In the Garden: lawn or natural landscape

In the Garden

Lawn or natural landscape?

By Tina Will Have you struggled to grow grass in the heat and drought of our area? VCE Agent Guy Mussey often gets calls from worried homeowners about their lawn problems, especially at this time of year. He answers their questions and gives them advice on the needs of grass. Although many of us like at least some lawn, photo by Sean Laurin when we consider all photo by Alvin Calhoun changing their lawn-scapes. Landscape designers are getting more requests to install native plants and a more pollinator friendly landscape, rather than a that is involved, we traditional lawn. This is interesting news might wonder if a different type of because it indicates that people don't want landscape design would be worth the demands of lawn upkeep, that they considering. have gotten the message that too much fertilizer is bad for water quality, and they According to a recent article on don't want to have to drive to a park to CNN www.cnn.com/style/article/lawnsexperience beautiful surroundings. The american-yard-usl homeowners are advantages to our environment are easily seen: more flowers, songbirds, and natural beauty, less fertilizer and water needed, and less mowing and lawnmower

pollution. Many of our Master Gardeners are adopting the advice given in Doug Tallamy 's book: Bringing Nature Home (Timber Press 2009) to increase native plant usage. Sean McLaurin is converting some of his lawn to native plants and clover now that his kids have grown. He is very happy that those areas require less maintenance. Linda Dunn has very little lawn, and has a beautiful complement of different perennial gardens surrounding her home. Karen Ehrhard has recently converted her property to a no-mow landscape leaving room for plants to establish and grow, and Alvin Calhoun is enlarging his collection of annuals and perennials where his lawn is struggling to survive. The trend to use native plant species began several years ago, and local garden centers continue to see that the demand for these remains strong. Yea for more beauty and less maintenance!

Though we want some grass for our grandchildren to be able to run, and play games, we have slowly expanded the shrub and tree areas so that there is less lawn to mow. We have the classic problems that come with trying to grow grass: weed competition, hot weather and drought leading to dormant grass, and the need to reseed every Fall in certain areas. We've decided that there is nothing wrong with having a diverse collection of green plants photo

by Karen Ehrhard (i.e. grass and weeds), except when some shade out the grass seed we actually pay for!

Lawn growing is still important to many of us, but if it is not needed then plant for beauty and encourage the pollinator and bird population. Good lawn guidance is available from our VCE Agent, or the information at: www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/426/426-719/426- 719.html. First step: get your soil tested by requesting a Soil Sample Test Kit from our local VCE office: 540-658-8000. The Smart Green Lawn program is also available through our Stafford office.

Tina Will has volunteered with MGACRA for 16 years and lives near Ferry Farm