If somebody didn't do anything to their property for three years here, they would end up with an impenetrable brush thicket with 6 ft sapling trees growing out of it. That's the first reality.

The second reality is that the only thing you *have* to do to a lawn around here is mow it - properly. No watering, no feeding, no fuss. Just run some automatic machine around it once a week. If you don't care to do it yourself, it's fairly easy to find somebody else to do it for you. This is actually the lawn care standard for anywhere I've lived. So as much as anything else, I feel the anti-lawn sentiment is mostly an alien concept that outsiders are trying to inflict on an area they don't understand. Lawns don't need to be watered. So logically, how are you wasting water by not watering something that doesn't need to be watered? That arguably shouldn't be watered?

It's just something where theory meets real life, and gets plastered.

kt, great topic! As you know, I stand in defense of lawns.

Lawns have an appropriate place in our landscaping. The key, though, is the proper use of turfgrass combined with the proper maintainence.

Because I'm a master gardener with the NH cooperative extension & a lifelong nature lover & gardener when we purchased this home five years ago my goal was to transform the property into a wildlife sanctuary. There was nothing here except a few mature trees & ratty overgrown half-dead shrubs. Now, we've got an oasis, IMO.

Our property has been certified as a National Wildlife Habitat. Part of that means that we cannot use pesticides nor herbicides. We must provide natural food, water, & shelter for insects, birds, mammals, repiles, etc.

We submitted our site plan with 15% of our available land covered in turfgrass. We chose to use that 15% by using a curving 'ribbon' of grass surrounding the property.

{{gwi:1077586}}

{{gwi:1077587}}

We are also surrounded by salt water on 3-sides within 200'. So, runoff of lawn chemicals was of special concern to us. I share my part of this little oasis with ospreys, eagles, white swans, geese, ducks, & marine animals. I feel priviledged to live amongst them.

The key to maintaining turfgrass appropriately so that it creates the benefits I shared in the other thread is to learn as much about grass as we do about, say, daylilies. Armed with knowledge, we can then have a beautiful place to play hide-n-seek or ball with our children & protect the environment at the same time.

Our 'plan' has worked. We now share our piece of dirt with a rabbit who moved in last year & is still with us. (We actually like having him around. He's become so accustomed to us I believe he'd eat out of our hands. We, of course, don't feed him because that's wrong but I know he'd take a carrot from my hand.) We have birds galore including cardinals that never inhabited our penninsula until we started planting. Now, we've had a pair with us year around for two years. We've had deer show up...last year, they munched on my precious hostas. Oh well, I'm glad they found us. They really haven't eaten all that much. Usually, they just take shelter from a storm & then move on their way.

You can have grass & be environmentally friendly. They are not incompatable.

We do NOT provide supplemental water to our turfgrass (or our gardens for that matter).

We always leave the clippings lay.

We do not try to grow grass in unsuitable areas.

We do not use ANY fertilizers other than the clippings.

Our lawn is thick so few weeds have an opportunity to sprout. When they do, we hand pull same as the garden.

The ribbon of turfgrass makes the border gardens stand out as well as provides a nice comfortable surface to walk on.

We do not have enough grubs to affect the overall health of our lawn. You can check for this by pulling up a square foot of turfgrass. If you find 12, or more, grubs then you've got an infestation. Less than 12 & everything's in balance.

{{gwi:1077588}}

I am fortunate in that Mystic receives about 50" of precipitation annually. Our turf sometimes browns a bit in August but is a welcoming green all winter long. Since we don't have snowcover I sure like that ribbon of green.

I don't approve of planting Kentucky Blue in Las Vegas. There's no way it's sustainable without using copious quantities of water. That's irresponsible, IMO. But, why should Seattle not enjoy the benefits & pleasures of turfgrass? They have ample rainfall to support a healthy, thick, & lush carpet.

As with all of our gardening, we should strive to plant only what is sustainable. In New England, that includes turfgrasses.

