Residential ride on mower with a bagger. The mower is how I reallocate leaves for mulching also. Experimenting with putting the deck low and using it as a crimper (flipping a board around was taking forever).
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@OzarkbigGreen .. I also collect leaves and grass clippings with a mulching/bagging lawn mower.
It makes excellent mulch for fruit trees, bushes, cane fruit, vines, etc…
I have comfrey established at most of my fruit trees now and it grows quickly here. I will be doing my 3rd chop and drop with it this week.
TNHunter
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I’m not a manicured, monoculture lawn fan so I don’t worry about how the lawn looks. I just mulch the clippings back into the ground and always cut at the highest setting. I do like to let the clover go to seed and drop it at least once during the season. I don’t bag and spread around my trees because I’m afraid of spreading a couple of annoying weeds around. I have some lespedeza that grows on the west side of the house that I’m trying to not spread around and I’m afraid some of the seeds will be in the bagger.
If I had my way it would be trees all over the yard, but it’s a compromise with my wife. Every season I try to sneak a few more trees in. 
We have a well and chickens so I don’t fertilize or use herbicides or pesticides. Sometimes I’ll spread clover seed in areas before the first big snowfall and let it settle into the ground overwinter.
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You might have a program in your county to rainscape it. My county offers free help with design and then a decent credit back per square foot you install. If you do it yourself, you can absolutely cover your costs. I wish someone had told me this before I took out all of my lawn, as I had no idea to even ask.
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I googled if my county has a similar program and it will cover 10% of the cost to rainscape the hill area.
it is too steep for me to do it myself and a fairly large area, maybe .25 acres of my 2.25 acre lot. I got it quoted to turn into a native gardden in 2021 and the estimate was 1,250 for the design, ~15k for the install (pre-design estimate, so likely more), 6k for year 1 maintenance and 4k for year 2 maintenance.
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My neighborhood is crazy about grass. They watered every other day. Cut them once a week. No weeds. I have to do the same unfortunately.
Tony
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Wow, that’s quite the price tag!!
its a big space. The quote assumed 8k sq feet too and I would estimate it closer to 12k sq feet.
my area isnt as big as that but if you did a little at a time , it could be done. in the early fall, i sprayed my 2 steep ditches i was mowing with herbicide. it was mostly grass. a week later i reseeded with perennial/ annual wildflower mixes i got for half off at t.s.c. because the dead grass was still there it protected the seed. then come spring, before everything woke up i threw some 10-10-10 in there. the amount of flowers that came up was astounding. its now 6 yrs later and they are still coming back. i do throw some 10-10-10 about every 3 years and have added lupine, mountain mint and black eyed susan seed that has also gotten established. above the mouth of the culverts , near both driveways, i have comfrey and elder planted there. no more mowing and the pollinators in there all summer helps pollinate my fruit. cost me about $20.
We’re lucky enough to have space close to the house dedicated to being “yard”. My orchard area is beside of but separate from that. My wife’s various flower beds are also somewhat defined in areas separate from. We mow a bit over a quarter acre and like having at least that much with just grass. We’re entirely surrounded by mature forest so don’t have many trees close to the house.
We are not fans of mowing though and have as a result a Mammotion Luba 2 robot mower. Love it, works great.
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This pic was taken from my front porch.
You can see part of my front yard… over to the goumi and raspberry bed… then my field/orchard past that.
Right now they look very similar since last week both were mowed.
This Tuesday only the yard gets mowed.
The yard gets mowed each week.. the field/orchard gets mowed every other week.
Nice green grass.. looks good..
I do not water it.. no fertilizer… no seeding… nothing but mowing.
In Tennessee grass just grows.
I did seed it in 1998 when we had the land cleared .. fescue and clover.
TNHunter
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I’ve basically given up on grass entirely at this point. Every square metre that used to be lawn is now either a fruit tree with a comfrey ring underneath or a raised bed. The only bit left is a path between beds and honestly even that’s more clover than grass now. No regrets, mowing was never the fun part of being outside.
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If it’s any indication of the condition of my lawn, the lambs’ quarters is a having a great year
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I mow mine often. Mine is mostly white clover these days. I leave the clippings right on the lawn//i don’t bag anything. The soil here is almost beach sand so if you want a nice lawn, you’ll have to feed it and water it.
the little lawn i have left is a mix of creeping charlie, grass, clover and a ton of dandelions.
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Have you considered getting some stork’s bill, common mallow and field bindweed too? I’ve got some extra….
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We moved into our house in winter of 2020. We expanded the yard from 1 1/2 acres to approximately 3 acres. Over the past 5 years, I have been slowing trying to get it to all fescue. I enjoy the yard work and seeing the transformation. I also have a father-in-law that lives across the field who is a lawn nut. So he helps me out a lot!
Here is my front yard from last summer.
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Yeah, I like the look of a fresh-cut lawn, but when you live in S CA you barely notice beautiful weather- except after a stretch of rain or an occasional stretch of excessively hot weather. Mow once every two weeks where you mow and you may appreciate the look a lot more- contrast inhances beauty, IMO.
Here in NY, the small part of my property I maintain as lawn doesn’t get mowed after Sept, which is better for the grass anyway. It allows it fo form deeper roots and store more energy for its spring rebound. It also helps it hold the soil through destructive perionds of freeze to thaw.
Most of my property is orchard and nursery with a lot of rocks to interfere with mowing- that gets string trimming every 3 weeks or so, also not past Sept. Sometimes not past mid-july for the nursery. However, my orchard trees may need all the rain water that comes to best serve their fruit and next years flowers. They actually lose brix and the ability to produce fruit the following year if we have a stretch of true drought- speaking of apples here. I don’t think it causes stone fruit to lose brix, but deficit irrigation is not all it is cracked out to be, IMO. Sun matters more than water.
I don’t care about weeds and the only thing I do for my lawn is mow it- bi-weekly if it is growing well, during spring and summer.
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When you are young and have kids… it is where they run and play… we had baseball games.. flew remote control airplanes.
My son is still home at 24 years old and now he practices golf in the front yard.
Deer and Turkey love the yard.. they rarely get all that close the house but they do stop by.. huge white oak in the back yard and they entertain us eating there.
My home is a great deer stand and turkey blind. Many have come by to visit and ended up in my freezer.
TNHunter
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