New to having a lawn, help!

[Anonymous]

We just moved from a condo into a house with a half acre lawn. I know we have to do SOMETHING, but no clue what exactly. Do we just start with mowing? Should we have a lawn care company come out for a consultation? I don't know where to start.

[Anonymous]

Convert parts of it to a native perennial bed for one thing. A lawn is the least heathy thing you can have.

Get a mower. We tried an old fashioned reel mower, but you REALLY have to be strong to mow that much with a reel mower. We ended up getting a Sun Joe electric mower (get the back up batteries) and we love it.

Absolutely do not get a lawn care company involved. The chemicals (pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers) they will use cause microbiome death and for carbon to be released into the atmosphere.

You can put down milorganite (or something similar) or a thin layer of compost in the fall.

Congrats on your new house!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Convert parts of it to a native perennial bed for one thing. A lawn is the least heathy thing you can have.

Get a mower. We tried an old fashioned reel mower, but you REALLY have to be strong to mow that much with a reel mower. We ended up getting a Sun Joe electric mower (get the back up batteries) and we love it.

Absolutely do not get a lawn care company involved. The chemicals (pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers) they will use cause microbiome death and for carbon to be released into the atmosphere.

You can put down milorganite (or something similar) or a thin layer of compost in the fall.

Congrats on your new house!

Agree with all of this.

Also, get some microclover seed to sow onto your lawn. It will fix nitrogen into the soil and eliminate the need for chemical fertilizer.

American Meadows has a great native wildflower seed mix that includes both perennials and reseeding annuals so it's hands-off once it has been established its first year: https://www.americanmeadows.com/wildflower-seeds/wildflower-mix/native-northeast-wildflower-seed-mix

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just moved from a condo into a house with a half acre lawn. I know we have to do SOMETHING, but no clue what exactly. Do we just start with mowing? Should we have a lawn care company come out for a consultation? I don't know where to start.

I've lived in 3 neighborhoods in Nova and almost everyone pays someone to mow. They will often manage lawn care as well but I would learn to do it yourself. Tell you mowers not to use leaf blowers as part of their weekly or biweekly service. Do not let them blow you leaves in the fall. You can rake them into your plant beds if you want. Many pollinators survive the winters in leaf litter. We have lost almost half of the insects on the earth.

Grass is an environmental problem. People use too much fertilizer to maintain their grass which pollutes every stream and ends up in all our bodies of water. Herbicides, which are dangerous to everything, are used to kill weeds. Weeds will persist even if you use herbicides. You'd have to use a dangerous amount to truly keep out the weeds. If you want a putting green for a lawn you're going to damage the environment to get it. The most important thing to maintain grass is a bit of fertilizer in the fall. Just use less than recommended. Lots of us have stopped with the grass maintenance entirely. My yard has grass and weeds and when it is mowed it looks fine.