/tricia

I love our lawns! (we have 3, broken by the driveway and Sanitary Ridge)

But we do not obsess over them. Our "turf" has white clover in it and we LIKE it. We lime the lawn spring and fall, give it some organic fertilizer, keep the dandilions and plantain in check and mow it (mulching). That's it.

We only water the lawn over the (raised) septic system. Obviously, the topsoil is thinner there than anywhere else and ground water is non-existant. We cater to its needs as it is a requirement for a raised septic system in our community.

We get a boot out of watching Robins and other birds hunting for insects on its expanse. The dog and the cats love rolling and lolling on it, and we love walking barefoot over it in the early morning or in the evening.

Lawns are wonderful, giving a small property a feeling of expansiveness when cleverly laid out. And they don't have to be water hogs or chemical fertilizer "pits", either. BUT, homeowners need to understand that their backyard won't host the Master's tournament, either!

;)

This year we got rid of about 300 sq feet of turn under a Kwanzan cherry, leaving us about 300 sq feet total of turf grass. Also bought a push mower. For us, there was just no reason to continue to pour time, effort, money and chemicals into the ground without a flower, herb or vegetable to show. Not that we poured a lit of chemicals into the lawn...that as part of the problem. We're too cheap!
In the pic the bed has been planted where there was once just grass. We used Russian sage, helianthus, honeysuckle, a 3-year-old spirea, some creeping phlox and a bunch of annuals, notably tithonia and agrostemma, both new to us.

I have a problem with chem lawns, but I do love how the lawn sets off the flower beds, plus where else does one play bocce?
There used to a beautiful field on the way to my mil's cottage on the coast of Maine - full of wild flowers. The current owner turned it into lawn and they already had a huge one. Its just a big rectangle of grass, doesn't set off their house or give their property a park like appearance or any other excuse that I can think of. I just don't get it, especially out in the country.
We don't water ours either, except where the town dug up and we have to add seed. However the weeds are getting the best of it. A friend of mine does like they do in England - she weeds her lawn by hand, did most of it when she had teenagers to get some peace and quiet, lol. And she has the most beautiful lush lawn you could ever want. Inspired by her I have started working on the broad leaf sorrel whose little red seeds are just waiting to make more. She said that some areas there was hardly any grass left when she was done, but with seed and patience it filled in with grass. It is rather relaxing, I just go and do a section every now and then for a half hour.
Kathy

When you have kids and a husband that play sports, a lawn is essential! Plus, personally, I like the way a nice lawn feels under my barefeet and shows off my flowers. I like putting a blanket down on the lawn in the shade to read.

The backyard grass is kept longer than the front yard, mostly because we are lazy and mow it only half as often, but the wildlife love it that way. At this very moment a mother turkey is resting in our backyard with her babies tucked underneath her. We've been seeing them in our yard for the last week or so. I suspect they live in the woods that backs up to our yard and come out into "the meadow" for grass and insects and to enjoy.

We are organic gardeners, so I am always looking for new ways to add organic nutrients to my lawn and my gardens to keep them healthy. Compost, composted manure, "worm poop", fermented salmon, beneficial insects, and the Espoma products are used in a more-or-less haphazard way, but somehow it works. Interestingly, the biggest asset to the grass has been the ashes from our wood stove...all that good oak and apple wood sure makes for a nice lawn! We also get plenty of rain in Connecticut so watering is unnecessary except when trying to grow baby plants or baby grass, of course. Using only organic products, I think, helps to encourage the wide variety of wild life we see in our suburban yard.

For playing, really, a lawn is the best. Can kids roll down a slope filled with sedums and cotoneaster? No. They need grass. Also, the bunnies and the birds like our lawn. We even had a snowy owl hanging out in our backyard a few years back!

(As a side note, the nature preserve that is our yard is now host to at least 4 hummingbirds...three male, one female! Thanks to a thread at this forum I put our feeder out earlier than usual and it has paid off.)

Since moving in 12 or so years ago, I have completely neglected my "lawn". The original owner neglected it for 40 years before me, lol.

