Grass is special. Our grains are grass. I have blue grass and like it a lot. My dogs do too. Something about the smell of fresh cut grass…
I say do what you want. I know I am when I can. City rules permitting.
2 Likes
Here part of the lot is Little Bluestem grass.
Attract could arguably be a strong word as several things work together, but the net effect is the same as direct attraction.
As @steveb4 says, it makes for easy laying ground. (Both June bugs and Japanese Beetles.) Several grass roots are preferred food for the grubs, and cut grass makes for dense root masses, leaving them sleeping under the buffet table. Many predators don’t bother with short grass as it leaves them exposed, and not much kills them that kills other things, so there is less and lower threat competition for the buffet.
Opossums are your friend for ticks. I think skunks will dig up yellow jacket nests as well. But then, so will bears.
1 Like
We don’t have skunks, opossums or bears in this area. Rabbits, cats, birds hawks.
I don’t spend a lot of time on my lawn but I do enjoy it. I’d say half our 1/3 acre is lawn. I have a young son who loves sports and I also love them too. Some yard games like croquet, boce ball, or just throwing a baseball, it’s nice to have some flat open space.
I don’t do much care, just best practices with mowing heights to help when it’s really dry or wet(we never water the lawn). Every few years I’ll do some pre emergent and broadleaf to get invasive under control but I never care about a pristine lawn, just one that’s kept well enough.
1 Like
I hate turf grass and would rather it not be anywhere on my property. But I don’t want to spend the time or money to eradicate it, so I cut it when it gets long enough I think the neighbors might start to complain.
3 Likes
Terrible. Well at least you got a riding mower.
1 Like
Nah, it’s pretty nice. Two orchards around 2 acres, about 2 miles of trails (6’ - 20’ wide) and maybe 2 acres of lawn. I’m blessed with the ability to maintain what I’ve created.
2 Likes
I mow and that’s about it. Every year a bit more of it gets dug up for something edible or a new tree. The lawn is basically just what’s left over between the things I actually care about.
4 Likes
Bears, deer, skunks, opossums, coyote, rabbits, hawks, vultures, falcons, owls, dogs, cats, fox, an occasional elk or disputed species big cat, woodpeckers, and myriad song-birds. Oh, and the bloody groundhogs. 
hrmmmm! Thankfully, my yard is more invasives than turf grass.
I do like a bit of flat and short around the house, but I try not to cut so short that the “weeds” die faster than the grass except where it’s trying to creep onto cement (asphalt, actually, but I’m going to say cement anyway, most of the time) or into the garden.
2 Likes
My lawn gets mowed and mowed often because I’m not walking through a tick minefield.
I might leave a strip uncut by the road one day filled with natives. That’s a dream for another year.
1 Like
I have a nice lawn.. the front yard is the largest.. both sides and the back are smaller.
Around 3/4 acre all together and it gets mowed weekly during our growing season (April - October).
My front yard ends at the county road… both side yards end where field and orchard starts.
Every other week my fields and orchard gets mowed. My field/orchard areas total around 2 and 1/4 acre.
Looks very nice with it all mowed nicely.
Where my fields/orchard ends.. I have 27 acres of nice hardwood timber.. hills and hollows.
TNHunter
2 Likes
I like a nice yard. My farms recreational areas around the barn and pond look better than my residence. It’s my love child and I’ve lost interest in my residence and put a lot more time in at the farm. Im not obsessed with the turf, but like it nice.
Wife does the mowing, and mows about 5 acres a week on the zero turn. Only takes about 3 hours and she enjoys doing it.
I mow all the fields and orchard and take care of everything else. I consider it my therapy.
I like things to be green. When everything is brown it bums me out. Not sure how the people out west deal with it. Dry, brown and dusty.
It gives me a lot of satisfaction to drive around and look at nice grass and trees. My Zinnas planting too. It’s a lot of work, but worth it…to me.
3 Likes
We mow what is left of the lawn. Does that count?
In the front yard I am mostly focused on the gardens running all around the periphery, but try to keep a somewhat standard, if enthusiastically gardened, appearance.
In the backyard I am in the process of planting more trees (and removing a couple established ones we don’t want), smaller fruits, more raised brds. Every year my second goal is to plant more layers of mostly native flowers, and I’m in year two of this. Eventually I hope iit will be all garden.
2 Likes
My husband is scarred by doing this, so we spray iron on the clover to keep it down. If it were only up to me, it would be 100% clover. And, I’m going to start ripping it up when it regrows soon and move it around my mini orchard trees where it’s all mulch and see how it does eitu pumpkins and melon vines over it.
my only remaining turf is a tiny area 1/4 of the backyard for the family to play soccer/run in circles, so we try to keep it nice by seeding bare spots and rarely pulling a broad leaf weed. Each spring with the magnolia flowers, we put down corn gluten to stop the crab grass from germinating. that’s just a few handfuls now since there’s so little lawn now. It works great. It gets mowed once every 2-3 weeks. As a rule, I never, ever waste water on it, so it is what it is if there’s a summer drought.
2 Likes
I don’t spend a lot of time, but my lawn looks nice. Really not that hard with a
ZTR. I don’t pour the chemicals to it. No shortage of water here, so no problem growing grass along with my fruit and shade trees.
I had actually just stepped on a bee prior to writing that. It stung the bottom of my foot but I quickly removed the stinger using the tweezers I carry around to collect pollen with. Walked home which was maybe half a mile away without issues then when on a hike the next day with no issues. So I’m actually considerably less worried about stepping on bees now
1 Like
My lawn is my mulch generator.
In the early spring it is dead nettle and henbit. Once they are done flowering I bag them up. Then the clovers wake up hop clover, red clover, white clover, queen Anne’s lace and plantains. I bag that up once or twice before letting them bloom and then only I rotate mowing half of the mowable area to maintain a blooming clover patch as long as there is moisture. By the time drought hits I’m only maintaining walking paths.
4 Likes
How do you collect the clippings when you mow?
I don’t do anything for my lawn/grass. Whatever grows, grows.
I pay a guy to come by and mow it and that’s it.
I don’t have it cleared of leaves or anything like that. The leaves just blow through in the fall because I’m kind of on a hill. They gather in some spaces and I just leave them.
I try to wait as long as possible to to have it mowed in the spring because I love seeing all the wildflowers growing in it.
Creeping charlie/ground ivy
hairy bittercress
mock strawberry
red deadnettle
henbit
speed well
wild violet
daffodil
Then later in the season seeing the buttercups come up and The Star of David.
Portion of my property is a steep hill and I’ve dreamed of having it planted with wildflowers so that I never had to mow it. One day maybe.
3 Likes