Attitudes to lawn

[Laura Corin]

If you have a lawn and there is an adult male and an adult female in your household, how do you both feel about the lawn?  Do you each want it to be largely weed/moss free, or just largely green?  The poll is multi-choice, so you can answer for yourself and the opposite sex.

 

L

[FaithManor]

I would prefer ground cover and no traditional lawn/grass. This would eliminate the use of a mower and the need to find time to do it. We let ours get longer than most of our neighbors, but the zoning in the township is tight for people in town so we can't just let it go. We have talked about plowing the yard up and planting a ground cover for at least part of it, and then keep a smaller amount for the dog. The flower beds have self-maintaining bushes and flowers. I don't buy annuals or plants that need pruning.

[Isabella]

I voted both dh and I prefer mostly weed and moss free, but in reality, although our preference is for that, neither of us have the time or energy to keep it that way. So it's weedier than we'd like, but at this stage of life it's probably all we can attain to.

[Tmhearn]

I don't think either one of us cares much...

[DawnM]

Hard to answer really.

 

Where we live now, we have 2.5 acres and it is about half wooded.  No one really sees it because it is so far off the road, so I really don't care.  

 

However, when we moved here I told Dh that my vote was still to live on half an acre and I was NOT taking care of this beast of a yard, that was HIS job since he wanted it so badly.  (I wasn't rude, just really hate yard work and if we had a smaller yard I would hire it out or it would take him or the boys hardly any time.)

 

Dawn

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

Front vs back yard makes a difference.  I'd like a lush, kid and barefoot friendly sort of backyard, but I live on an ancient flood plain, so there's an endless supply of smooth river rocks that migrate up to the surface, making it perpetually bumpy.  In the front, I'm on a street that's just busy enough to make my, "lawn" (used loosely) a very capable trash magnet.  There, I'd much prefer some sort series of raised planters and pavers with nothing to mow -- oh and a guy to weed and water it too.  

 

DW grew up in Philly with a teeny patch of grass, so our yard feels big to her.

[8circles]

I don't care about weeds and actually find dandelions pretty. But the HOA has other ideas so we make an attempt at weed-free.

[Onceuponatime]

If dh had his way, it would be weed and feed and grass seed all the way. I won't let him put weed killer on our lawn, I pretty much insist it grows au natural, with a once a week mow during the summer. We have some beautiful "weeds" around here: Wild violets, field pansies, clover, bluets, vetch, ageratum, henbit, and loads more. They grow in drifts and look beautiful in the spring. Since we live in a small country town, there is no pressure to have manicured lawns and that is fine with me.

[8circles]

That sounds really lovely.

 

If dh had his way, it would be weed and feed and grass seed all the way. I won't let him put weed killer on our lawn, I pretty much insist it grows au natural, with a once a week mow during the summer. We have some beautiful "weeds" around here: Wild violets, field pansies, clover, bluets, vetch, ageratum, henbit, and loads more. They grow in drifts and look beautiful in the spring. Since we live in a small country town, there is no pressure to have manicured lawns and that is fine with me.

[MomtoCandJ]

We have very little grass that dh mows, it's "the sun patches" though one will eventually be all garden (we are starting it this year, a few raised beds per square foot gardening). The rest is by the road. The rest of our yard is all trees (mainly oaks and maples). Eventually we might have a lawn to mow.

[jrn]

I try to keep the front yard weed free. It's a small front yard, so it's not hard to do.  The backyard I let nature take its course.  I love dandelions and violets (we have white and purple).  I don't care for the creeping charlie though.

[Just Another Jen]

I voted green.

  In full disclosure I did not want to have to deal with the lawn anymore so we moved into the city where we have no lawn. I wanted the lawn green and mowed and was so tired of having to nag the rest of the family to help me upkeep the wooded acre. If Spring ever appears I look forward to walking through the yards maintained by a army of city workers.

[Χά�ων]

I am in the "Food not lawn" group so no grass would be my ideal if I lived in a suburb or city. I am not a fan of boring yards.

[GailV]

Thinking about what Onceuponatime said,  clover was added to grass seed mixes for much of the 20th century.  It was considered a good thing to have in a lawn given that it fixes nitrogen in the soil.  In about the 1960s or 1970s it fell from fashion -- the fall coincided with stronger chemicals available to the homeowner to force growth of the actual grass as well as kill any "weeds".  That's when the big push for uniform green lawns came.