My "lawn" consists of some kind of weedy, patchy grasses, wild violets, buttercups, wild strawberry everywhere, quaker ladies, some little rounded-leaf weed about two inches high with tiny, lily-of-the-valley-type flowers, moss, lichens, many other unidentified weeds, and a very large expanse of (recently identified) haircap moss.

My favorite part? The haircap moss, especially after a rain. Soft, lush, wonderful to walk on in bare feet, and absolutely no maintenance.

I live in the land of large, chemically fertilized, sprinklers-going-in-the-rain, lawns. Contrary to the look of my lawn, I do like the way a nice, lush lawn sets off garden beds.

But personally, I would prefer more garden and less lawn. I still have a long way to go to get that look. In the meantime, I really enjoy the tiny blooms of the violets, strawberries, and quaker ladies; we mow around the buttercups because they are so beautiful; and the lichens and mosses are pretty cool too. So I'm in no particular rush to perfect my lawn as yet. I'm too busy working on the beds and when they are done (IF they are ever done) then I will concentrate on making whatever grass I have left look good. And the meantime, like barefootinct, my kids have had the benefit of a place to play. Maybe not a nice soft lawn to roll around on, but a place where they could have fun and I didn't have to worry about them destroying my plants.

As far as lawns not *needing* to be watered or highly fertilized, the problem is that not everybody knows that. Also, I agree with Tricia - lawns in the desert are a whole 'nother story!

Thanks, Katy, for another great thread! (And Tricia, for inspiring it, lol!)

:)
Dee

My lawn is the engine that runs my garden: I don't leave the clippings there, I build and finish my compost with them. Without grass clippings, I don't think I could grow trees and perennials, so the lawn is staying.

We don't water or feed it, although I do use corn gluten meal most years, in the spring, to control crab grass. I dig dandelions, and have just about eradicated them from the back yard - there are still plenty in the front, but I'm trying to catch up with them. Since most of the lawn can't be seen from the street (street-side plantings block the view) I figure keeping it mostly green is all I need to do.

There is something in our genes that likes a lawn - apparently our ancestors were safer and happier on savannas and plains than in jungles - and it does work nicely to fill the space between garden beds.

A couple of quick thoughts;
Mad Gal,
If somebody didn't do anything to their property for three years here, they would end up with an impenetrable brush thicket with 6 ft sapling trees growing out of it
What I neglected to mention is this spec builder/homeowner sold all of the top soil originally scraped off the site and has yet to replace it.
Triciae,
You Go Girl!
Chelone,
Tomorrow when I am on my own computer I will post some photos of what I believe is the most amazing raised septic landscaping I have ever seen. Granted it is mature landscaping but still raised septic trumps even dry shade in my book.
James,
I am going to begin by telling you I have fallen in love with your Boulder eating golden shepherd and I think he respectfully laughs at the garden fencing you have installed to keep him out. Good for you that you now have a push mower. Is it physically harder to push? Do you sharpen the blades? How often? Funny question I know but do you miss the mind numbing noise of a gas mower?
concretenprimroses,
A friend of mine does like they do in England - she weeds her lawn by hand, did most of it when she had teenagers to get some peace and quiet, lol. And she has the most beautiful lush lawn you could ever want.
Sounds like a good plan for a short time. I have mentioned before on this forum that I have a moss garden that is the most high maintenance garden one could have. After one short year my dedication to the necessary constant weeding is waning.
barefoot,
When you have kids and a husband that play sports, a lawn is essential!
To be honest my kids are older and out of the house so the steppables thing seemed like a reasonable fit. Then this weekend after an evening of badminton and bocce I realized we Americans are playful people.
Dee,
My "lawn" consists of some kind of weedy, patchy grasses, wild violets, buttercups, wild strawberry everywhere, quaker ladies, some little rounded-leaf weed about two inches high with tiny, lily-of-the-valley-type flowers, moss, lichens, many other unidentified weeds, and a very large expanse of (recently identified) haircap moss.
As always you inspire me. Wouldn't it be great if NE GW Forum Members did a lawn id/count similar to the bird count? Pick a particular square footage and go out and identify the plants/weeds growing amongst your grass seeds.
dtd,
My lawn is the engine that runs my garden Mine is too, I just don't know how others produce enough mulch to make a difference without grass clippings. Although I do recall Dee using her sons briefs in her mulch pile so maybe we are not thinking far enough outside the box.

