What's your "lawn philosophy"?

[Jem]

I just read this article...

Lawns gone wild: Why you might just have to learn to love dandelions...

...talking about how we should all try to embrace the dandelion and other "weeds". They also talk about "No Mow May", an incentive to "convince" people to not mow or pull their weeds" in the month of May as they are the first foods for pollinators of the season. And we all know that many pollinators are in crisis right now.

I'll admit that my stance on lawn care probably stems from laziness... but I have always liked the look of all the different flowers in my grass. As long as the lawn is soft on the feet...I don't care what grows in it. We still mow the lawn on a regular basis...it doesn't get overgrown and jungle like, but I really don't care about "weeds". I have such a variety of different flowers and such that grow in my grass, and I know I have a very healthy eco system in my yard. I'm glad that dandelions and other "weeds" are starting to be seen as something good. Now I don't have to worry about feeling lazy about not pulling my dandelions...I can just say I'm helping the environment. It would be a loosing battle anyway as most of my neighbors also let dandelions and other flowering weeds go. There are only a handful of people who have perfectly manicured lawns in my neighborhood.

So have you heard of "No Mow May"?
Do you avoid treating/weed pulling/mowing for the month of May?

And overall what is your "lawn philosophy"?

 

[Katie M]

I have no lawn philosophy, since I live in an apartment, but my parents regularly mow their lawn and pick weeds. Mom wants it to look nice.

 

[Winchester]

We mow. Rick has mowed once this year and then I took over. I've mowed twice. He usually trims and I hit the riding mower. He is also working on filling in some patches of bare ground that were left when he put weed & feed on the yard. I planted some flowers along the path to the WeShed and then he took the sod from that area and put it in some places in the yard.

We like the yard to look nice. Well, as nice as we can. We're not crazy about it.

 

[Lari]

I understand the environmental factors and like how some of the yards that do more native plants instead of just grass look, but my husband is in charge out there and he likes a nice neat lawn, so that's what we're attempting!

 

[catapault]

"Lawn" has that Scotts connotation of velvety green grass. And nothing but grass. Call it a greensward, grass spangled with flowers and imagine medieval lords and ladies promenading.

Lawn mowers are a relatively recent invention. Thorsten Veblen in his Theory of the Leisure Class considered lawns "conspicuous waste."

 

[Willowy]

When I lived in town I mowed enough to not get a ticket, lol. I didn't spray/pick weeds or rake leaves. I'm sure it annoyed my neighbors. I also never watered or fertilized it. . .sorry, grass is on its own with me!

Now I live in the country so I can mow whatever and whenever I feel like. I mow certain parts of the property but not all of it. Mostly around the house and outbuildings to discourage bugs and mice. And I do have to hire a guy to cut all the weed trees out of the evergreens now and then. Otherwise it's wild. Lots of mountain phlox right now, and dandelions of course.

There's apparently a law that says we can't mow the ditches until a certain date (Administrative Rule 70:04:06:06 states: No mowing of the right of way may begin in the west river counties of Gregory, Lyman or Tripp before June 15 and east of the Missouri River before July 10) to protect pheasant nests, but I can't get clarification about whether that applies to homesteads or just field-adjacent ditches. A lot of people mow the ditches near their house, and I have in years past. This year there's construction on the road and ditches so I'm not mowing them this year. But I wish someone could say for sure whether I'm allowed to or not. It would be just my luck to get a ticket for inappropriate mowing, haha.

 

[neely]

Once we adopted our dog I wouldn't think of using any pesticides, lawn chemicals or other toxic substances on the lawn. We just mow right over the dandelions and don't worry about whether they come back or not. We have some wild perennials that have taken over a back corner of our yard which my husband actually likes to see and so do I. I guess I'd have to say we have no particular lawn philosophy and that suits me just fine.

 

[Jem]

When I lived in town I mowed enough to not get a ticket, lol. I didn't spray/pick weeds or rake leaves.

The only thing we rake is the pine and spruce needles. If they we let them collect nothing can grow. It's too acidic.
We have a mulcher on our lawn mower so leaves and grass/weed clippings get thrown back to the ground. It adds nutrients back into the soil..so why not? We have actually saved a few areas of our yard that were very bare by simply putting our yard mulch in those areas...now it's nice....even if it's not all grass.

We don't mow our ditches every time we mow the yard...but with years of salt and sand abuse from our winters, it doesn't grow very fast there.....and...

grass is on its own with me!

especially in a ditch...

 

[Jem]

We just mow right over the dandelions and don't worry about whether they come back or not.

Same here, after mowing the lawn...it all looks green anyway...so why bother?

 

[Jem]

but my parents regularly mow their lawn and pick weeds.