 

Dh would like the perfectly manicured lawn, but doesn't have the time to pursue it.  And I get cranky about all the chemicals he wants to dump on it.  I particularly get cranky about the fertilizer since I'm the one in charge of keeping it mown and I don't have time to mow it every other day due to fast growth.

 

I was a hort major with an emphasis in residential landscape design, and I think plain green grass mown to regimented height is boring. I had a great uncle in the landscaping business who concreted over his entire yard -- the "lawn" parts were green concrete, and the "walkways" were red.  I thought it was wonderfully ironic.

 

I also love so many of my little weed plants.  They're fascinating!  But there are other plants that I think should die, or at least go live in someone else's yard.  Zoysia (we're in the wrong climate zone for that to be a good choice for lawns) and lespedeza both need to shrivel up and die and leave me alone.

 

I probably think about these things way too much, and have too many opinions.  YIkes! If we ever meet at a party, don't ask me about plants -- I'll bore you to death!

[flyingiguana]

My husband would like it mostly GONE so he can plant more other stuff.  But I find a bit of lawn to be useful for projects (he does too, he just doesn't realize that), and our daughter who juggles needs some space.

 

But there's very little grass.  We seem to have succession going on.  When we moved in, it was ALL grass -- maintained by lots of weed killer.  As the years went on, we got a lot of plantain, which I really hated.  The seed stalks get caught between the toes when you're barefoot.  These days, though, the plantain is disappearing and being replaced by clover.

 

We only mow to knock the weeds down below a certain height before the city comes in to do it for us.  We can get away with this because our neighbors are not big lawn fans for the most part and because we have so little "lawn" that the city just thinks we have non-lawn landscaping everywhere.  We live in the heart of a very nice neighborhood (believe me, the house prices took off after we moved in or we wouldn't be here), so the fact that people are fairly tolerant is surprising. 

 

If the summer gets dry, we do our best not to water the "lawn" so we have to mow it even less.  Green is not a requirement.  Flat is the only requirement.

[elfgivas]

we are in the "water is too precious to waste on a lawn" camp.  that may be hard to imagine in G.B at this moment... 

 

living in the high desert of california, where the drought will only get worse over time, we have junipers that are hundreds of years old dying.  there is no water for lawns.  none.  

we do water a small food garden, which is worth its weight in gold.

 

our front lawn is now beach pebbles, with white rocks edging the house, and a textured brick pathway to the door.

the rear "lawn" is about to go the same way.

 

hth,

ann

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

Back in drum corps, we practiced on one field...have NO idea where...but the grass was flat and kinda woven together, like a green scouring pad. It was def living grass, tho. I'd take that for a front lawn.

[gardenmom5]

the most common lawn weed here is dandelion. now that I'm an adult, i loath dandelions.  the neighbors uphill from us rent that house and their lawn immediatly next to ours was full of them.  (their current renters care so it's not as much of a problem.)  I planted an arborvitea hedge between us as a wind block just to keep from getting the stinking seeds in my yard. 

we don't do much watering of lawns though.  they turn brown in august, and after it starts raining they almost immediately turn back to green.  I planted some trees in one lawn, and so they had to be watered.  it was funny how green and lush (and needed to be mowed) the grass was around them.

 

[Carrie12345]

Meh. We don't even care if it's green as far as appearance goes.  I pulled evergreen cover and threw some grass seed out a few years back so the kids would have a little bit of stone-free, twig-free running space that didn't turn into a full mud pit with each rain.

Of course, they'd rather run through the rocky, brambly, muddy woods!

[prairiewindmomma]

At our current location, we have neighbors to please. Weeds here lead to bare patches of soil. In my ideal world, we'd xeriscape everything except a small green patch for play. I love permaculture edibles.

[Joker]

We are fined here for weeds or dead grass, so we have to keep it green. We're also supposed to be restricted on when we can water so it makes it challenging. We once had to re-sod the entire backyard because of the HOA rules. If left up to us, neither one of us would care.

[Aelwydd]

I am in the "Food not lawn" group so no grass would be my ideal if I lived in a suburb or city. I am not a fan of boring yards.