My lawn is a lot like Dee's, I think. Innumerable weeds, which drive my neighbors on both sides nuts, and lots of clover, which I don't consider a weed. :-) I won't put chemicals on it. I did use corn gluten meal this year, and I'm hoping that will keep the crabgrass at bay.

We use a push mower, and if we forget and it gets too long, DS uses the electric weed whacker to knock it back down to size. I am slowly expanding my front garden out to the sidewalk so I will only have the back to contend with. I just don't like it enough to spend time on it, and I'd rather have flowers to cut and/or veggies to eat.

Of course, DS is not a lawn-sport kind of kid, and if he was he could just use the backyard, which is mostly owned and used by the dog at the moment.

I generally prefer flower beds and veggie beds to grass. I use no chemicals or water on my lawn. I accept dandelions, moss, violas, and buttercups. I think of lawns as paths to get to a destination, a place to romp, or something to put a nice edge on to accent a bed.

Last year, after 5 or 6 years of being in this house, I decided to start on the front yard. It was a rectangle of grass with 3 symmetric "gumballed foundation plants" on each side of the front door. It nauseated me! Why does everyone feel the need to have a rectangle of grass and gumballs because all of the other neighbors do? Well, a rented bobcat for the weekend, 8 yards of peastone, cobblestones from an old walk, and lots of soil ammendments (grass, UCG, compost, woodchips, etc) and I now have a new front.

I know it looks barren and Im sort of embarrassed to post pics, but I have a vision in the making. Im growing asparagus, beans, pumpkins, broccoli, and some new trees and perennials. In a few years, it should look awesome.

Sorry about the pics but I feel they speak a thousand words. The path of grass is just wide enough so I can drive my truck out back to dump manure in my compost, get firewood delivered, etc.

Ah, Bob, kids and dirt piles. They like nothing better, especially if you add a popsicle!

When my ds was little, my best friend's husband had a giant pile of topsoil delivered. It must have been 20 yards or more (they have big property and he owns a landscape business). Our kids played on that dirt pile all summer long. We begged him to forget about his landscape plan and keep the dirt pile.

What a transformation you made in your front yard. Beautiful!

"...Ah, Bob, kids and dirt piles. They like nothing better, especially if you add a popsicle!..."

My thoughts exactly! When I was very small, there was an apartment building being built next to our house. My brother and I would go and play after school on the huge mountains of dirt, throwing those lovely big "dirt bombs" at each other. My mother was constantly in fits. Of course, at the time I thought she didn't want us to get dirty. Now I realize that she didn't like her small children playing on a construction site, lol But man was it fun!

Nice pics, sunshineboy. That is kind of what I have in mind for my front yard eventually - the grass just acting as paths to set off the garden beds. I'll get there...

:)
Dee

Just to expand, my friend who weeded her lawn doesn't do it anymore. She did do a patch of her neighbors so the seed from their weeds wouldn't blow over. The grass filled in the gaps and and so she may do a little bit of maintenance weeding, but basically once done that was it. I can't imagine, it seems like a heraclean task. Tho the result is both beautiful and healthy. And I'm not getting any more teenagers to drive me to it, lol.
kathy