We like the yard to look nice. Well, as nice as we can. We're not crazy about it.

he likes a nice neat lawn

I'll pull weeds if they are out of place or getting too big, like the edges and out of the cracks of our driveway, also between the patio stones. I'll also remove the weeds out of the flowerbeds and the ones that grow right next to any foundations of the structures around the yard. That way we don't have to do the edging as often.
Our yard still looks neat and clean.....it's just a little more colorful. We have several patches of violets, clover, henbit?...I think, dandelions, and even some daisies that grow in the ditches. Also, some of my flowerbed plants have managed to find their way into the grass like forget me nots, lily of the valley and chinese lanterns...they obviously don't get to grow much as they get chopped down with the weekly to bi-weekly mowing...depending on how fast the lawn grows. The ground cover leafy stuff in the back flowerbeds has spread quite a bit as well, but it just makes the flower bed bigger...and since it's not an area we "occupy" as they are under the pine and spruce trees, we let it be. I'll just clean up the edges so it looks like it was planned. The violets, clover and henbit grow much closer to the ground so much of it tends to stick around even after a mow....it's just more "even".

 

[Willowy]

If I could figure out how to put the entire yard in clover I would, lol. . .I think they do sell clover seed but I'm not going to plow it all up for that. But yeah, I'd be perfectly happy with that. And I do love violets too. All the ones I have are white, I wonder if I can find some seed for purple ones. Violets ought to be violet! Is henbit the spicy-smelling stuff? I had a lot of that in town, especially in the shady areas, not sure if I have it here because I have a riding mower so I don't smell everything as much .

 

[susanm9006]

I mow, I fertilize, I apply weed killer and I HATE dandelions. I have a 110 x 150 lot and it just looks beautiful when it is neat and tidy. And my neighbors do the same and you don’t want to have the only scraggly lawn in the neighborhood.

 

[Jem]

I honestly wouldn't mind a clover lawn as well...it's actually becoming a "thing" as it's less maintenance. Some clover species don't flower and don't grow tall, so you never...or hardly ever have to mow.
I think it's henbit. It's a creeping little plant that has small green leaves but produces these tiny little purple flowers...I honestly don't know what it smells like...my husband does the mowing...unless he want's me to be a snotty mess for the rest of the day! And I've never purposefully smelled it. lol!
I have a variety of violet colors....most have some shade of purple though.

 

[game misconduct]

here in southern california were always in drought rationing so we cant even water our yards enough to have a nice lawn unless we want to pay a high water bill so my dads yard is a weed lawn and dirt basicly but the gardeners do come weekly to mow the weeds

 

[Jem]

And my neighbors do the same and you don’t want to have the only scraggly lawn in the neighborhood.

Hey! I object to the term "scraggly"!!! LOL!
My lawn is still well kept....just more colorful!
You would probably go insane in my neighborhood as having the perfect grass lawn is out of the norm around here.

 

[Jem]

a weed lawn and dirt basicly

We had a couple of patches of those when we moved in....it's better now that we put our lawn mulch in those areas and maintained raking up the pine needles. But we don't really ever have issues with drought...dry spells sure...but nothing like you guys.

 

[Jem]

game misconduct - quick question for you....Is wild fire season basically year round? I just saw a video online about the wild fires starting...but it seems like they really haven't ended from last year....or at least is hasn't been that long....IDK my sense of time is horrible though...six months could have gone by and I'd think it was "just last week"! LOL!

 

[rubysmama]

I am obsessed with having a perfect lawn, and I'm failing badly. If it's not the weeds taking over, it's the summer drought and water restrictions that fries the grass. Plus some weed killers are banned here, so the only ones we can get, don't do much, other than leave the weeds laughing at me. I have managed to get rid of most of my dandelions and most of the violets, as they're easy to remove, but my backyard is being taken over by clover and chickweed.

Last fall I overseeded my front lawn, so it looks mostly decent right now. But my neighbour is doing the natural look, so I suspect once their violets go to seed, I'll be getting some on my side.

 

[susanm9006]

I guess part of the reason I work so hard at this lawn is that at my former creeping Charlie took over the whole lawn, crowding out most of the grass. It took years to get rid of most of it and I don’t want to repeat that here.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

I have half an acre and only a push lawn mower, so I hate mowing the lawn. I mowed almost 2 weeks ago so it would be shorter just before I had wrist surgery, but it's grown a lot since then, so I'll have to figure out what I'm going to do. I mow my lawn in sections, 1. because I'm lazy, 2. because the yard is so big and I'm not always physically able to finish it in one go and 3. because in the instances when I can't finish the whole thing, at least the most important areas are mowed. I don't have neighbors behind me and my yard abuts to a wetland, so I can totally get away with not mowing about half of my yard, but since I now have a dog, I don't want to keep the lawn to long because I don't want Poppy bringing in ticks.