A Labor of Lawn

The Easy Way To Care For Grass

Example: Star of Bethlehem (photo: 5/3/16)




We've been experimenting with a wild lawn.  Here's how it works:

* We don't mow until June
* We hit weeds and trim around trees with a weed eater
* We're lucky to have had wildflowers already present that have spread as a result of no spring mowing.  We have huge fields of blue bells and sweet william in April, for example
* It perhaps goes without saying that we don't use any pesticides / herbicides or fertilizers, and we leave the summer grass clippings and fall's chopped up leaves in place
* We have a mix of full sun, partial shade, and understory tree cover, with plants 'choosing' where they want to grow (for example, violet beds in shade)

A side benefit to leaving spring grass unmowed is that 'volunteer' seedlings can be dug out and replanted elsewhere.  Plants in a yard reproduce every year, and seeds land in grass, sprout, and can then be found in the spring, unless we mow them off before we recognize them.