Bob,
I'll begin with a big thank you for the heads up on the rat poison. I immediately called Griggs & Brown and was able to speak with the manager who was pleasant but not really able to tell me what I wanted to hear. The bait/poison is kept secured in a bait box and he was a little foggy re the actual contents of the bait but did agree to send me the fed. reg. cut sheet (which I probably won't be able to decipher). In the mean time Basil our lab is going to work with Joe. Without a cat we are between a rock and a hard place here.
Your daughter and son are adorable and the dirt pile photo brought back memories of our kids when they were happy little dirt magnets.
I love your front entry garden I am a big proponent of using the space that you walk through the most from your front door to your car as a place for you to connect with the outdoors even when your mind is focused on a visit to the tax accountant. Front entry gardens to me become almost like a family member they are there all the time...even when you don't want them to be. Parts of my entry garden I love and won't ever change a thing but there are area's that I ignore and other area's that make me pull my hair out. By far it's biggest challenge is keeping it interesting during the long winters with no snow cover. You seem to have winter interest covered with the ornamental grasses, rocks, and your rare breed dogs...by the way are you sure your feeding the one in the second photo enough? Brilliant idea to keep access to the back yard wide enough for a truck. I would love to know more about your plant selections for this space. kt

Hey there,
Thanks a bunch for the positive encouragement about my front yard plans. My neighbors are all convinced that Im crazy because they all have chemlawn rectangles in their front yard.
Secondly, my name is greg. I am not offended by being called bob, or frank, fred, or even mary. My screen name, sunshineboy, was how I was referred to as by the employees of the spermbank where I used to donate sperm....but thats another story and I have already hijacked this thread enough.
So I wanted to reply to a few of the last posts.
Kt..last fall I planted some trees to create some anchor points. I put in a dogwood, a quaking aspen, a lace leaf weeping red maple, a redbud, a pear tree, a dwarf saturn peach tree, and my showpiece..a dwarf lavender weeping redbud. But as pointed out, it looked ridiculous during the winter without winter interest. I do have a few boulders and height elevations, but I needed something else. I have a few taller pampas grasses (but those are temporary for a few years). I also got 7 elijah blue festucas, some yellow twigged and red twigged dogwoods, china girl holly, cypress (chamaecyparis pisifera compacta), cypress sungold threadbranch, some rose of sharon, contorted hazelnut, etc.
Not really helping the winter, but for spring I planted a bunch of bulbs last fall..tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, etc. And I moved a few azaleas up front and they put on quite a show.
And here and there I am tucking in perennials such as daylillies and shasta daisies and sedum and salvia (heat tolerant stuff that I dont need to water).
I put pumpkins on a rock last fall and seedlings that have sprouted will be this falls crop.
And california poppies self seeded into several of the free spaces---Im a california native so I NEED this plant in my yard.
Im open to any suggestions cause this is a work in progress. My only catch is I try to limit how much I spend on my yard--Im cheap. I spent less than $200 in plants--most were gifts or trades. The bobcat was borrowed from a friend for a day, and the only other cost was $150 for the gravel.
Lastly, that stray dog just wandered into my yard. I havent been feeding him cause I wasnt sure if I wanted him to stick around.
Heres a few of the animals I am feeding in our tiny little cape...

pic of kids with pumpkins on rock...

pics of pumpkin seedlings in front of rock...

For Runktrun:

LOL on the dog. She's a shepherd greyhound mix that we rescued last year when she was 9, after seeing her on NECN! She's 10 now, and had spent 2 years in the Boston ARL shelter. And she has a rock fetish. She also likes to lounge on astilbes and hostas, thus the green plastic fencing.

Push mower is easy. It's brand new, but we will sharpen the blades as necessary. As far as the noise, we've got neighbors with big lawns, so we get our fill.
Great thread!

An interesting thread... we just attended a talk by the local watershed district last night, and one focus (in addition to how "waterfront" property owners (we have a LITTLE brook on our property!) could help protect the watercourse/wetlands/rivers) was how to make use of yards by means OTHER than lawns, particularly when those properties abut waterways. There was also a lot of discussion of raingardens, which is another topic I'd love to see more about on this forum... what a neat concept!