I really wish it was common practice for lawns to be made into growing spaces for biofriendly flowers and vegetables instead of wasted patches of green. So much water and nasty pesticides are dumped into lawns, and fuel wasted on lawn mowers, not to mention on trips to the store to buy seed, pesticides, etc.

 

Also chickens. They should be universally permitted! :)

[Freckles]

I live in S. California. No rain and high water costs force us to have dirt for a yard. I would love to xeriscape it, but we have about a half an acre. It's too cost prohibitive right now. We use our limited water to save our fruit trees. We have lemons, oranges, avocados, and tangerines.

[Χά�ων]

We are fined here for weeds or dead grass, so we have to keep it green. We're also supposed to be restricted on when we can water so it makes it challenging. We once had to re-sod the entire backyard because of the HOA rules. If left up to us, neither one of us would care.

Sounds like where we used to live. It would rain for days and noone could mow. The second it stopped raining (while people were at work) they would drive around planting violation signs.

 

More that once I saw them coming and mowed the area near the street of our house and the neighbors houses so they could not place the sign without tresspassing to get the measurements. Then I sat outside wih a camcorder recording them to make sure they didn't.

 

It was one retired and bored person on an ego trip. They had a fit over everything.

[Sun]

Moss free? :svengo: Without the moss, there would be almost nothing left in my lawn!

 

Moss really is the perfect lawn. It doesn't need to be mowed; it's a lovely shade of green; and it's really soft under foot. I don't see the problem!

 

[Kalmia]

Dandelions are a vital early spring nectar source for honeybees! That's why they were originally brought over from Europe and intentionally planted. With honeybees in danger, we encourage dandelions in our lawn and the honeybees we've seen nectaring there seem thankful. I am also a big fan of violets in the yard as they are the host plant for the caterpillars of the beautiful frittilary butterflies. Clover provides ongoing nectar for the bees as well. 

[Truscifi]

I voted other. We both just try to keep it shorter than ankle high. In the rainy season here that is enough of a challenge by itself - it requires a minimum of weekly mowing (twice weekly is better), but it is rare that it is dry enough to mow. Also, our yard has large sandy patches so in those areas we are just glad if anything grows.

[Pawz4me]

I voted largely weed and moss free for DH and green is all I need for me.  But truthfully I do like the yard to look nice.  I just don't want to do the work and likely wouldn't if it were left to me.  A few years ago DH reseeded the entire yard with a hybrid Bermuda grass.  Most people around here consider Bermuda to be a weed, but it's a native grass.  It's dead brown in the winter, but in the summer we have the nicest lawn in our neighborhood.  It looks like a golf course, and people stop and compliment us on it all the time.  But because it's a native grass it requires little in the way of fertilizer or weed killers.  And it's very heat and drought tolerant.  We haven't watered since we got it established, and don't plan to ever water it again.  When we tried to grow fescue here it was a nightmare cycle of applying fertilizers and weed killers and watering and still not having a nice lawn.  The only negative thing about the Bermuda is that it grows very fast.  DH has to mow every third day sometimes.

[Farrar]

Moss free? :svengo: Without the moss, there would be almost nothing left in my lawn!

 

Moss really is the perfect lawn. It doesn't need to be mowed; it's a lovely shade of green; and it's really soft under foot. I don't see the problem!

 

My mother had a shaded backyard lawn at her last house.  She spent three years cultivating the moss because nothing else would grow and it was lovely.

 

Our postage stamp front lawn is sunny, so no moss.  Dh and I share the same sentiment - just keep it cut and it'll be okay.  I mean, it would be nice to have a lovely perfect cover, but neither of us want to put in the time, money, or chemical supplements that would require.

[ScoutTN]

We only have a quarter acre lot and it is flat so it's not much work. Dh likes to keep it neat so he mows, edges and weed-eats. I don't do power yard tools. I am in charge of flowers and the garden. Our yard is more weeds than grass, but we don't care. It is a good place for our kids to play. The yard is for playing ball games and frisbee, watching bugs, birds, squirrels and weather, sleeping in a tent and other kid ways of enjoying the outside.

We are putting some edible plants into our front flower beds this spring and some blackberries in the back yard.

