretty nice and thick. I fertilizer it monthly, and water it if it starts to turn brown. Side and back yards near the house get fertilizer once a month, but no water. I avoid weed killers, although I have used one to spot spray weeds that are really bad. I love the look of a nice green lawn, but I'm not willing to pay the price and use the resources to make it all that way. We have six acres, and farther from the house only gets mowed, some parts only two or three times a year.

ThinMan

This is such a great question.

I have been so focused on my garden beds that I have totally ignored our lawn for four summers. No fertilizer, no weed killer, no watering. just the lawn guy mowing every week. Last summer I realized that the front lawn looked awful, so I had some compost spread on it (to reestablish the microoranisms in the soil).

This year, I realized that the front lawn is totally infested with prostrate knotweed, and there are probably six other weeds going on up there, too. Still lots of bare spots. I have fertilized twice, once with Scott's organic lawn fertilizer and once with corn gluten meal. I have been hand pulling the weeds for up to an hour every day. It's like emptying a leaky rowboat with a thimble. Knotweed is an annual, so I want to keep it from reseeding itself even more next year. I am going to try to overseed this fall and then put down corn gluten meal (which has a preemergent effect) late fall and early spring.

Wish me luck!
Rachel

nope. dh was all about having a lawn when we moved in but now after a couple of years of my encroaching on it, he is sick of it as well.

for our front lawn all we've ever done with it is weed and feed once a year and mow once every week or two. it's never been watered by us. our back yard lawn is mostly clover so it just gets mowed.

DH takes care of it - my late husband had started a pretty good zoysia lawn so we have taken plugs from that and filled bare areas but that is about it. If clover creeps in and it does it is no big deal - I love clover. The violas that have seeded in here and there are just happy little surprises. The areas that don't have a good zoysia base just get mowed - when it is all the same level it all looks green. I keep expanding beds anyways so why work for perfect grass when in a year I will probably be digging it up. Eventually I want just paths between gardens.....

Lynne

Lawn? Hear my wicked cackle of unholy glee... I've almost finished getting rid of ALL of my grass, replaced almost all of it now with flowerbeds and paths. I just hate grass. I'm allergic to grass pollen, which makes me miserable and makes my hatred of grass more personal :) My yard isn't very big, so for me a lawn is not very practical because it takes up the flower-room. And I hate mowing. I'll weed for weeks, deadhead for days, but I have no patience for mowing... I'll mow for a minute and then I'm just sick of it.

It helps that there's a park practically across the street, so my kids aren't too cheated out of play area.

I don't mind cutting and edging the grass. ONLY because I have the right equipment.
1. Key start, gas powered, selfpropelled lawnmower.
2. Battery powered weed/edge swivel headed trimmer. extra battery.

When we moved into our cottage in '73', it was surrounded by lawn, with a circular drive up front. Slowly over the years we've done away with more and more of the grass, due to gardens and several out buildings. What's left I mow, and use the electric weedwacker on. I like the grass strip down the middle of our driveway and love the look of the place after I've mowed and weedwacked.

FlowerLady

Actually, I love to mow. We have about 2 acres of lawn so I use a rider mower. It is therapeutic to me to hop on the mower and go to town. Love the sound of the mower and love seeing and smelling a newly clipped lawn.

I attempted to start doing the lawn care program last year as my lawn is full of weeds in spots and dead in others. This year my spreader broke and I managed to only fertilize a small part of my lawn. My feeling is if you have lawn no matter how much of it, keep it green and clipped.

I love my lawn! DH says I'm a little anal about it. I do all of the yard work. I start by weeding the flower beds, then I use a Stihl weedeater (gas powered, pull-rope start) and weedeat the whole place, around DH's construction equipment, his shops, barn, round pens, fences and his parents place), then I use a push mower (John Deere self propelled mulcher/bagger, pull-rope start). I always use the mulcher on the lawn. No one is allowed to mow the yard but me, and if someone has to they are not allowed to use a riding mower or my FIL's tractor with the mower attachment. I don't like how it looks mowed with anything other than a push mower. Not to mention that I use my yard work time for thinking, singing, and it's great exercise, especially on the sloped back yard. I feel great after a day of yard work and I love the smell of fresh cut grass.
We have about 5 acres and it used to be heavily wooded so our grass is far from the best. We did start from scratch around the house and had a decent thing going but 3 years later we have clover and still some bare spots. No dandelions yet ;) The ground is so hard, I've thought about wearing my sons metal baseball cleats the next time I mow to try to aerate it some. I have used fertilizer and lime but not to great extents and not regularly. I have only mowed it twice this year as we haven't had much rain. The only extra water it has gotten is when we wash the cars or something in it. I have thought about more gardens and less lawn but DH is not so into that idea just yet. Maybe I should make him do the yard work from now on and he'd be persuaded, LOL.
I realize that up here I'm not going to have the lush, green lawn like you see in some magazines and stuff but I do like it to look nice. When the lawn is neat and tidy, the rest of the home looks nice too I think.

