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Different ways to have a lawn
You don't have to have The Great American Lawn... or the worry about how to get and keep it that way. There are alternatives. First, a different kind of lawn. Second, taking care of a lawn organically. Third, a Freedom Lawn. Fourth, cutting your lawn...in half!
We're currently experimenting with a "No Mow" lawn from seed we bought online from Prairie Nursery. So far, we're very happy with it. We have just a small test plot --part of our Habitat Gardening in Central New York experiment in which we distributed small sandwich bags of the seed for our members to try. It's dark green, fine textured, and doesn't need to be mowed, fertilized or watered. Here's what it looks like (the strip between the flowers and the regular turf grass.
Cut your lawn ... in half!
So says the National Wildlife Federation. I went further than half. Why did I get rid of (almost) all of my lawn? Because it has almost no habitat value. And to get that "better homes and gardens" look requires chemical fertilizers, pesticides etc. etc. To keep it lush and green in the summer requires using valuable water. You have to rake the leaves in the fall so they won't kill the lawn in the winter. And those lawn mowers and other power lawn equipment are heavily polluting devices - more than cars! AND it's boring!!!
Instead of lawn, we have planting beds and a system of paths. In the front, we first put down weedcloth and then shredded bark. In the back yard, we decided to try just the bark mulch. I think this will work out because we first rolled up the lawn - yes, this time it actually rolled up like they said it would, maybe because of the extended drought. So far, we've been very happy with the mulch. It's soft underfoot, and it's free from the county mulch pile!
Getting rid of the lawn
We put black plastic down over the winter to try to kill more of the grass. It wasn't totally successful, but it helped make it easier to dig up the following spring.
Topsoil is so important that we never waste it. When we dug up our lawn, we saved the sod in a "barrel" made of fencing, and after a few years, it turned into wonderful composty soil.
Natural lawns
You can have a less environmentally damaging lawn if you are willing to accept a "good enough" lawn. To me this means, it's green and you can walk on it! Don't worry about some clover mixed in - up until the time when lawn care companies realized what a bonanza they had, clover was a perfectly acceptable part of a lawn.
Mow high so that the grass plants can produce more food. Leave your clippings on the lawn and use compost if it needs more fertilizer. Let it go dormant (i.e. brown) in summer heat waves and droughts instead of using valuable water. When you do water it, water it infrequently, but deeply to encourage the roots to go deep. Use a hand mower for great exercise.
All in all, though, why not just minimize your lawn area to just that part you truly need. There are so many other plants in the world that could be growing in that land instead.
Resources about lawns
LessLawn.com - design and how-to ideas for having less lawn
S.A.L.T. - Smaller American Lawns Today is aimed at reversing the lawn mania in America by restoring home and industrial grounds to more harmonious productive ecologically sound naturalistic landscapes. Some good ideas, but beware that this website offers a number of non-native suggestions for lawn substitutes. Do some research on the plants on these lists if you're trying to stick to the natives! This website is careful to point out which plants are invasive, though.
Lawn Alternatives:
Beyond Pesticides - organic lawn care - excellent list of resources!
How to convert your lawn to an organic lawn - from Beyond Pesticides
Northeast Organic Farmers Association Citizen's Guide to Lawn Care
Earth Easy Lawn Alternatives
Clover Lawns vs. Lawn Grass
Establishing White Clover in Lawns
Clover Lawns are in Vogue
How to grow a clover lawn
