Strong words, I know. And I’m not really against having lawns per se. Lawns are kinda nice. You may ask yourself then, “why would he have such a hate on for an innocent little grass variety?”. Well, most of our yards are covered with Kentucky Bluegrass,the most common lawn grass on the continent, mostly because it grows well here (though it’s not a native species) and withstands the winters. As a result, many of us feel compelled to care for this yard covering by watering, fertilizing and mowing it. These are three things I also kinda hate. We use WAY too much water to maintain our “Pleasantville” lawns, add chemical feritilizers that come with a whole host of collateral damage (in their production, run-off, packaging and shipping etc.) and are for our troubles are simply left with a faster growing, albiet greener, lusher field that needs to be mowed more often with a (commonly) gas lawn mower, one of the worst polluters out there.
So since buying our house, we’ve gotten rid of our gas mower, opting instead for a push style reel mower, and removed a fair amount of sod (replacing it with gardens - with veggies as well as drought tolerant plants). And while I have aerated the lawn, never has chemical fertilizer touched it. And it is looking WAY better than when we bought the place.
Anyhow, yesterday we began the next step; removal of all the current lawn. No, we didn’t dig it all out. But we did overseed with a fescue blend that promises to be much better. It requires little or no water (though in this climate I suppose I will have to water a bit even after it is established), no fertilizer, and little or no mowing all summer, and has a natural weed resistance. Not bad. There are a few blends available out there if you care to look, but the one I finally found available in our town is Eco-Lawn.
Now because we are not actually removing the old lawn, opting for the overseeding method, this will be a 3-5 year transition with overseeding being repeated each year. So it is not an instant lawn (you know, those rolls of sod that are likely bluegrass), but I’m a patient guy and am willing to wait and see how this all plays out.