Not a bit. Though now that you mention it, maybe if I get rid of the weeds in it, there would be fewer in the flower beds.

I too love to mow. To me a nice lawn makes the flowers look even better in mho. Though I do admit that I want to make less of it to make room for more beds. My DH wants lawn and so in the end I have no choice but to keep it.

We love our lawns,but our neighbor does lawn service for a living so he does ours,mows,trims,fertilizes,and cleanup for 40.00 a month.Because as he so nicely told me,i'm a Good neighbor!! Works for me,so then dh and i just take care of the gardens,although these days for the past 2 mos it's been only dh since i had surgery.So i think i'll keep him!! :)
Kathi

Nope, I too have a yard full of weeds. I would love to have all flowers and no yard.....

No, I don't care about the lawn! If I had my way, we'd have no grass in the yard at all! I keep trying to get rid of it, and do manage a bit each year as the borders, beds, and pathways, and sitting areas always seem to expand a bit more.

Be Safe, Rach

I'm with Rach! I don't care about lawn...I don't have a lawn to care about anyway!!

GGG

I have to admit, I do care. At our old house, I refused to have a lawn service for ages, but finally found one that did organic fertilizer, and it looked great. Then, we moved, to a house that had been rather neglected (homeowner in bad health), so in areas, there are more weeds than grass. Last year, I tried to deal with it ourselves to save some money, but this year, I gave up and hired back the same service. We have creeping Charlie up the wazoo in the backyard, and if I'm not careful, it will take over the entire yard. So, yeah, I let them spray nasty chemicals - and I may need to have them do some more spraying. Waah. Part of the problem is that last summer, I let the grass go dormant, and then it couldn't compete with the creeping Charlie at all, so it had free rein. So, this summer, I may actually water if we ever actually hit a dry spell.

Hmmm . . . yes and no. We only have a small lawn in front since we took out the larger lawn in back. I miss the back one because it helped keep the dirt out of the house and hence less scratches on the wood floors (soil is decomposed granite - nuff said). But I didn't like the way it got into all the beds and the consequent weeding. We are working on putting stone pavers in the paths with ground cover in between.

The small lawn in front looks nice - no chemicals, just a top dressing of alfalfa meal in the spring and fall, and sometimes composted chicken manure. It is Kentucky bluegrass and rarely gets any weeds except the occasional dandelion. I like the lush look of it surrounded by the rose and perennial filled beds. DH mows it with a push mower and trims the edges with a weedwacker. It doesn't take more than a half hour or so to maintain.

I wouldn't mind replacing it but we haven't decided what would look good in its place. If we find a cottage looking water feature/fountain that could go in the center of the space, and then surround it with more roses and other bloomers, plus a stone path, we'd probably take out the grass in a heart beat. If any of you see such a feature. please let me know. : )

Diana

I would like a nice uniform perfect green lawn, so yeah I care. However, we have sandy "soil" and periodic drought conditions in Florida. To have a really nice lawn, I would have to spend thousands of dollars installing a new sprinkler system, new sod (because grass seeds do not germinate very well here), fertilizer, and pesticides. I am unwilling to put this much money and work into the lawn.

A nice lawn cannot possible be as rewarding as watching butterflies on your milkweed, waiting for your roses to bloom, or getting the new exotic bulbs from a garden catalog. The goal of lawncare is to maintain a uniform unchanging, boring space. Gardening is more like art. It lets you express yourself, create beauty, and enjoy nature.

Yes I do. . .see?
{{gwi:729455}}

I would estimate we devote less than 75 square feet of our space to a lawn. And it's the biggest pain in the butt in the entire garden. It drinks more water than any other piece of garden real estate, requires weekly maintenance, and must be serviced by a space grabbing lawnmower. I'm all for pulling the last vestiges of grass from our yard, but Brian still loves our postage stamp "lawn". A beautifully manicured lawn (such as dbfirewifes' above) is a lovely thing to behold. We just shouldn't do it here in California. My two cents.

