Now, naturally, Nif and I would agree that the best option of all would be a native plant that flourishes without assistance in the environment of my yard. But unfortunately, there don't seem to be any plants that fit that description. To illustrate, consider the problem I've been going through trying to find a ground cover for my front yard.
My front yard, as you can see in the photo,
is a little sort of boxed-in patch of grass raised up from the sidewalk. That means that in order to mow it, you have to go out back, get the mower out of the shed, haul it up a short flight of stairs into the driveway, haul it up two more stairs onto the front path, and then heft it up over the short wall that encloses the yard. Even with a lightweight little push mower like we've got, that's a nuisance. So I've been looking for some time for a simple, low-maintenance ground cover that could replace the grass. Such a ground cover would have to meet the following requirements:1. not too tall (say, 8 inches or shorter)
2. tolerates full sun
3. can grow in clay soil
4. can handle occasional light foot traffic (we're not going to be playing soccer on it or anything, just going out from time to time to do some work on the other parts of the yard)
There are almost no plants that meet these fairly modest criteria. I've only found four: silveredge goutweed or bishop's weed, barren strawberry, moneywort or creeping jenny, and blue-star creeper. All four of these are described as invasive in at least one source I've consulted.
So in other words, either I put a potentially invasive plant down in my yard, or I'm stuck with water-guzzling, high-maintenance turfgrass. Bah!
It might be the "clay soil" that's the most serious constraint on your list.
ReplyDeleteI have to argue with your characterization of turfgrass as "water-guzzling" and "high-maintenance." I *never* water the lawn, even the front yard that gets full sun. We don't even own a sprinkler. In the past seven years, I have twice or maybe 3 times spread a layer of compost on the lawn. Other than that, all we do is mow it. Of course, we don't have to drag the lawn mower up two flights of stairs, either... Someone pointed me to a website "Lawn Care for the Cheap and Lazy" and I try to follow its advice.
Take a look at buffalo grass, Buchloe dactyloides. It is a great alternative to non-native turfgrass that grows all the way from Texas to Minnesota. It loves full sun and dry conditions. It is a warm season grass so it will not green up as early in the spring as you are used to with your local cool season grasses. It also won't germinate until the weather warms up so I like to start it in a flat and then plant it out in cleared areas when warm weather finally hits.
ReplyDeleteIf you are looking for real eye appeal and can tolerate a taller grass my personal favorite is mosquito grass, Bouteloua gracilis. When the seed heads come on I love to sit and watch them wave in the breeze. Mosquito grass shows foot traffic more than buffalo grass does due to its height, but bounces back well. Again this is a warm season grass, so it is a slow starter in the spring, but is worth the wait.
Both of these grasses hit your 4 requirements with a few real pluses: they are native to North America (not to NJ of course), have very low water needs, are not agressive colonizers (not everybody on the block wants it) and they are grasses (so you can avoid being labled as the kook down the block with no grass). Worth a look.
I guess the reason I characterized turfgrass as "high-maintenance" is that it does not seem inclined to grow naturally in our yard. I don't know if it's the soil, the exposure, or what, but what little we have comes in patchy and untidy. So I've been assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that getting a nice even mat to grow would take a lot of water and chemicals. Maybe all I need is a better variety of grass. Of course, any grass will still need mowing. Bah.
ReplyDeleteI had not considered buffalograss because my gardening book described it as "excellent for dry, arid regions," which does not describe central New Jersey at all. Our soil can get pretty water-saturated after a good storm or three. Can buffalograss handle that much moisture?
From my dad via e-mail:
ReplyDelete"Two things you might try: (1) Some grass seed I bought called "Eco Lawn" which, if it lived up to the advertisements, ought to meet your requirements. The ads say that it grows well in poor clay soil, tolerates shade or sun, tolerates drought (it just goes dormant), and grows so slowly that you hardly ever have to mow it. It hasn't done well in our front yard, but neither has anything else -- except (2) Clover.That's what seems to want to grow in our yard, and it seems to meet your requirements."
We do have some clover in the yard (I added it to fill in a bare patch) and it does reasonably well, but guess what...white clover (Trifolium repens) is a non-native species as well. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_clover. So once again, the plant that will thrive in my soil is the invasive one.
As for Eco-lawn, it might grow better than the grass that's there now, but wouldn't I have to dig up all the existing grass to plant it? Then if the Eco-lawn doesn't take, I'll have completely bare ground. Seems like a big risk.