Safe Lawn Suggestions

  • Post published:08/31/2011
  • Post comments:3 Comments
The Flowery Mead aka Our Lawn

We have more lawn than we would like, and more lawn than people like Susan Harris, one of the Lawn Reform instigators, recommend, we have been working to eliminate lawn. I have the Rose Bank and the Daylily Bank, to cut down on mowing and  therefore energy use. I am moving the pretty groundcover, barren strawberry (Waldenstenia), into an area along the edge of the lawn. And I am trying to turn the whole front lawn into a thyme lawn. For a couple of years we have been planting plugs of common thyme into the lawn and it is Taking Over! Less mowing.

Barren Strawberry

However, lawns are not going away anytime soon. Paul Tukey of Safe Lawns, has this advice for people who have waterlogged and damaged lawns after tropical storm Irene. http://www.safelawns.org/blog/index.php/2011/08/in-the-wake-of-irene-assess-overseed/

Paul Tukey’s website also passed on this horrifying news about Frenkenlawns. Many people can dismiss the news about Genetically Modified alfalfa and the problems it might cause. After all, who gives a lot of thought to alfalfa. However, even people who are concerned about the widespread use of GMO seed for corn, soybeans and alfalfa on farms, might not be aware that GMO lawn seed has been approved by the USDA.  Read this news story:  http://www.safelawns.org/blog/index.php/2011/08/the-frankenlawn-update-wheres-the-outcry-to-stop-gmo-grass-seed/

And one more piece of information from Safe Lawns:http://www.safelawns.org/blog/index.php/2011/08/guest-blog-doctors-favor-lawn-pesticide-bans/

I want children to be able to play on my lawn, weedy patch though it is. I want to walk barefoot on my lawn. I want to be safe and healthy on my own plot of land. Therefore I have never fertilized my lawn with anything other than grass clippings, and I have never used herbicides or pesticides on my lawn. All totally unnecessary. I have even added clover seed to my seed mix when I have had to plant new grass after construction. And of course, there is always common thyme.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Layanee

    If we all could just accept a ‘less than perfect’ lawn, the earth would be friendlier. I call my lawn the ‘freedom lawn’ or the natural lawn. Lots of native and non-natives live in my lawn. Love a thyme lawn and the barren strawberry is very pretty.

  2. Kate

    I’ve removed about half my lawn but I’m done, now. I love feeling the grass between my toes. And, I do like the idea of a ‘less than perfect’ lawn. I don’t fertilize mine – the only water it gets is the spray from watering the flower beds. I guess it just learns to adapt…

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