We only water the garden and flowers. If our rain barrels run dry, then only the veggies and herbs. No HOA, thankfully. Older neighborhood with small houses have their advantages.

[BrookValley.]

Lawn. Meh. :laugh:

 

I voted "green is all I need" for both myself and DH, but the truth is I'd rather dig it all under and institute some sort of organized chaos, i.e., cottage-style garden, instead of lawn (I'm working on this, slowly but surely) and DH wouldn't notice the lawn at all unless it happened to disappear into a massive sinkhole or something.

[Jeannie in NJ]

dh cares too much what the neighbors think so we always have a green front yard, but we don't ever water, don't need to, it rains more than enough here.  Here at our new house, the back yard is all wooded so we don't have to worry about an lawn plus we just put a fence in so don't have to worry what neighbors think (I never care what the neighbors think about my yard, but dh does).

 

we use a yard service for mowing but I would much rather have a moss type ground cover instead of grass but dh wins this battle lol

[HRAAB]

Me - green.  Whatever it is, green.

 

DH - weed free and green.

 

TBH, our neighbors wouldn't appreciate weeds or their seeds.  Personally, I wouldn't mind being neighbor free within a mile, give or take, radius.

[Mbelle]

I don't care about weeds for the most part.  I do get irritated at the onions though, because they pop up quickly and are taller.  DH prefers mostly weed free in the front yard.  Backyard is for gardening and chickens.  Thankfully the front yard is small with most of our acre in the back.  I actually think with our older home a few weeds look charming:)!  

[Garga]

We both hate yard work. Allergies.

 

I even had an artist friend make a slate plaque that hangs by my front door. It reads "Bramble Cottage." It serves as both the name of my house and an accurate description of the yard.

[GSOchristie]

We are the only house in our cul de sac that does not use TruGreen, so we at least attempt to keep it weed free (I'm not sure moss even grows on lawns here).  Everyone else has a golf course lawn and ours is some sort of weird grass that is definitely not golf course quality.  

[Lara in Colo]

We live in a semi arid climate (and getting to be more arid than semi) Whereas I like the idea of a super green, thick lawn for the children to run barefoot in-- I find it to be very wasteful of a resource that is dwindling and not renewable.  We get almost no rain and lately, no snow.  I would like to have the money to make a garden-type lawn but that would take A LOT of money to make our lawn level enough to do that.  By design I picked an older neighborhood with no HOA and large yards.  My back yard is natural (scrub oak and chokecherry trees) and my front yard is grass with lots of green weeds.  The only thing I cannot stand is sticker-burrs (which we thankfully don't have) and juniper (which I spent an entire summer removing)-- those things hurt the most when barefoot!  The bad thing about weeds-- they die and leave in the winter, leaving patches of mud for the dog to track inside the house.

[Jerico]

Neither of us care. We mow just to keep it managable throughout the season. Its usually pretty dead but not worth all of the money or water to water it.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Dh actually suggested digging it all up and putting down some green concrete once.  Sacrilege!  I don't know why he cares since I"m the one who does all the mowing.  

 

P.S.  Mowed weeds look  the same as mowed grass -        from a distance!  

[Belacqua]

Moss free? :svengo: Without the moss, there would be almost nothing left in my lawn!

 

Moss really is the perfect lawn. It doesn't need to be mowed; it's a lovely shade of green; and it's really soft under foot. I don't see the problem!

 

I'm kind of partial to our moss, as well. Good thing, as this winter has turned our yard into an M 'n' M Lawn (moss and moles).

 

 

At our current location, we have neighbors to please. Weeds here lead to bare patches of soil. In my ideal world, we'd xeriscape everything except a small green patch for play. I love permaculture edibles.

 

I seriously want to tear up all the grass and xeriscape. My worry, though, is that what looks so beautiful in the gardening books will look like a county fair parking lot in real life. 

[Slartibartfast]

I chose other. IMO a lush lawn is a waste of a precious resource.

 

I am from a drought prone state. I never water grass.

 

 

[hillfarm]

My lawn is a 3 acre patch of weeds, cut to a uniform height. I don't really care what color is it, usually it is green, sometimes brown or tan. It surprised me today to see how much green there is out there, since the snow has finally started to recede. This is the first time in about 6 weeks that I have even seen my lawn.

