Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with grass

What would happen to my lawn if I just didn't rake the leaves?

Flunkie — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:15:35 -0800

What would happen to my lawn if I just didn't rake the leaves? I don't particularly care if my lawn is covered in leaves. But will it actually damage my (normal grass) lawn if I just leave them there until they blow away or disintegrate or whatever? Come Spring, will I have a barren patch of dirt where there used to be grass?

Question about grass, man

atm — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:43:47 -0800

I'm looking for grass for my backyard, but we have two major problems. The ground is wet pretty much all the time because it's so low. I'm told it barely perked enough when they did the perk test for the septic tank (the main field lines are in the front, only the emergency overflow lines are in the back, and our system is properly sending all liquid to the front). Also, the yard is very shady. Some parts never get sun and at most some parts get 4-5 hours a day. Unfortunately, cutting down trees isn't an option. I was hoping someone could either recommend a grass suited for my situation or point me to a website with some kind of a grass database I could search. (btw, I live near Birmingham, AL)

I know I can talk to local landscapers, and I will, but I want to query the hive first.

Thanks.

Damn moles, get off my lawn!

Artw — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:28:14 -0800

We've been getting molehills in our front garden lately, and we want them to go away. Which anti-mole technology is best for us? Factors:
* Our garden is about 500 square ft. Only part of it is lawn, the rest being flowerbeds and some planters with vegetables. No sign of moles outside of the lawn so far though. The soil has recently been aerated, which seems to have started our mole problems.
* We have a cat, he catches them occasioanly, but as far as we know does not eat them. Anything which might harm the cat is out.
* Those neat looking plunger traps that skewer have been vetoed as too cruel. Anything that actually harms the moles directly is probably out. Boo.
* So we're probably looking at repellent sprays or some kind of audio device, which of those work best? Any particular brands that are more effective?
* The solar molechasers looks sort of interesting, but it is frequently overcast here, are they going to do anything?
* I kind of like the idea of the windmill mole chasers, but are they going to work with only moderate wind?

grass / synthetic surface run in the bay area?

evanm — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:38:59 -0800

anybody know of a grass / synthetic surface for a run in the bay area? I have looked just about everywhere I could think of including the obvious mapmyrun.com, connect.garmin.com, usatf.org, and various google searches -- but I can't seem to find a good area where I can run that would be easier on my lower body, namely my knees.

I fear that my common running routine on very hard surfaces is slowly killing my body.

I'm looking for a grassy area, or a wood chip-rich covering. Dirt is not preferable. Synthetic grounds could also work.

If anyone has found of a good location, namely in the east bay, please share. I'm up for anything in the SF/east bay area. Ideally, I want to run a half marathon, but realize of I find such an area, I'd have to cover the same ground more than once.

I want grass without the fuss

reenum — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:31:31 -0800

I'm thinking of replacing my lawn with artificial grass or some other thing that doesn't require constant upkeep. I'd like to hear your experiences with such horticultural matters. I hate mowing my lawn. Always have and always will.

So, I'm thinking of having Astroturf or some other artificial grass installed. I've also been researching ground covering, which appears to be the growing of ivy or some other plant that will cover the sod, but not require mowing.

Has anyone here replaced their grass lawn with either of these alternatives. Anything I need to watch out for? How often do I need to replace artificial grass or ground covering?

All opinions and suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

How to kill grass on a playground?

roaring beast — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:47:31 -0800

How to kill grass on a playground? We recently installed a wooden playground set in use by about 20-30 kids each week. After laying down about two layers of landscape fabric on top of grass, we put about 2" of rubber playground mulch over it.

The problem is that grass and weeds are still growing up through it. In hindsight, we probably should have killed off the grass before putting down the fabric. Now it would be an incredible task to move all the rubber mulch, lift all the fabric, kill the grass and put it back on all over again.

It's been suggested that we use Roundup to kill all the grass, but I wonder if this is safe since children will be using the playground in the future.

The mulch with grass growing through is quite unsightly, but maybe something we just have to live with.

What should we do? Any ideas?

When was Kinderlied by Gunter Grass written?

Planet F — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:19:24 -0800

When was the poem "Kinderlied" by Gunter Grass written? I'm writing an essay on the poem Kinderlied by Gunter Grass, and I need to know what date it was written in so I can analyse the historical context in which it was written. The book I found the poem in does not have the date in it, and my google foo has failed to turn up anything terribly conclusive, just a few odd dates here and there, but none seem to match up. If possible, I'd also like the publishing year.