I do not have a lawn. Never had one, since I decided against it right from the moment I started the garden. I have nothing against lawns *in the right climate* - such as Scotland or England - but in a zone 10 dry Mediterranean climate keeping a lush lawn costs more money and effort than I'm willing to spend. Besides looking totally unnatural. Too many great trees/shrubs/flowers/roses that I would like to grow instead of grass.

In the right climate, as "empty" space to make borders pop out I think they can be a beautiful thing. Even so, I dislike the use of chemicals to maintain them, so even if I had the right climate conditions I would probably not have a perfect lawn.

Eduarda

I care about my lawn. :) I care about how long it's going to take me to dig the rest of it out and replace it with garden!

Lynda

I have only been married 10 months and my DH lived here before me and he put down class five, (that is what they make dirt rodes out of) it is all the way around our house. A one acer lot. We have a lot of deer, just saw two babies checking out my new Garden fence two days ago. My garden in technically on my father-in-laws land behind our house. And the bunnies are everywhere and my sons 3 and 5 think they are going to catch one someday, they keep trying. So far I have just started my garden 30x30 but my thought is within the next few years make the best of the class five with raised flag stone beds and shrubs and stuff like that. We are the last house before 80 acres of undeveloped land owned by my husbands family. IE the deer and bunnies. On one side is a block of family: mother and father-in-law, old grandma and cousin-in-law, and aunt and uncle. One the other side a neighbor that told me, when I apologized for my DH's yard, that drug dealers used to deal there. They used to come to this dead end all the time and meet, he said every 20-40 minutes. Wow. Anyway, when DH moved in to the house he built he walked up to every car that came and told them it was privet property, even in the middle of the night (he was armed). I guess it took months to get rid of them all but the neighbor said he was so grateful because he has three small kids and the dealer and buyers did not drive slowly, that he would never care about how our yard looked. So, as long as no one else cares and I have my garden, I guess I don't care.

MGG, Amy

No!!!!

"My "lawn" is simply mown green weeds. If I used weedkiller, I wouldn't have anything left."

This discribes my lawn perfectly. I refuse to use chemical. There is a big flush of dandilions in spring, followed by a big flush of clover. After that you can see all the plantain. Keeping it cut, makes it look green...until it turns brown end of July to early Aug. lol. I suspect it will stay green this year because I switch to watering overhead this year......so it does get some water......it never did before this year. There is more grass creeping into the gardens than there is in the actual lawn.

Who has time to be bothered with something that doesn't flower? Wait a minute....my lawn does flower. LOLLLL!!!!

Sierra

Nope, not I. The weeds and scraggly grass is only there to hold the dirt in place until I can plant more flowers...LOL!!

I do like my lawn but the lady of the house is slowly having it removed from the front of the house and replacing it with flower gardens. However the backyard will remain as the dogs need somewhere to play and run amuck. That said I don't fertilize it or water and only occasionally remember to have it aerated. I will remove the dandelions and the rare thistle but the neighbors encroaching clover I leave be. The grass in the back gets pretty long as I mow it only every other time that the front gets done.

"I care about my lawn. :) I care about how long it's going to take me to dig the rest of it out and replace it with garden!"

LOL! We have been having rain every day for the last week. It's making it so much easier to dig out unwanted grass. I now have a nice new bed for 'English Garden', an Austin rose I've been keeping alive in a pot. Time for it to get a new home. : )

Diana

Same goes for me. Grass and clover gets mowed by landscaper-guy. Otherwise, it is just future garden beds. I keep enlarging the current beds; one day my husband will wake up and wonder where the lawn has gotten to.

Yes.

Especially after I got rid of my grass (weed) lawn and put down an eco-lawn.

{{gwi:635941}}

Here is a link that might be useful: More pictures of my eco-lawn.

Oh, that's VERY pretty!! I love the little blossoms.

I also care only insofar as the lawn is a frame for the flowerbeds. I like having a place for the eye to rest but it certainly doesn't have to be perfect - just relatively monochromatic. I'm just grateful that most weeds are green. If they were purple I'd have a problem.

That said, I do also appreciate the fact that grass holds our sand (which we have in place of soil) together. A friend has no grass in his front yard and it is hard to even walk there. Like trudging through the dunes. It stops erosion down into the driveway and makes getting around much easier. It also supplies a place to clean off your shoes after walking in the chicken yard! (did I say that?)