Anyway, the gist was REDUCE LAWN area and replace with more habitat-oriented plantings (shrubs, natives, wildflower gardens, raingardens if drainage is an issue... natives, natives, natives. Use lawn areas at a minimum, if at all, and naturalize. It was very interesting, but having said that, we have both lawn areas and open (natural) meadow and woodlands ... I love all three, and wouldn't give up the "plush" lawn underfoot for anything! But I do see the downsides to lawns in terms of runoff (they are less able to absorb rainwater than more natural plantings, resulting in more direct runoff, which stresses the rivers and streams, etc.) and the general instinct to do what one has to to keep them lush and green (and who wants a lawn that isn't... anyone?)

So we are increasingly claiming lawn areas for natural beds, butterfly and bird gardens, and allowing the meadow to encroach because we adore seeing the goldfinches, tree swallows (are they ever beautiful!), and monarchs, but I can't see giving up ALL the lawn. But the next time I have any drainage concerns, you can bet a raingarden is going in!

I tend to be much more interested in the gardens than the lawn - my lawn care consists of mowing and paying people to occasionally put down some fertilizer and grub killer. I bought a tool this spring that is good for removing dandelions and other plants with a deep taproot, but I've never bothered trying to get rid of clover. In fact, I think that patches of clover mixed with the grass give a nice "texture" to the lawn. I don't water the lawn much at all - I save that for some of the garden beds. This means that the parts of the lawn that get the most sun are pretty brown by August, but that just doesn't bother me the way that wilting plants in the garden beds would. With the amount of rain we get here, you can count on a mostly brown lawn to turn green again as soon as the first good rainfall comes.

Having said that, I have no problem with people who put a lot of effort into having a really nice, green lawn. It's just a question of which aspect of the landscape one is more interested in. In parts of the country where water is an issue, like the southwest, one could make a strong argument that it is environmentally harmful to use huge amounts of water to keep a lawn green in an environment that is hostile to green lawns. Here, where we get around 45 inches of rain per year, that isn't an issue.

As so many of you have pointed out, a good lawn does NOT
require chemicals or extra water - to wit, my favorite book
on the subject: "The Organic Lawn Care Manual" by Paul Tukey. . .a fascinating eye-opener.

My 50'x200' suburban lot came with a small bungalow, a short paved driveway, several trees - and the other 75% of
it's square footage was lawn. . .ratty, weed infested lawn.
Of course, I didn't "see" lawn. . .I saw gardens! And twelve years later I am the "black sheep" of the block. . .
you pull into my street and the lawns cascade down the
block, one merging into the next, until BANG! - you run smack up against my front garden, with just the smallest
patch of lovely lawn to set off the flowering beds (and
give the mail-person a way to access the neighboring lawn!) Oddly enough, my humble offering out front gets all
kinds of attention, questions, comments and praise, while
the back garden seems to be a tour destination for all my
neighbors' and their relatives and friends. Now there IS
a small patch of simple lawn at the sunny bottom of the
back garden, again as a contrast to the planted areas, but also as an idyllic spot for my friend's littlest ones to roll and play in chemical-free wonder. Funny thing: none of my neighbor's give "tours" of their lawns - and the family across the street won't even let their kids play on their own lawn, because of the constant chemical applications.

A final lawn-related anecdote, to illustrate the "down"
side of our American lawn addiction: my next door neighbor
has a front lawn exactly 50' wide by 30' deep, including
the driveway (no back lawn, just patio and gravel and sheds and garages). He obviously reads the Bible according to Scott's, laying down every product the Grass
Industry has created - but the kicker is his once-a-week
ritual of mowing this postage-stamp lawn on a ride-on mower, with all the attendant racket and fumes! Of course, he cuts it far too short (1-1/2") and then finds it necessary to have the in-ground sprinkler system drown
it every morning. . .

That kind of lawn culture is insanity; but small doses of natural turf can be a joy beyond measure.

