This summer’s been pretty hard on my lawn. I don’t water the damn thing, because seriously, if it can’t cope on its own, it deserves what it gets.
While I’m doing quite a bit better than most of my neighbours, the bald patches have been growing and weeds are moving in.
Since I’ve moved into the house, I’ve been researching and mulling over ideas of gardening and lawn care as essentially ecosystem management. Let’s face it, the average suburban lawn is about as unnatural as you can get. But I can make my life a lot easier by doing a kind of horticultural judo. I provide the conditions by which a nice-looking lawn-type-thing can prosper, and by which annoying non-lawn things are naturally disadvantaged.
About all I’ve been doing since I moved in has been mowing infrequently (I should do that more, albeit at the mower’s highest setting), and hand-pulling dandelions (and thistles and crab grass, but mostly dandelions). I hate dandelions.
This weekend, I put down a bit of top soil and sowed a hardier, drought-tolerant grass seed.
Apparently Labour Day weekend is a good time for overseeding, since the dew in the morning will help the seedlings without me having to water. I’m watering a little bit to get it germinating, but after this week, it’s on its own.
This is an experiment. We’ll see how it goes. I’m thinking I’ll repeat the process in the spring, although I think I need to get a bit more aggressive laying down the top soil. Even though I’m a bit loathe to do it, I think I’m going to fertilize in a month or so.
If all goes well, my lawn should be all green and wavy next year.