Our lawn is centipede - lazy man's grass. You really don't have to work at it. A little fertilizer once a year is beyond adequate. Ours doesn't always get that.

I do love the look when dh gets out the weed whacker and edges along the flowerbeds. TIDY!! Somehow the edges matter more to me than the middle. Dandelions are o.k....straggling runners of centipede up in my flower beds are a big no-no. Does that make sense?

Now if I could just stop the fire ants from building big mounds in it...

Very pretty eco-lawn!! I don't "care" about our lawn, I hate it. Bermuda is the original plant from hades.

I used to hire people to cut my grass, fertilize it and such. However, as I expanded flower beds, it became difficult for them to move around rose bushes with their bulky equipment. So, after damages became too much for me, I said: enough.
Bought a cordless trimmer - and my son helps me out to keep the remaining grass neat. It still does not look great though. So, my intention is to replace remaining Bermuda grass with groundcovers/steppables and more beds. Grass (whatever left of it) looks shabby without pumping all the chemicals and water in it. I'd much rather spend time and effort on flowers.

Only the front yard. It's an area about 40' x 15'. The rest is just space I use to walk from place to place. There's about 20 types of grass and weeds. I'm thinking of overseeding with clover this spring. I've got so many weeds, I'd rather not fight it.

I'm learning about the lawn. I never had to do it before because my boyfriend did it. Last year I laid down grass seed in the backyard under my tree in bare spots, and put down a turf builder. I hardly water at all unless it's very dry. I do hate to use insectides or weed killers so I just get a bucket and one of those skinny tools for planting bulbs and pull out the dandelions. Last year I even conquered the weed whacker (AND EVEN CHANGED THE TRIMLINE MYSELF!). The front yard is very small so no big deal, but I have a big backyard and in the heat of the summer - it's not fun to mow! I'm hoping to put in tons and tons of flower beds - especially around the perimeter. I'm probably a little fussier about the front lawn.

gottagarden wrote:

"My "lawn" is simply mown green weeds. If I used weedkiller, I wouldn't have anything left."

Same here. I have Bermuda grass with wild grasses, perennial weeds, dandelions, and in a few spots, white clover. I think dandelions and clover are so pretty and they attract pollinators in the spring when they are blooming. I do fight to eradicate the Goat-head stickers though. (grrrr). The wild rabbits "plant" the seeds in the yard when they come down off the hill to browse. Once in awhile I have to dig them out. They were all over the back yard when I first bought this place. Too many to dig, so I spread weed and feed for a few years until they were gone.

My chickens fertilize it so I don't need to anymore. I would LOVE to grow Eco-lawn. Very pretty. Looks to be a cool-weather lawn though, so it might not do too well here, except in spring.

Now, I can walk barefoot and sit in the cool grass in the summertime. Grass is nice for star gazing on pleasant summer nights (another country pleasure - no city lights, so the stars are clear and bright).

I enjoy mowing. Love the smell of fresh-cut grass and enjoy keeping it cut neat, although I am not a neat freak, so I don't fuss over it. It keeps the yard much cooler in the summertime and my family has croquet matches in the summer, especially on Easter and the 4th of July. What would croquet be without a lawn?

And it just so happens that I love the color of grass - green!

I brought some St. Augustine grass with me from Louisiana years ago and am now trying to get it established in certain areas. It is doing well down by the fish pond. It is not supposed to grow here because of our cold winter temps, but it does fine. Has to be watered in dry years, but otherwise it does fine on its own. Wouldn't grow in the back yard on the hillside though - too dry, but nice in the partial shade down where I grow my Tropicals. Easy to dig out if it ever invades the flower beds, unlike "devil Grass" (Bermuda) Hiss, Hiss

~ Annie

I don't. Hubby did when we first moved in 4 years ago but now he is just as eager to get rid of all the lawn as I am.
The lawn was never much work though. We never no watering, no chemicals. Mowed once or twice a month and it still was the nicest greenest lawn on the block but still it's boring and unnecessary.

Last year we put a flower border around the perimeter of our front yard and we will remove the remaining lawn this year in favour of a herb/rock garden. It's going to be fab.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rose Cottage Blog

I'm with lupinsea. Every year I have less grass and more white/pink clover, violets, and a host of other low-growing, blooming plants instead. In summer I let my 'lawn' go for weeks between mowing so the honeybees can feast on the clover. I'll stop now...if I get on my grass/lawn soapbox I'll be bounced for sure! ;-)
Kris