Carl

This is a great topic so I'll throw my hat in the ring for this newbie's two cents worth...our lawn has clover, voilets, dandelions, and other things not grass like with or without the pretty little flowers in them. After the 1st year of naypalming our yard with all sorts of anti-this and steriod-grow that ($$$) we just gave up. (Swear I saw a dandelion with a barbell doing arm curls last Aug.) and now in spring, we put a 10-10-10 fertilizer/lime, and keep the dandilions and other tall 'look at me I'm a really big fat weed' in control by mow/mulching (no bag).

Sunshineboy-LOL thought I recognized our ex-pat State flower! Good to see you on the forums again, your inspiration helped us out the 1st yr dealing w/the transistion from CA to MA...my garden did survive my first 4-seasons here in MA! The grass is nice to roll my little hand cart back to the mulching pile, sort of hard to do that in sand or through shrubs. Here's a link of our project, trying to take back a 20' 'Grass Gone Wild' area. The rocks are the biggest pain in the neck, we're just rebuying the ones over 200lbs :-) Think I'll just mulch over it this year when we've gotten it flattened out and worry about planting something pretty there next year.

Hey JD,
Glad to hear you survived your first 4 seasons. Around new england, the changing seasons really give you more of that cycle-of-life feeling. I live for spring.
Anyhow, I still have a container of ca poppy seeds if you want to winter sow this year.
And I also have a few unsolicited suggestions. First, if you want to avoid petroleum based 10-10-10 fertilizers on the lawn, replace with either alfalfa pellets or homemade compost. Its better for the environment and potentially free (homemade compost).
Second, buy yourself a rock prybar. It is a long solid metal shaft that makes moving rather sizable boulders easy. If you have a few small flat stones, youve got yourself a fulcrum and wedges. I love using boulders as accents or focal points in my beds. Also, Ive got a number of large flat boulders on the edge of beds that make for natural seating to rest between gardening chores.

Glad to see your garden is coming along...I enjoyed your pix..greg

Hi SSB;

I would love the poppy seeds thanks! I tried to em you from an em addr I had from last year, but if you want to em me: jdinma0407@yahoo.com

My DH has his sights set on a 6ft crow bar already to help w/those pesky rocks, thx. I'll keep in mind the alfalfa pellets too.

Hey sunshineboy -
Quick question (or 2) on alfalfa pellets - do you just broadcast them by hand? I've heard that corn meal is also excellent for lawns - not just corn gluten, but actual corn meal, from the Ag supply store. This came from the landscape forum, from someone who apparently knew what she was talking about (i.e. I did not just think it up myself!).

Do the alfalfa pellets attract ... rodents? And, do you know what it is that they do for the lawn?

I'm always looking for something that will help the soil my lawn is growing in without applying nitrogen that will get into the groundwater or estuaries around here - organic or not, they're all bad news here. I can't bear the thought of using my precious compost on grass - not to mention that it's always too chunky to ever get through a spreader.

Hey Dtd,
I hand spread alfalfa pellets to weak spots in the lawn. I like it better than corn meal or corn gluten cause its easier to spread and it has a lower, slow releasing amount of nitrogen. It also has phosphorus and the hormorne triacontanol, which helps promote good root growth. Also, I really dont mind lawn weeds. There are many benefits to lawn weeds...clovers fix nitrogen, kids enjoy blowing dandelion heads, my resident bunny enjoys munching on the weeds by the shed, my family eats tender dandelions with salad, etc.
In regards to attracting wildlife, I have chipmunks, mice, squirrels, bunnies, pocket gophers, woodchucks, birds, snakes, deer and kids who visit or live in my yard. Im not sure if it is organic gardening, compost, alfalfa pellets, ramial wood chips, or what, but my yard is teeming with wildlife. I really dont mind, and I can share some with the critters...although I was a little frustrated this year with a gopher who took out a hosta bed, a siberian iris bed and a lily bed (with about 50 bulbs brought back from holland by my father). Cest la vie. Im not into killing and just cant justify poisons in the yard. So I do my best to garden organically and accept some loses each year.
Time to go mow my lawn paths before the next thunderstorm, greg