Thanks very much, and if you could give me the source where you found the date, that would be great too :)

My reel mower is fight?

barc0001 — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:32:31 -0800

Does anyone know how a gas powered reel mower will handle tall grass? I've got a lawn that I mow... infrequently. Exacerbating the issue is the fact that a section of my back yard has an underground water flow so that area's soil is perpetually damp, and the grass grows like mad over it. I've been doing the "weed whacker it down and then mow it with an electric blade mower" thing for a while with moderate success. Things have gone spring-like enough that last week was time to go out and start the cycle again this year except my mower broke on me, and the weedwhacker is starting to smell like burning resin when running so I think it's not long for this world either. So I am looking to see if there is a better way. I've decided that my next mower is going to be gas, not electric, since when I was a kid I had a gas mower and it kicked all kinds of ass compared to the electric I just killed.

I've located someone selling a gas powered reel mower and was wondering if this might be "something better". I've used a hand-powered reel mower and know they don't work with tall grass or weeds very well, but does anyone have any input on a reel mower with some actual horsepower behind it going up against tall grass?

the green, green grass of home.

thinkingwoman — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:10:55 -0800

newbie looking for a sturdy, dog-friendly groundcover for our back yard! our dogs have reduced our back yard to bare dirt, so we have a nice opportunity (trying to think positively, here) to choose our groundcover.

grass normally grows quite happily in our soil (it's all over everyone else's yards, and picks up right at our fenceline), so replanting grass or laying sod is an option. if we do that, does anyone know how long we'd have to keep our dogs off it for it to properly take root?

alternatively, i've been thinking about sowing mint or thyme (or a mixture of both). our dogs will surely nibble here and there--are these safe plants for them? would we have to keep the dogs off this for very long?

any other ideas would be most appreciated. we are in middle tennessee, get lots of sun, and have been in a drought for a few years now. looks are of secondary importance; mostly we need something to prevent erosion, as we're on a slope, and keep the dogs from becoming utterly filthy whenever they go outside.

Help me have a happy lawn.

drstein — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:32:36 -0800

Help me get a good start on my lawn Here's the scoop:

* I live in north Texas.
* I have Bermuda grass that was planted as sod.
* The house is just under a year old, so this is the first spring that I'll have the stuff.

What should I do to prevent grubs and weeds, and what can I do to make sure that it's green and happy? It's still fairly brown but is starting to green up a bit.

What do they use to cut grass in China?

niles — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:50:11 -0800

AnswerAnOngoingFamilyArgument-Filter: My sister says one of her highschool history teachers mentioned in class a month or two ago that in China, people use scissors to cut their lawns instead of lawn mowers. Obviously, this is pretty crazy (right?), but my sister says that's what he said. Is there anything reasonable along these lines that could have been what he really said?

How do I grow grass in a mulched area?

toekneebullard — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:09:47 -0800

I just want grass! Help me turn the last home owner's garden into a simple grass yard. OK, so I made the mistake of buying a house that was owned by a gardener. This couple just loved to plant all sorts of stuff, all around the house. Problem is I'm the kinda guy who put off buying a house cause I never had to mow the grass at my apartment.

So over the last year things have overgrown, died, and just all around gone to crap. I've tried pulling out a lot of plants, but they seem to grow back, or weeds (they look like weeds at least) grow in their place. And I'm pretty sure I'm breeding all new forms of grass in my back yard. There's at least 6 distinct patches or varying styles.

The big issue is that a lot of my yard is mulched, where they put all their plants. Can I just put grass seed down and it will grow around/ over/eat up the mulch? That's my biggest question: how do you go from mulched area, to just grass.

Forgive me if this is a repeat question, I've googled and searched, and everything seems to be about putting down mulch, not getting rid of it. I'm just a guy who knows nothing about lawn care, that wants to reset this gardener's utopia to a simple, easy lawn.

Help eradicate grass in my garden

crazycanuck — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:28:10 -0800

My garden is being overrun by grass. How do I get rid of the grass but keep my existing perennial plants? We bought our house in late 2005, so this is our third summer in the house. The previous owner was an excellent gardener, and took good care of it until she had a stroke a few years before we bought the house. Our house is 30 years old, and I believe that our lengthy perennial border garden has also been established for 30 years. The garden is bordered by the lawn on one side and by concrete stairs, a rock retaining wall, or gravel driveway on the other side.

