I don’t. It is a mess. All my energy does into trees.
Hating to cut the grass only adds to the ugliness. Decades ago, I tried to cut my lawn maintenance by putting down weed blocker and rocks. Grass and weeds grew over said weed blocker and rocks. Richard said he put down AstroTurf or some such thing and made miniature golf course on his grass.
The neighbor gets his lawn sprayed for weeds and things on a monthly contract basis by a lawncare company. I hate when they do it. I worry the chemicals will drift over here.
i mow between my rows of trees and bushes but i hate it. thankfully my plantings are all maturing shading out the grass and slowing its growth. it only grows fast until the trees and bushes leaf out. i see grass as wasted land that could be used to grow something useful. i see these manicured acres of lawn and cringe.
I feel a lot of pressure to have a nice looking yard. But it generally is too hard to keep up with, with all the caring for fruiting things and processing fruit. I added clover to the lawn so I can mow less. I try to keep weeds low. But yeah it’s all a lot of effort and I can’t say it looks up to everyone else’s standards.
We go with the meadow look for the most part. Kid across the street mows four or five times a summer for us, and sometimes I take the weedeater to corners and the alleyway.
Same here, the lawn is basically whatever survives being ignored. Clover was the best thing I added, cuts down on mowing and the bees seem happy about it.
I spent about 12-15 hours on the riding mower each of the last few weeks and will continue to do so until a drought hits or early-mid September when the growing season slows way down
We pull weeds, mow weekly, trim around the trees and fences. We like the look of a private park. We spaced the trees etc to have a 5’ distance between most so we can drive the mower between them.
I put strawberry clover down around the trees. Dichondra and strawberry clover has been making its way throughout the yard. I love the little clover flowers. So do the bees!I
Have to watch out for the bees underfoot though with clover, then again I have only stepped on bees maybe once a decade while walking barefoot through clover
I have three primary uses for the lawn. Walking across it. Spotting occasional tree seedlings on it. Placing trees in pots on it. My wife obsesses over the lawn enough for both of us. Of course we did spot 5 snakes after mowing it…lol!
The upside is it’s good if you have kids that want to run around on something outside.
But it’s ecologically a desert, terrible for the environment and I will put a lot of energy into trying to convert any lawn I have into an alternative ground cover.
I will say that my current lawn is a bit of a mess, not that I really care but I don’t feel like wasting a ton of time and energy when that can go to other tasks.
I added Dutch white clover to my lawn and it’s been great. It flowers for about 2-3 days in a week and when I mow and mulch it, it feeds the lawn. I haven’t added any fertilizer in 3 years! Only thing I add is beneficial nematodes every spring to keep the grubs/raccoons away. With my zero maintenance electric mower/string trimmer/blower, it hardly feels like much work and my yard looks sharp in return. The only sticking point is the water. The water company has eliminated my guilt by charging me exorbitant service fees which means no matter how much water I spend/save, “it doesn’t matter”.
No, I hate dealing with the lawn. It serves me no purpose, so I can’t be bothered to waste time or money on it. As the years progress I’m slowly converting the approx 2 acres of lawn to trees and shrubs.
I agree with the clover concept. I actually read that it is good and preferable for pecan trees. We have flood irrigation, so we don’t use ‘city’ water for supplemeting water on the lawn. I do spot watering for trees as needed.
short grass allows the june bugs to lay their eggs into the soil so regularly short mowed lawns are magnets for them. my resident skunks keep the grubs in check for me.
