Last Sunday, much dissatisfaction was expressed on Crass by lawn-mowers. The people, not the machines.
This is your chance to ask all your questions. I’ve maintained a bunch of lawns in a bunch of climates.
Your questions need to include your climate zone, soil type and level of rainfall.
Find your climate zone here. If you don’t know what kind of soil you have, I can ask a few questions and probably tell.
I used to teach a home-gardening course wherein it was explained to the many (and justified) complainers why everything else was worse than a lawn. Hardscape is expensive, hot and hard on little kids’ knees. Planting the whole area with perennial or annual flowers is EXPENSIVE and needs a full-time gardener to maintain it.
Maybe you’ve heard of ground cover. This is also lots of work. The photo you see here is the corner of my own garden. I inherited the rock enclosure but planted the orange tree and ground cover myself. It’s been about five years now (picture is from April 2014) and I figure another three years before it all grows completely together, which is the idea. Dozens of plants of four different types were planted in dry-unless-irrigated clay soil. Copious weeding was done.
That’s a total of eight years work, expense and attention for successful ground cover.
Now you understand why lawns are almost always your best option.
Lurkers – do please join in.
Image by the author.