When we moved in, the garden was overrun with grass in areas. So far, we've done an annual "big dig" around existing plants to get some grass out, and then did a half-assed job of planting. Sometimes we didn't do much grass weeding throughout the year. This year is the first year that I've had the time to continuously make an attempt to keep up with the grass.

I hand weed so I know that there is an extensive grass roots system under the ground. I don't use tools to weed because the grass is intertwined with the plants - namely the columbine, lobelia, and rudbeckia (I'm pretty sure that the first two plants with grass have columbine and lobelia, anyway). All three of those plants seem happy enough to grow, and they're attractive enough to keep, but the grass is ugly as hell and I have no idea how to get rid of it without spending 2 hours a week weeding, which sucks.

I would like to solve my grass problem. Using Round-up or tarp/mulch to eradicate the entire garden is not on the table - I'd like to keep the good plants in the ground, as I also have fuschia, heathers, foxgloves, blanket flowers, tiger lilies, forget me nots, irises, a 20 foot dogwood tree, miscellaneous shrubs, etc in there in various places. Do I have to pull out the weedy plants? Do I need to divide the rudbeckia and get the grass out somehow before replanting? Is there a better technique for weeding - can I use tools if there are spaces between the plants? Do I need to fill in any/all spaces in the garden with grass resistant plants or mulch/bark? Do I need to hire some kind of garden consultant to check out my garden in real life and give me advice? What do I do?

Constraints - I am willing to spend up to 3-4 hours per week on maintaining this rehabbed garden, and I would rather prune than weed. I prefer not to invest a ton of time into special projects (ie, I'd like to integrate garden rehab into a weekly maintenance schedule with only 1 or 2 times annually of more work). I am willing to spend $500/year on my garden, and I've spent $150 of that so far this year. I am a novice gardener so I don't want to get too fancy.

If you have general plant suggestions for a grass-free garden, post them here too. Zone 7b, north-facing garden with a later start than most Pacific Northwest gardens (my tulips tend to open a week or two later than other zone 7b tulips), sun/part shade/shade in various spots. The part shade/shade areas are complicated by either (a) being on a slope or (b) being under a large dogwood tree with an extensive root system, so only shallow shade-loving plants can be accommodated. I prefer perennials or self-seeding annuals. Cost and maintenance constraints above. Thanks

Grass or weed?

walla — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:57:29 -0800

Why can't I have a weed lawn? I like walking on my lawn and playing with my dogs on it. I like the anti-erosion benefits of grass, and that it keeps us from tracking dirt into the house. But I like most green things, and I see little reason to invest the resources and energy a grass lawn requires if there are other options. I've read a bit - some of it on AskMe - about alternative lawns. I've considered mint, creeping thyme, chamomile, etc., but none of them has seemed quite right.

While tending my lawn this week, someone suggested I pull the clover and plaintain weeds that had taken over some parts of it. I thought, why should I pull them? They're green, they're hardy, they do what my lawn does on their own without the hassle. As long as I contain it, are there any reasons I shouldn't have a weed lawn? Has anyone tried this, on purpose or by accident?

A lawnmower that mows, not sucks?

found dog one eye — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:44:28 -0800

Recommend a lawnmower, please. We’re looking for a self-propelled, rear-wheel drive, walk-behind mower that doesn’t suck. We hope to pay $400 or less. It will mostly be used as a mulching mower, but we’d like the option of a bag to pull up leaves in the winter.

Our current mower needs to have the carburetor rebuilt every year or so, or it becomes impossible to start and randomly dumps gasoline all over the garage floor. From the research my husband has done, this is because it has a two-stroke engine, and the ethanol in our local gasoline is causing the seals to deteriorate. If this is true, our new mower will need to be a four-stroke.

I didn't rake in the grass seed before covering with straw - help!!

passtehbrainz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:15:05 -0800

Did I totally mess up by meticulously preparing our yard with a tracter/box blade, spending days removing rocks and debres, planting 50 pounds of Fescue seed, thereafter covering it with 23 bails of straw, and watering it almost daily, but completely skipping the part about raking the seed into the soil? 7 days and counting. Did I totally mess up by meticulously preparing our yard with a tracter/box blade, spending days removing rocks and debres, planting 50 pounds of Fescue seed, thereafter covering it with 23 bails of straw, and watering it almost daily, but completely skipping the part about raking the seed into the soil?

What an idiot I am! How could I not have done a little research first!

Its been exactly one week, and I do see -some- grasslings poking through the straw, but everything im now reading online says to use a rake so as to get the seed into the ground - which makes perfect sense a week later!!

