Reply With QuoteNot to mention that the time spent on maintaining a lawn is by far more than maintaining a veggie patch - which you can eat and gives such joy!
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Lawn.
So as not to derail the fake lawn thread....
I've been meaning to talk about lawn for ages now but I never seem to get around to it.
I bought At Home recently and it turns out that Bill Bryson can express most of the issues with lawn far better than I can so I'm just going to quote him...
I think that even more than the water and chemicals what bugs me is that lawn comes at the expense of produce. If only half our lawns were given over to vege patches the amount of food miles that we all consume would be dramatically reduced.By the last quarter of the 19th century, the lawnmower was comfortably established as a part of gardening life. On even the most modest properties, a good, well-cut lawn became the ideal. For one thing, it was a way of announcing to the world that the householder was prosperous enough that he didn't need to use the space to grow vegetables for his dinner table.
Today for many people gardening is about lawns and almost nothing else. Grass on domestic lawns wants to do what wild grasses do in nature – namely, grow to a height of about two feet, flower, turn brown and die. To keep it short and green and continuously growing means manipulating it fairly brutally and pouring a lot of stuff on to it. In the western US about 60% of all the water that comes out of taps is sprinkled on lawns. Worse still are the amounts of herbicides and pesticides – 32m kg of it a year – that are soaked into lawns. It is a deeply ironic fact that for most of us keeping a handsome lawn is about the least green thing we do.
I do love walking barefoot on a soft, fluffy lawn but I wish it didn't come at such a cost.
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Not to mention that the time spent on maintaining a lawn is by far more than maintaining a veggie patch - which you can eat and gives such joy!
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i know its probably not the intention of your thread, but thank you! next time my dad (or realestate) complains about my lawn, i am going to tell them that
might keep them quiet for a while while they think what to reply with!Grass on domestic lawns wants to do what wild grasses do in nature – namely, grow to a height of about two feet, flower, turn brown and die.
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I have a beautiful patch of lawn that is watered by our grey water. Many people are envious, it looks that good. It is so nice to see kids running over it and doing somersaults etc.
We are fortunate to be on 1/2 acre so still have room for vegie patch around the back and herbs and stuff on the side.
NOt really a point to this post, maybe just bragging.
BellyBelly Member
Well you made me jealous! I've got 'grasses' and weeds massed together with a random clump of gravel here and there for extra texture!
We are going to be retaining alot of our six acres and will have a combo of bush, pasture, fruit trees, vegies and a nice patch of lawn for the kiddies. Until then.. Beware of the boondies!
BellyBelly Member
well.. you're not my friend anymore lol
nah i am soo jealous between feral kids and a ever so cahrming dog our lawn never had a chance.. i am so over the ikky dirt
Registered User
Interesting, my Dh works for an instant lawn company and of course our lawn looks awesome! We don't water it but it does get fertilised.
We have a vegie patch too, albeit a small one atm since we are novices and some of our crops have failed. I would say the lawn takes LESS time to look after - we are always doing something in the vegie patch - either pulling out plants that didn't grow or watering, fertilising, haversting, replanting. My DH mows our lawn once a fortnight and on average it takes maybe half an hour to mow.
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I agree with that - but only in relation to living in an urban/town area. If we lived in town and had to pay for our water, we probably wouldn't have as much grass as we do. But where we live now we have a massive yard and most of it is grass, but then we also have the luxury of having plenty of space to have a vege garden and orchard as big as we want too. We also have a dam bigger than an olympic sized pool chock full of water to water it with as well. so it costs us nothing but our time to maintain because we don't spray or fertilise it either.
BellyBelly Member
I prefer lawn to concrete. So many houses these days are surrounded by concrete, it gets so hot and reflects on the windows etc. We don't have heaps of lawn, two circles on either side of the back yard, just big enough for a swing set. The rest of our garden has hidden tan bark paths and is packed with flowers, bushes etc like a secret garden, and there's a big veg patch up the back and chickens. I have zucchini's coming out of my ears ATT.
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
We have Sir Walter in our backyard. We fertiliee it three times a year and have only watered it once in the last two years. On the other hand, our garden gets watered every two days. I think it depends on the type of lawn you choose.
Nothing like a cuddle from DD after a hard day's work!
Totally agree. My house (we bought it last year) is just concrete. THis is on a 755SQM block of land here so I have a veggie patch/herb garden, huge mango, citrus trees BUT the rest is cement. I really dont like DD running around in the back yard hence why I wanted artificial lawn (which I am put off by it now) but is there a lawn that is environmentally friend?
PS, i dont intend to fertilise nor water it often.
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I wish there was lawn that grew well under shade, specially from gum trees - we have tall trees around our house / land and what little sun we do get, I have my veggie patch.
BellyBelly Member
I think the wider the blade the less you have to water it in order for it to stay nice. Thin grass can get all crunchy and *****ly in hot whether, and is horrid to sit on.
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Buffalo does, apparently.
We are looking at Matilda or palmetto buffalo out the back, between the veggies and the trampoline
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
Palmetto is the bomb!! We have it in our backyard and apart from the settling in period it has never been watered, is weed proof because it knits together so tightly, grows in the shade an the full sun and it is soft underfoot unlike most buffalo grasses. the only downside is that is the most expensive turf to buy as you can't grow it from seed you have to buy the instant turf or runners....Love our palmetto!!!
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Mel, did you lay yours yourself/DH?
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
yeah...we prepared with turf underlay soil and leveled the area ( do yourself a favour and hire a levelling tool, made it sooooo much quicker and easier) and then got the turf delivered....has to be laid the same day so keep that in mind....the turf laying part is the easy bit, it's the preparation that takes time. Oh after we leveled we left it for a couple of weeks to settle in case we had to fill in holes or sinkages type thing. The day you lay the turf you apply for a 28 day watering in exemption online that allows you to water the lawn in to establish it.....after that it should maintain itself......
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Thanks! Better start on the weekend then. I'm undecided on whether we need to actually dig out and remove soil before rotary how and levellinh the ground.
It's covered in weeds, pattersons curse. I've been told not to bother ad just poison and rotary how it because the weeds won't be able to grow thru the buffalo but I'm not sure.
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