I had to read when I saw that title! I'm working on a piece on grass myself on how it fits into our little ecosystem. I think that phrase, "grow food not lawns" has turned grass into the enemy.
I had to read when I saw that title! I'm working on a piece on grass myself on how it fits into our little ecosystem. I think that phrase, "grow food not lawns" has turned grass into the enemy.
I can understand why you have that opinion because on a sustainable level it's been promoted heavily. I support that idea of "grow food, not lawns" because of a lot of reasons. That said, grass serves a very important function, it's not the enemy. The enemy is the mindset that we can and should exploit nature regardless of impact that has on the environment and us. Invasive grass is not cool either!!! We've got crabgrass that's impossible to coexist with.
Personally I prefer using the phrase "eat the weeds" instead.
I live where if we wanted to (or just can't get to it in time) we could let everything get as big as it wants but wading through a sea of meadow isn't ideal lol. As soon as possible I want this place planted where will require very minimal work.
My problem with lawns is they work against nature which means they are costly to keep in order, often use toxic chemicals frequently and a ton of it, they require a lot of water, they don't having stacking purposes, they often aren't even used, and there are much better options. My goal here is no mow asap. I can't maintain a lawn even if I liked them.
Will be looking forward to reading your post. { :
I like "eat the weeds!" I think we can have a tendency to label things, then that label can end up with a word being used as a bad description when it was never mean't that way, or even being changed to mean something else.
So, yes, most lawns are now chemical ridden stretches of grass, but they can be anything. I like to take the meadow mentality towards lawns these days.
Some grasses are incredibly hard to get rid of. The tiniest bit of root will bring them back. Is crab grass a creeping type? They say if you continually remove a plant's leaves then you can kill anything. It could be an interesting experiment for invasives.
The only way I've ever found to suppress weeds is to completely smoother of light. Even some like crabgrass can stretch out to expand past the weed barrier, but you can effectively kill. Ever leave a kiddy pool on the grass over fall and winter? Then when you move it the ground is dirt? Viola! The most effective weed killer I know.
I don't want to pretend that I never use chemicals. There are specific instances I do and will but I'm not happy about it and avoid doing so at all cost.
Crabgrass spreads similarly to the way strawberries do. Has deep roots that will regrow if not entirely removed. However, the smother method does work!
We have a grass that creeps through anywhere. Smothering with newspaper worked really well until the birds started scratching the paper up! Like you say though, you have to cover a larger area to stop those shoots creeping out.
Who'd have thought we'd be having a conversation on grass! Lol
I know, right!! and you absolutely have to plant something that will prevent the grass from growing immediately or it will just come back and flip you the bird. what we used to kill the grass was an old swimming pool, a broke down car, and a pile of cardboard. wasn't intentional, but did the trick. hah.
Darn, I don't have any broken down cars or old pools! Lol!
haha.