Is there anything I can do or is it too late? There has to be some seed just sitting on top of the ground not doing anything - or will they find there way into the earth on there own? I don't like the sound of that - but i'm not made of money and can't start over. Surely there is a solution! My bodying is still in recovery from all the work ... ohhh me I think I must stop typing now.

Please help!

Help me, Obi Lawn; you're my only hope

theredpen — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:26:44 -0800

How do I convert all-crabgrass and sand to grass, on a low budget? I live in central New England. Our back yard was filled in by the previous owner (post-septic installation) with cruddy, sandy soil. Or really, just sand. After years of neglect by me, it is now a lovely crabgrass haven. It's almost all crabgrass, plus a few assorted weeds. I've thought about just leaving it, but this year I'd like to put a little work into it and not end up with nicer crabgrass. I particularly hate the few bare patches. I don't have very much money to spend on it -- can't resod or cover with all new topsoil or hire landscapers, unfortunately. I know it will cost a little to buy the seed at a minimum, and perhaps some soil to improve what's there. It's a relatively small yard -- this part is perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 acre.

The yard is mostly sunny, with about 1/3 in shade toward the back that is less sandy, mostly moss-covered. I'm willing to ignore this part for now. I have one sprinkler but could get another. I'd like to avoid heavy chemical treatments if possible, but would resort to them if that's all that can be done.

So my questions are:

-- What's the cheapest best way to fix this? That is, should I kill the crabgrass with something like corn gluten meal (which will leave me with an even more horrendous and naked back yard) and then seed, or should I just lay down grass seed and rake and water? Or should I invest heavily in martinis and pretend that the crabgrass is regular grass like that of our neighbors? Or what would you do?

-- What kind of grass seed do you recommend? Ideally, there's something that grows in sandy soil and will eventually shade out the crabgrass, yet doesn't hurt my feet or eyes.

Keep my lawn healthy, and dogs not dirty and smelly

cmiller — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:25:26 -0800

Here in sunny Florida, my two large dogs tend to wear my back lawn down to the dirt. Is there a grass that recovers easily? I have sprinklers, and slightly sandy soil. It's rarely cold enough to frost. My current lawn is (I think) centipede grass.

My dogs aren't out much, but when they are, they trample and scamper about enough that there's soon more brown dirt than green lawn. I want something that doesn't require a lot of effort to keep green. Bonus points if my dogs smell nice after they roll around in it.

Do I have to find a geneticist to splice kudzu genes and spearmint genes into ryegrass?

Help me smell!

DarlingBri — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:29:01 -0800

Please help me dramatically update my chosen perfumes. The problem is: my favourite scent is the smell of... soap. I desperately need to update the perfumes I wear, and the holiday season and the promise of gifts seems like a good time.

I have been wearing the same two perfumes basically forever. They are Banana Republic W and (oh God the unbearable shame) Anais Anias - although not often, and not much. Still, I think both of these are pretty outdated and probably I need a change anyway.

I would like to have a list of likely candidates before venturing into the mall to try them. I dread department stores primarily because the aggressive ladies at the cosmetics counters are so, well, aggressive - and the shorter my smelling trip, the happier I will be.

Anyway, as mentioned, I really like clean scents. I like the smell of cut grass, Dove soap, laundry detergents, lemons and white wine. I do not like musk, vanilla, or flowers.

Possibly pertinent: I live in Ireland, so NYC boutique brands are pretty much out. Any brand available at Boots in the UK, though, I can get from a retail store here. Also, I would prefer to keep costs down; I'm not really a perfume whore, I just fancy a change.

Suggestions gladly accepted!

No good to touch the green, green grass at home . . .

deejay jaydee — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:43:57 -0800

How can I kill the grass currently growing in our backyard? We live in the Northeast, and we have a small (15' x 40'?) patch of lawn in our backyard. I'd like to kill all the grass there, and replace it with thyme as a groundcover. I've already found a source for the groundcover. We're not so crazy about the grass. It's bermuda grass? Or whatever your garden-variety grass is, we don't care. I've hated grass lawns ever since I was tasked with mowing the lawn in the house I grew up in. Grass makes us sneeze, it makes us itch, and we don't like it.

