What do you see in this lawn?
Does the dandelion in the center of the picture bother you? Did you notice that the tips of the blades of grass are a little ragged, indicating that someone needs to sharpen the blade on her lawn mower?
Or did you see how the green the lawn is and jump to the conclusion that it must be a suburban wasteland created by the overuse of lawn chemicals, primarily herbicides and insecticides, in spite of the dandelion that is clearly considered by 99% of all people to be a weed.
Maybe you saw nothing wrong with this picture.
If that was the case, good for you. I see nothing wrong in this picture, except maybe the ragged tips caused by a less than sharp cut with a dull mower blade.
I took this picture in my backyard where no herbicides or insecticides are used on the lawn. It does get some fertilizer in the spring and fall, as do other plants in my garden.
I mow “high”, generally not shorter than three inches, and hope that the lawn crowds out the weeds and not vice versa. When I think of it, or when a really big dandelion or other weed really does stick out and grab attention away from the lawn, I dig the weeds out. I do try to keep the mower blades sharp, and will admit that after I took this picture, I realized that it is time to put a little edge on those blades. I do this with a sharpening file as best I can.
I’m not looking for perfection in my lawn, I’m just looking for a sea of green upon which will rest the “islands” of flower borders. Actually, the garden beds and borders are more like continents surrounding the sea of green. On the northern shore of the sea is the Vegetable Garden Cathedral, to the west is The Shrubbery and Plopper’s Field, to the east is August Dreams Garden and Woodland Follies, and to the south is Birds’ Blanket, the patio, and some yet to be named continents, I mean flower borders near the house.
The lawn, the sea of green, clearly needs its own name, too. I think I’ll refer to it as simply The Green Sea.
I love a Green Sea and a few dandelions and clover patches are quickly taken care of with a fresh mowing.
I laughed when I saw the dandelion, but only because of the horrible summer we've had and fact everything has bounced back like it is spring since the August and Sept. rains began. I was cleaning out a border last night and found spring CROCUSes starting to grow!!! They too think it is spring! LOL
Not to oversimplify your life or anything, but you could just continue to call it the lawn. Or, perhaps, because you love it so much, The Lawn. Because when you start telling people that you are about to mow The Green Sea for the last time this year, they might get confused. They might wonder if you meant row, not mow.
I saw green. Period. I haven't had rain since June. My "lawn" is amber.
My lawn is more like pathways between continents of flowers in the front yard. The dandelion doesn't bother me. I sure don't look for perfection in my lawn, and a good thing too, because my lawn is full of dandelions, plantain, creeping charlie, wild strawberry, and all kinds of other stuff. Let's just say it needs work, but it is just not my first priority.
I rather like that dandelion in the photo–a perfect lawn just doesn't seem natural to me. For me, a lawn is a place for the dogs to romp and the grandkids to play. I'm just glad to see it green again instead of brown, too.
How about taking an allusion from the Middle Ages and call it the Carpet Tapestry, then if there are volunteers, like English daisies, chamomile, dente de lion (sounds much better in French), all is in keeping with the theme 🙂 I'm sure the Garden Fairies would concur….
It looks and sounds like a perfect world.
It is amazing how much difference just sharpening your mower blades can make to your lawn. Quite often, you don't need to do anything else at all to it, although running an Aerator over it once a year will help keep it in tip-top shape!