Never Ending Work on Lawns

A lawn is not only a resting place but can also be a lot of work. 
Too dry, too many weeds, ecologically questionable: the lawn causes many garden owners a big bellyache.  And worst of all: It is the dead part of any garden - no colorful flowers, no blooming shrubs, and no pollinating bees.

Following this blog over the years, you might have noticed that I am not a fan of lawns.  For me, lawns are expensive and involve lots of work - time you better spend relaxing in your garden.  Beautiful flower beds with lots of perennials and blooming shrubs are way more eco-friendly!  Lawns are dead! pieces of land in many aspects.  But most people don’t think about the environment and act very traditional, wanting to have an immaculate lawn.  So, here are some (video) tips on how to care for your turf:

The First Rule for Lawns:
Water, water, and water even more! The second rule is to de-thatch and weed, then mow your lawn. More after a rainy period - less in dry conditions. To ease the mowing task and also to avoid costly lawnmowing services, you might consider a lawnmower robot.  People use these robotic devices to vacuum their houses, clean the pool, so why not in the garden?

Robotic lawn mowers - Buyer's Guide
Expert advice on choosing the best robotic lawn mower for your garden, from the reviews team at BBC Gardeners' World Magazine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq7-8hSCS90
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Are ROBOT LAWN Mowers any Good?
See how my robotic lawn mower performed & what you need to know BEFORE considering buying one of these. Featuring the Worx Landroid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IQhM0dkiiE

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Best Robot Lawn Mowers in 2020
Comparisons are based on different sources of information, such as technical data, customer opinions, and our personal experience with the model. Due to the nature of our business, we get our hands on many different gardening tools and equipment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnadVE4Alpw

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De-Thatching
Spring de-thatching is a great way to help renovate your tired, ugly lawn.  Using a rake is hard work, and it needs one of these old-fashioned straight, metal rakes.  If you have a large lawn you can use a machine that can make the job so much easier than raking by hand. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea1wG2iLJFA

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How to Have Clean Edges Around Your Lawn
There is nothing that looks better than well taken care of natural edges in the lawn! However, the half-moon edger he uses in the video is very cheap and you should purchase a better one, with an ergonomic handle and a wider part to step on. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qwf-rVDtVo

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Grow a Micro Clover Lawn
This is my favored way of having a beautiful lawn - and I am talking of many years of experience in my own garden: Micro Clover has many benefits over traditional grass, but can also work well with grass. It requires less water and is more sustainable than regular grass lawns and requires far less fertilizer.  As soon as the snow is melted, your lawn will show a nice green color, while your neighbor’s lawn is still brown and unsightly.  And you save lots of mowing time.  This video explains the benefits of micro clover, gives directions on how to seed a micro clover lawn AND overseed a grass lawn with micro clover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq7-8hSCS90

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My Best Advice: Shrink Your Lawn
Those expanses of green turf take an enormous amount of resources.  Eliminate some of your lawns and create a more natural landscape.  You will ultimately use less water and reduce chemical use and save some money too.  As well, you will do less mowing and raking.

Moving away from water-guzzling and chemical-hungry lawns and cultivating yards that are diverse and self-regulating is a matter of mounting urgency.  As global temperatures rise and droughts drag on, the demands of turfgrass are likely to become untenable. 

Recommended reading:

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/more-sustainable-and-beautiful-alternatives-grass-lawn

https://www.cbc.ca/life/home/the-case-for-leaving-the-perfectly-manicured-lawn-behind-1.6449477

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Create a No-Maintenance Garden

Ten years ago I created a 36x24 flower garden bed for a friend. He had no clue of gardening or plants and even less time to do any planting or watering. He insisted to have a ‘no-maintenance’ flower bed - that I built on top of a former ugly patch of lawn.
The way I created it, this flower bed really became a ‘no-maintenance’ part of the front yard - and a fabulous one! Copy how I did it:

First, I edged the garden bed border eight inches deep and wide to avoid any grass to creep in. I collected cardboards on garbage day from all over the street.

Cardboard, Cardboard, and More Cardboard
In case you don’t have enough, just use very thick layers of newspaper (even rarer these days : )   Don’t leave any gaps between the boards, remove the plastic that holds the boxes together - and water the boards very thoroughly.  They should be more than soaking wet.  You don’t want to be that person chasing runaway cardboard caught by the wind.  The cardboard will suppress the weeds and eventually break down into the soil, adding useful organic matter.

Compost, Compost, and More Compost

A thick layer of compost went on the cardboard sheets, then the black garden soil, mixed with lots of composted manure. Chicken, cow, or sheep manure are all good for that matter. 

I must admit, I am a compost geek.  Even on road trips I collect organic stuff (Banana peels, fruit waste, tissues, eggshells, napkins, or teabags) and place them in paper bags to bring it home to my compost.  Composting organic kitchen and garden waste produces rich humus and improves the soil.  By composting you reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill sites, thus reducing greenhouse gases.  You will also save money and your health on chemical fertilizers.  Altogether were the compost, the soil and the manure ca. 15 inches thick when I started to plant flowers and small shrubs.

No-Maintenance Plants 

The planting bed was half in full sun and the other portion laid in dabbled half shade most of the day.  In the full sun part, I planted Rosa Rugosa, very hardy roses.  Also lots of Yarrow, Lavender, Salvia, and Purple Coneflowers - seven to nine plants of each, and each plant type in a group.  For lots of colors and blooms during the early fall time, I found a great offer for a six-feet Pee-Gee Hydrangea tree.  I also added lots of Daffodil and Hyacinth bulbs for next year's spring garden color.

Plants for Shade
The shaded part got a Rosa Glauca bush, a group of Salomon Seals, five different types of Hostas, and for early summer color several Astilbes in pink, white and red as well as three Japanese Anemones that would bloom in a lovely light pink the following year.  And certainly the same spring bulbs as on the sunny side.

Mulch Generously
Planting was done, so I watered again to have the area soaking wet and added a thick - ten-inch - layer of natural brown cedar mulch. If you add mulch, make sure that it is the ‘real’ thing.  Not these stained pieces of wood that are often sold in garden centers - avoid these in black, dark brown, or red! They contain chemicals (think Scott) that are poisonous for plants and you and will stain your clothes and garden gloves.

Mulched beds improve the appearance of any landscape.  But more importantly, generously topping the mulch protects the plants' root systems and adds nutrients to the soil.  Mulch slows soil erosion, retains moisture, evens out extreme temperatures in winter and summer, and successfully helps to prevent weeds.  You will spend less time weeding and watering your garden and more time enjoying it.

My friend never ever did anything on this flower bed. Once or twice a year I visited, mostly in summer or fall. I cut spent flower heads and maybe watered once or twice in summer. That was all that needed to be done. Now ten years later, the garden still looks fabulous!

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