To reduce lawn care…

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After summer dry spells, your lawn begs care and attention. What if you tried eco-friendly lawn renovation this spring?

Start with those shaded under-tree spots that are harder to reach with your lawn mower and seem to grow more moss than grass. Moss killer treatments are far from always being effective. Much better to cover the ground with shade-thriving plants such as periwinkle, hosta, lamium, fern or ivy. They grow on their own and make for great scenic additions.

A flowered prairie, an appealing solution

On the sparse, dried patches of your lawn, try setting up a flowered prairie, simply sow when the ground has warmed up a bit in spring. Choose wild or botanical varieties that are adapted to your soil type.

• Break up the surface layer with a hoe to loosen it up.
• Sow your seeds and cover them lightly with the rake.
• They will slowly colonize the space you’ve given them.
• You might need to water a bit to get them to sprout.

Don’t sow any grasses: simply let your lawn grow wild without watering or treating it. This will lessen the watering and mowing chores for the season for these specific dedicated spots.

Further along the sustainable path

If you like the result, you can switch your entire yard to this eco-friendly gardening style. When flowers have gone to seed, run the sickle through the patch and the fallen seeds will work their wonders on a slightly larger surface.

If you want quick results, take advantage of fall and sow these seeds on a larger area. Winter will help the sprouts germinate and they will withstand the following summer thanks to the added resilience.

Add in a few bulbs (snowdrop, squill, daffodil…) all the while checking which ones match your soil type. When your entire lot is a huge field of flowers, you’ll just snake your way along to mow out a walkway that will let you wallow in flowers!

If you don’t find the result very convincing, mow down the flowered patches before they go to seed and sow regular lawn seeds again!

M.-C. H.