We do like thyme as a groundcover, because it's soft, because mosquitoes don't like it, and because it'll make our yard smell yummy. We'd like to plant it next spring. (Because I'm html-challenged, I'll just offer this link for more info on thyme as groundcover: http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/groundcoverthymes.htm)

However, the helpful folks at Mtn. Valley tell me that "we need to kill the grass before we grow the thyme." Apparently grass is very hearty, and will likely strangle much of the thyme we plant as groundcover. My question to the green is this: how can we kill the grass currently in our backyard, but not poison the ground we'd grow the thyme out of? It seems to me that Round-Up and other herbicides would only be half-useful to us, because while it'd get rid of the grass, it'd also make it difficult for thyme to grow, no?

If you've replaced your grass with a non-grass groundcover, please post your tips here. If you've brought an organic holocaust to your own grass-infested lawn, how did you do it? All the other posts here I found have to do with maintaining or mowing grass . . . who can show me how to murdalize it??

We'd appreciate any tips you might have with when to plant groundcovers, too. Mtn Vly tells us to do it in the spring, but what says MeFi?

Stage my hellstrip...and staging resources needed.

sLevi — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:07:35 -0800

What is the best thing to plant in the hellstrip/parkway in terms of selling a house? Also, best resources for staging a house to sell? The grass in between the sidewalk and the street was so horrible that my husband hacked it all out...what is the best thing to replace it with if we're looking to sell the house (California)? A fair number of houses in our neighborhood have plantings of varying degrees of niceness. The rest of the yard is surrounded by white picket fence, so it doesn't need to blend in to the rest of the yard. More grass? Groundcover? Nice garden?

Also...resources for staging a house? We're not ready to sell yet, so I don't want to hire someone, but I'd like to start heading that way as I fix things up.

Lawn Rehab!

bradn — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 08:52:39 -0800

Lawn Rehab! Help me get my lawn in shape for summer so my 1-year-old daughter can play on it.

Here's the current situation (yikes):

High-res version

Located in Milwaukee, WI. We tore out a lot of bushes and small trees and put up the fence when we moved in in August 05. Tried seeding and twice daily watering last year, grass started filling in but then mostly died before winter. Wet weather and dogs has taken care of the rest. The back of the yard has moss growing, which appears to be impeding the grass growth. How do I get rid of the moss?

My plan is to lay sod in this area:

and seed the rest aggressively. (or, i guess, just sod it all - There is another part of the lawn which is not as bad that I will seed as well.)

Is this the best, quickest, and easiest way to go about this? Any sodding tips? What's the best seed?
Advice and ideas are needed and appreciated.

I know I will have to keep the dogs away from some areas, but please, no "get rid of your dogs"- type suggestions. We bought a house with a backyard specifically for our dogs.

Thanks.

My First Yard! (tm)

arcticwoman — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 04:04:02 -0800

After years of renting apartments, I have moved up in the world: I am now renting a house. Strangely, the house comes with small organic green things projecting from the ground. Having never been responsible for a lawn before, I don't really know what to do with it. I also have two, I don't know, shrubs (I think). One is low growing, thick, with branches that kind of double as rhizomes, and one might be a juniper. As you can see, I'm pretty clueless. What do I need to know/what must I do/what must I buy to take good care of my lawn and it's various planty inhabitants? How can I find out what my shrubs are (other than consulting the Knights of Ni) and how do I take care of them? What kind of lawnmower do I need and how do you mow a lawn? Fertilizer? Watering schedule? Various tips?

If it matters, I am in a small city in Southern Alberta, Canada.
I think the juniper-y one is a juniper because it smells like gin and has "berries" like the ones I saw on wikipedia under "juniper berries."

Steppenwolf - who says "Don't Step On the Grass?"

TheOnlyCoolTim — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 15:54:41 -0800

In the Steppenwolf song "Don't Step on the Grass, Sam," is "Sam" in reference to a real politician?

I hate mowing. I love moss.

agropyron — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 13:37:46 -0800

Lawn alternatives! Has anyone here tried replacing their high-maintenance grass lawn with an alternative lawn? I've read about some of the no-mow lawn grass types, and I understand other people simply let the moss and clover grow. Have you seen a lawn like this? How did you like it? My (back yard) lawn is usually either brown and dead from lack of watering, or enormously tall from lack of mowing. I've noticed that moss is creeping in, and I've read that some people allow the moss to take over. I wonder what the disadvantages of a moss lawn would be. Would it get torn up from vigorous activity like kids playing on it?

I also like the clover idea. I know it attracts a lot of bees when it flowers, but I have the impression that you can just mow it once or twice when it's flowering to prevent this.

I'm not too interested in the gravel lawns some people use, but failing other alternatives I might resort to strewing nice-looking wood chips all over instead of grass.

What alternative lawns have you seen? What did you think?