 

During the summer I jokingly call myself a grass widow (similar to sports widow). It seems dh is always out mowing, trimming, baling, or scraping some sort of "grass", if not at my house, then at my dm's next door. During the height of the growing season, he could easily justify cutting the lawn at least twice a week. However, he doesn't bother, so we usually look just a bit shaggy.

 

Also wanted to comment about the different types of grass. In Florida we had this industrial strength stuff that was thick and coarse and would practically cut your feet. Here in the Midwest, in the few areas not filled with weeds, we have this stuff I call "pantyhose grass". It is so soft and fine that you could run across it in your pantyhose and not get the first snag. I have no idea what kind it is. But it is lovely to touch.

[Chris in VA]

I love walking barefoot on a really lush and green lawn.

 

Never ever going to happen here. We live in the woods.

 

I'd take a lawn without poison ivy, tho.

[trulycrabby]

We never water, and we cultivate dandelions and clover for the bees. We do treat crabgrass, though.

[Happy]

I voted both dh and I prefer mostly weed and moss free, but in reality, although our preference is for that, neither of us have the time or energy to keep it that way. So it's weedier than we'd like, but at this stage of life it's probably all we can attain to.

 

This.

 

We love a healthy green lawn. Lush and lovely. However we have limited time and $$$ for investing in that lushness. We have a huge lawn so it is an investment.

 

I wouldn't mind more than half of it becoming flowerbeds. Of course, those need mulching and tending as well. I'm great at bringing home plants that need attention of some sort. Working on getting more self sufficient plants...

[PeacefulChaos]

Neither DH or I have strong feelings about it.  Other than green being nice.  :D

 

[Alice]

If dh had his way, it would be weed and feed and grass seed all the way. I won't let him put weed killer on our lawn, I pretty much insist it grows au natural, with a once a week mow during the summer. We have some beautiful "weeds" around here: Wild violets, field pansies, clover, bluets, vetch, ageratum, henbit, and loads more. They grow in drifts and look beautiful in the spring. Since we live in a small country town, there is no pressure to have manicured lawns and that is fine with me.

 

This sounds lovely. Most of our weeds are sadly ugly weeds, like a ton of crabgrass. We do have some nice clover and violets that I try and think of as "ground cover" instead of weeds. I think ideally we'd both prefer it to look nicer but neither of us care enough or want to put time/money into it. We try and keep it reasonably neat and tidy but we never water or do anything more than cut it. 

 

I am in the "Food not lawn" group so no grass would be my ideal if I lived in a suburb or city. I am not a fan of boring yards.

 

Dh would love to have a full vegetable garden in the front yard. We have a large yard for this area (1/2 acre) but most of it is shade so we haven't really been able to have a vegetable garden. And in reality neither of us are really gardeners anyway. When we moved in here some friends asked us what kind of flowers we'd ideally like in a circular planter area that was bare. Dh replied "something lush and pretty but that is inexpensive and requires no maintenance." :) Not asking too much, huh? Our friends, who are gardeners, planted the area with all sorts of beautiful annuals that come up and grow and look nice and require very little from our black thumbs. 

 

Our backyard is almost completely shaded so we cultivate the moss and what little weeds there are. It's better than bare dirt. It's very rare that we cut the grass back there at all. 

[Matryoshka]

Green is good.  Clover is good.  Moss can be good in the right spots.  Are these "weeds" you're referring to my pretty flowers (like dandelions? :) )  Y'know, when you mow them, also green. :D

 

And we don't water.  We have a high water table, which is lucky, but those "weeds" also have much deeper roots than grass, so having a mix of them liberally sprinkled also helps keep the lawn green!

[Susan in TN]

Our lawn is an artistic blend of grass-type plants and weeds in green and brown hues.  The most common thought expressed over it is, "Is the yard getting too long or can it wait another week?".

[Melissa in Australia]

I voted other.

 mostly because I could not work out the other choices.

 we live in a rural area that has sand for soil. that is right, not sandy soil but sand. we mostly have kikuyu grass. it  loves sandy soil, but it dies off in the summer and turns yellowy brown. it also gets burned off in winter by the frost and turns yellowy brown. we are pleased to have a ground cover though. my neighbors mostly have sand with bracken growing all over it, with isolated bunches of kangaroo tussock grass.