The Meadow Soon Will Be
Aug. 24th, 2006 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellyssianJustin finished off fertilizing the back lawn - we didn't have time for him to mow as well. We were discussing how many frequent mowings are better than letting it turn into a jungle and then hacking it down, and how it would nice if we had a new mower that could trim a little bit higher for healthier grass. He said my mother has her yard kept down to the lowest height, and thinks we need a new mower so we can trim at a lower height.
So for your lawn-mowing enjoyment: Most people cut their grass way too short, thinking it will help them mow less often. But scalping your lawn of all its green forces the grass to try and grow super-fast to replace the solar collectors you executed. This weak new growth looks terrible, so you cut it again - way too soon and way too short - and again... and... Meanwhile, those roots aren't growing at all - allowing weeds to throw wild parties with loose flora where your turf should be.
Your lawn should be AT LEAST two inches high AFTER YOU CUT - an inch higher for cool season grasses and shady lawns. Use a ruler! And never cut off more than a third at any one time. Your grass will grow slower (because you aren't trying to kill it anymore), look much greener than a crew-cut lawn, and form DEEP roots that crowd out weeds naturally. How deep? Our old buddy (and corn gluten meal creator) Dr. Nick Christians, turfgrass Professor at Iowa State University, explains that a fescue grass cut two inches high will have 18-inch deep roots (which sounds pretty good). But if you raise the cutting height to the fescue-recommended three and a half inches, those roots will go down FOUR FEET - that's a lawn that can find enough water and nutrients to take care of itself! - from Mike's You Bet Your Garden column on lawn care
In my own, ahem, research I have watched scalped lawns continue to fail until there was more dirt and dust kicked up than there were lawn clippings, and the erosion problems that came as a result simply, well, eroded even more dirt. I can barely set my lawn mower to two inches - since I haven't (yet) tamped down the lawn, it has irregularities (so much that they are fairly regular) and parts get clipped down to an inch or less. If I can, I'll tamp in the spring, and, as soon as I squeeze the last bit of life from this el-cheapo mower, I'll get a decent mulching mower capable of three inch cutting height - with luck, I'll find one that does five inch cutting, which will help with wildflower plantings in the first and second year.
And that's actually what kicked off the conversation on mowing: I was discussing the maintenance of the meadow which we had just planted. We'll be letting that grow, so the seedlings have some cover for this coming winter, and then I'll be maintaining it with the string trimmer - eventually needing a cutting blade - keeping it at a 5-6" height to make sure light reaches all the sprouts and encourages them to grow. After that, they'll be on their own, getting a trim in the spring if needed. Grass and forbs will range from maximums of 6" at the base to 72" with most around 24" high.
Rachel and I planted: Anise Hyssop, Nodding Onion, Prairie Onion, Wild Leek, Little Bluestem, Pasque Flower, Pussytoes, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Butterflyweed, Heath Aster, Bigleaf Aster, Canadian Milk Vetch, Cream Wild Indigo, Sideoats Grama, Blue Gramma, Harebell, New Jersey Tea, Tall Larkspur, Pale Purple Coneflower, Rattlesnake Master, Stiff Gentian, Wild Geranium, Prairie Smoke, Bottlebrush Grass, June Grass, Button Blazing Star, Wild Lupine, Wild Bergamot, Spotted Bee Balm, Marbleseed, Hairy Mountain Mint, Foxglove Beardtongue, Large-flowered Beardtongue, Jacob's Ladder, Black-eyed Susan, Prairie Blue-eyed Grass, Old Field Goldenrod, Indian Grass, Northern Dropseed, and Prairie Violets.
We planted by height, with certain areas getting focused plantings, and then the remaining seed of each grouping scattered randomly, which should produce a result somewhere neatly in between a planned landscape and a natural meadow. Justin helped out with the last few plantings - when we had worked all the way down past the 6" ones and then went in for the ones that required cold storage or inoculation prior to planting. We put the sprinkler out to wet everything down - not a good thorough watering, just enough to remind the soil what moisture was, which hopefully helped when the rains came later in the night, and, allegedly, for the next four or so days.
