Continuing to no-mow a low-grow lawn, part 5

It has been nearly 11 months since the installation of a new septic field “altered” my yard necessitating a rethinking and landscaping of a good chunk of our property. Remarkably it has emerged more lovely than we could have expected. New beds now holding blueberry and blackberry bushes are maturing, the asters and flowering quinces have filled in nicely and with the exception of one butterfly bush, everything made it through the winter, spring and summer intact. And I have mowed my new lawn fewer times than I have fingers on one hand.

As I have mentioned in prior posts, I decided to install a lawn that would require little water, little fertilizer and even less care. Overall it has worked beautifully. Today we have a lush, full and green lawn where mounds of soil, sand and gravel have been replaced with fescue grass and Dutch white clover. Now I have to admit that I perhaps went a bit overboard on the clover. I bought a 1 pound bag for about $8 dollars, mixed it with 40 pounds of play sand and spread it over approximately 6000 square feet of lawn in March. I figured that it would fill in some of the fescue gaps nicely, By the end of May, however, it had taken over a good chunk of my lawn. Ironically I used about 40 pounds of grass seed, costing around $100, to cover the same amount of land.

But I don’t mind. White clover grows to a height of between four and six inches and stops. There is little need to mow it; so far I haven’t. And there have been lots of unexpected benefits and pleasures.

Between our flowers and the clover, we always have bees flying around, pollinating their brains out. While much has been written about colony collapse disorder I have seen little evidence of it on my property as large numbers of bee workers commute in and out of my yard every day. As I walk across the lawn, I notice that I leave a trace footprint much like you would in a freshly fallen snow. You get a fluffy walk that unlike snow will spring back in a short while. And within the clover there is all types of life. You can see the leaves quiver ahead of your movement as some toad, snake or mouse gets out of your way. There is lots of life just beyond where your eye can perceive.

Now clover by itself is probably not a good lawn if you have lots of young children who would pound away on it. It is not supposed to wear well. But I have to admit our lawn held up pretty well at our annual 4th of July Wiffle ball tournament. Only the pitching mound and home plate got worn out and both have nearly recovered.

The fescue has been able to hold its own over the new septic fields, especially where the effluents enter each field. The grass there is thick and lush. After an initial invasion (and removal) of tall grasses that would laugh at my Scotts reel mower, the lawn is well established with few weeds (or at least ones I care about.)

Now we have had a hot and dry summer leaving most lawns looking scorched and brown. My lawn, though hardly trimmed within an inch of its life, is thick, green and indifferent to the heat.