Going grass-free?

[Anonymous]

I have less grass and more weeds, but I'm not really interested in being a grass farmer. What do you think of going grass-free? How easy is it to maintain a mulch and plant filled lawn. What are the pitfalls? I'd like it to look better than my fenced in weed-orchard rather than worse. Advice?

[Anonymous]

How big is your lot?

[Anonymous]

If you have any trees, it 's awful when the leaves fall on the mulch. You can't blow them away without blowing all the mulch away too.

[Anonymous]

We live in DC and participated in the RiverSmart Homes program, in which the city subsidizes a certain amount of landscaping in order to achieve a more ecologically friendly yard. They did our front, and it entailed removing all our grass and replacing it with mulch and plants that are native to the Chesapeake Bay area.

I (mostly) love it, but I was shocked at how much upkeep it has actually been. We were kind of led to believe it would be less maintenance (no mowing!) but oh my gosh, the weeds! So many weeds. All the time. Everywhere. I would much rather push a mower than weed in mulch. FWIW, I am not a gardener. Working in the yard does not make me go to my happy place.

We hired a landscaping company to come every other week. So now that I'm not the one pulling the weeds, I prefer our grass-free, eco-friendly yard.

[Anonymous]

why are there so many weeds if you have mulch? just curious

[Anonymous]

I haven't gone entirely grass-free, but enlarged the garden areas quite a bit and reduced our lawn. If you don't enjoy weeding, don't get rid of your lawn. All of the weeds that have been in your lawn will still have seeds in the dirt, and it can take years before all the dormant weed seeds stop sprouting even if no new weed seeds come in (which is unlikely). If you have any kind of weeds or grass that spread by runners, they will grow in your new garden.

After a few years, you will have fewer weeds because your plants will have gotten bigger and will shade the weeds. Your garden will not go according to plan. Some plants will die, and other plants will go crazy and take over your space. Most perennials need dividing, and most shrubs need pruning.

The easiest thing to do is to mow your lawn regularly to keep the weeds short.

If you think you would enjoy gardening, turn a small part of your lawn into a garden and see how it goes. If you're looking just to save time, keep your weedy lawn.

[Anonymous]

I had a grass free home as a kid. we had rocks. white and reddish brown ones. you can break it up with landscaping and beds etc. with mulch. it can look really nice and there is no grass to deal with.

[Anonymous]

Just don't turn your yard into a rock garden. People around here have no clue how to maintain them or do them tastefully. This is not Arizona or the Mediterranean. Your neighbors will hate you.

[Anonymous]

Rock gardens usually don't work here because a) most plants that look like they belong in a rock garden hate our humidity, and b) weeds grow like crazy here unlike in a desert or near-desert.

[Anonymous]

terrible, should be illegal.

[Anonymous]

Think when you try and sell your house, with NO lawn. While you may not want the work and cost associated with the lawn, once you have a lawn set up, it is actually fairly easy to care for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Think when you try and sell your house, with NO lawn. While you may not want the work and cost associated with the lawn, once you have a lawn set up, it is actually fairly easy to care for.

Nothing worse than having to wait a year or 2 for a lawn to establish. It also hurt curb appeal and presents a bad view of the property from the street or lack of care.

[Anonymous]

When you have weeds in your garden, you can mow them. When you have weeds in a mulch bed, you have to pull them.

Someone asked why you might have weeds with mulch. The answer is that mulch breaks down into nice composted soil, which can grow plants. Mulch helps keep weeds down, by smothering them (keeping sun from helping to germinate seeds), so you need to keep piling on the mulch if it is you primary weed defense.

The question is, how big is your yard? If it is small, you could make a cottage garden, where you are basically covering everything with flowers (keep in mind that a weed is just a flower in the wrong place).

[Anonymous]

OP I will try to answer your question on the face of it. Many people do not love to maintain their yards, and many have tried to make it easier. If you have a sunny yard, the easiest thing by far is grass. It needs to be mowed in the summer and through out the fall. The lawn mower cuts down the weeds. It is very difficult to maintain a green lawn without chemicals. It can be done, but it is even more work. Also in MoCo and Fairfax, there are county ordnances about not mowing a front yard.
If you have tress, there is no getting around the leaves. If you have a wooded area, you can let it be woods and blow the leaves back there -- but that presumes you have woods, which most people do not.
If you maintain mulch around the trees and "garden" there, remember to put black lawn paper under the mulch to prevent weeds. You can make the mulch bed pretty big -- just remember the weed proof paper. Otherwise you will be pulling weeds from there -- weeds/weeding is the enemy of large mulch beds. Also leaves, which need to be removed. You can also put stones/gravel around over top of the garden paper. That is a look that most people don't love, but you might be able to do it.
You can plant ever greens and have a large mulch area around that. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:why are there so many weeds if you have mulch? just curious

I'm the PP you responded to - another PP answered the question better than I could have.

I should have included that it took two years for the plants to get established, but now you see very little mulch. It's mostly covered by plants. We lost a few this winter, though, and will have to replace them this year.

We add mulch in the spring and in the fall.