So for your lawn-mowing enjoyment: Most people cut their grass way too short, thinking it will help them mow less often. But scalping your lawn of all its green forces the grass to try and grow super-fast to replace the solar collectors you executed. This weak new growth looks terrible, so you cut it again - way too soon and way too short - and again... and... Meanwhile, those roots aren't growing at all - allowing weeds to throw wild parties with loose flora where your turf should be.
Your lawn should be AT LEAST two inches high AFTER YOU CUT - an inch higher for cool season grasses and shady lawns. Use a ruler! And never cut off more than a third at any one time. Your grass will grow slower (because you aren't trying to kill it anymore), look much greener than a crew-cut lawn, and form DEEP roots that crowd out weeds naturally. How deep? Our old buddy (and corn gluten meal creator) Dr. Nick Christians, turfgrass Professor at Iowa State University, explains that a fescue grass cut two inches high will have 18-inch deep roots (which sounds pretty good). But if you raise the cutting height to the fescue-recommended three and a half inches, those roots will go down FOUR FEET - that's a lawn that can find enough water and nutrients to take care of itself! - from Mike's You Bet Your Garden column on lawn care
In my own, ahem, research I have watched scalped lawns continue to fail until there was more dirt and dust kicked up than there were lawn clippings, and the erosion problems that came as a result simply, well, eroded even more dirt. I can barely set my lawn mower to two inches - since I haven't (yet) tamped down the lawn, it has irregularities (so much that they are fairly regular) and parts get clipped down to an inch or less. If I can, I'll tamp in the spring, and, as soon as I squeeze the last bit of life from this el-cheapo mower, I'll get a decent mulching mower capable of three inch cutting height - with luck, I'll find one that does five inch cutting, which will help with wildflower plantings in the first and second year.
And that's actually what kicked off the conversation on mowing: I was discussing the maintenance of the meadow which we had just planted. We'll be letting that grow, so the seedlings have some cover for this coming winter, and then I'll be maintaining it with the string trimmer - eventually needing a cutting blade - keeping it at a 5-6" height to make sure light reaches all the sprouts and encourages them to grow. After that, they'll be on their own, getting a trim in the spring if needed. Grass and forbs will range from maximums of 6" at the base to 72" with most around 24" high.
Rachel and I planted: Anise Hyssop, Nodding Onion, Prairie Onion, Wild Leek, Little Bluestem, Pasque Flower, Pussytoes, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Butterflyweed, Heath Aster, Bigleaf Aster, Canadian Milk Vetch, Cream Wild Indigo, Sideoats Grama, Blue Gramma, Harebell, New Jersey Tea, Tall Larkspur, Pale Purple Coneflower, Rattlesnake Master, Stiff Gentian, Wild Geranium, Prairie Smoke, Bottlebrush Grass, June Grass, Button Blazing Star, Wild Lupine, Wild Bergamot, Spotted Bee Balm, Marbleseed, Hairy Mountain Mint, Foxglove Beardtongue, Large-flowered Beardtongue, Jacob's Ladder, Black-eyed Susan, Prairie Blue-eyed Grass, Old Field Goldenrod, Indian Grass, Northern Dropseed, and Prairie Violets.
We planted by height, with certain areas getting focused plantings, and then the remaining seed of each grouping scattered randomly, which should produce a result somewhere neatly in between a planned landscape and a natural meadow. Justin helped out with the last few plantings - when we had worked all the way down past the 6" ones and then went in for the ones that required cold storage or inoculation prior to planting. We put the sprinkler out to wet everything down - not a good thorough watering, just enough to remind the soil what moisture was, which hopefully helped when the rains came later in the night, and, allegedly, for the next four or so days.
