Oh, thanks for the reminder. I need to buy more grass seed and clover seed this year. The stuff I have is pretty old, and I would guess the germination rate isn’t what it could be. I’ve mostly been buying mixes heavy in fine fescues, because I like to walk on them. but I’m having trouble re-establishing grass in the sunniest/driest part of my lawn. Any advice? (I’m willing to water to establish it, but I really don’t want to be irrigating my lawn all the time. I live in New England, and we get a lot of rain. And anyway, I feel like I don’t want to grow stuff that isn’t reasonably adapted to my climate.
Also, I’m all about having a genetically diverse “lawn”, and any perennial plants that are green, and that I can mow, and that are nice to walk on are suitable lawn plants, imho. 
So if you think I ought to be planting something other than grass, I’m open to other options.
(I do have a large patch of thyme. Annoyingly, I am constantly trying to control the grass that wants to overtake it.)
Should “chuting” count as a separate option from mulching?
If you run over the clippings again it is clearly mulching. But even if not, there must be some name for it like ‘macro biotic mulching’ or something.
I think that with a proper mulching mower, the grass is going to be chopped up much finer than just running it over again.
I think you’d find that would involve a whole lot more work (and mowing) than you seem to be expecting.
You do get interesting tax breaks for them, or at least you used to, dunno if it’s changed.
But there are a number of christmas tree farms around here that were set up for that specific purpose that have now been abandoned or turned into public parks. It’s kinda fun going through a forest and suddenly encountering perfectly straight rows of pine trees.
Oh, yeah. I’ve seen that sort of situation. But those trees were generally taken care of for their first few years; enough to give them a start.
I didn’t get around to it yesterday but did mow today and used the mulcher plug for the first time. I mulched!
Something that I didn’t fully anticipate is how much stuff the bag normally catches. I have three large pine trees that drop pine cones like they’re getting paid to do it. Pine needles that collect at the sidewalk’s edge, too. Same story with the big locust on the city parkway that, this time of year, drops loads of … flowers? Pollen? Like the needles and cones, that stuff just got scattered around instead of vacuumed into the bag. But my biggest goof was absentmindedly mowing right over a napkin or paper towel that had blown over. It was mulched into a field of scraps about 2x2 feet, kind of an ugly mess.
On the plus side, mowing was faster and cleaner. Dumping the mower bag into the paper yard waste bag really kicks up a lot of dirt and clippings which sticks to sweaty skin until I can hop into the shower. None of that when mulching. I was also pleased with how few grass clippings were visible when it was all done. It’s been fairly dry since the last mow (2 weeks ago) and it wasn’t too long but it was something I’d wondered about.
Summary: I’ll still use the bag at certain times like first few mows of the year to clean up tree stuff and later in autumn for fallen leaves. Also if I let if go a bit too long. But for routine summer maintenance, mulching is for me.
Not really. I’ll cover the area with several inches of wood chips to keep down weeds like grass. I have no need to sell the trees so when mowing I’ll just make more wood chips. It would be Christmas tree mulching.
What is this talk of watering the lawn? The majority of my lawn is over the septic leach field, so even when we’re in drought conditions, my lawn still needs to be mowed.
It’s true that a lot of the work involved goes to producing something that looks like a Christmas tree; if you don’t care about that, all you’ve got left is what they need to survive, which is going to depend a lot on where you are and what your soil conditions are like. Have you considered a mixed-species planting of trees native to your area (some possibly including species that are also grown for Christmas trees)? You might get some nice flowering effects, might get less care needed, and would be providing habitat for birds etc. which are badly in need of it – evergreens can provide shelter and some food, but mixed species will do better.
Indeed. We’ve never watered our grass, but the combination of various grasses and broadleaf weeds in our lawn stays green even during droughts.
I water if I’ve put down seed. I don’t water otherwise. My lawn goes dormant in the summer. Which is great – no mowing needed. It doesn’t really go brown, it just sort of stops growing in the hot dry weather. I usually mow every week or two for several weeks in the spring, and then stop until fall.
I’ll look into it. No need for Christmas trees specifically. I’ve got red maple seedlings all over the place. They love the soil, I love the trees. When I first moved here I planted a row of them on the side that was open to the property next door. I could plant them densely and thin them out over time.
And watering? I can’t stop the damn sky from watering my lawn and making it grow. Why would I put more water on it?
And that’s actually what I encourage my customers to do (if they don’t mind crispy grass in July/August). Many people are surprised to hear grass isn’t supposed to be bright green in summer (in cool weather zones anyway). If you’re cool with dormant grass, I say let it go dormant and store up carbohydrates for the fall growing season. No for people who like green grass in summer, it can stay green with enough watering, but it’s not necessary…
Regarding seeding your lawn: 99% of lawn problems stem from lack of organic matter in the soil. So to help the seed establish itself and be healthier, you may want to consider putting down some compost (either have a half-yard/yard delivered from a local company, or if it’s a smaller area, just get some bags of composted manure from a Home Depot-type store. Put the compost in piles where you want to seed, rake it out.
Also, I’m a huge fan of sun/shade grass seed mixes. Why? Because the other big problem I see with turf in people’s yards is trying to establish the wrong type of grass for the sunlight situation of a yard. Sun/shade mixes let nature figure it out. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who have thick, green back yards, and sparse, weedy front yards, and they can’t figure out why. The front yard is sunny, back yard is shady, so I tell them it looks like the person who seeded your lawn only put down shade grass seed. Sun/shade mixes, even for areas that you might think are “all sunny” or “all shady.”
And I know I linked to it upthread, but I’ll do it again: The Old Farmers Almanac Lawn Food is great to use on both established lawns and seeding new areas. I’ve used a lot of different types of organic fertilizer over the years, and this stuff ranks up there as some of the best I’ve used. You can apply it either right before or right after seeding, and it won’t overwhelm the seeds with nutrients. It adds both organic matter to the soil and a healthy dose of slow-release nitrogen.
Your County Extension may have advice on what species would work well; and may even have some of the trees available at a low cost (though around here you have to order them by, I think it’s April, each year.)
I collect and compost the grass clippings. The area is not huge, and I seldom fertilize the lawn (which I should, but it is a mess anyway due to building work and it needs reconstruction). The thing is, I don’t have a mulching mower, and the clippings from an ordinary mower tend to exacerbate the “thatch” problem, which requires the use of a lawn rake.
Before somebody comments: grass clippings and leaves need to be mixed with something else to prevent the formation of a thick, smelly mat within the heap. I turn the heap every few weeks in the summer to get rid of such mats and also to adjust the moisture.
I love my mulching mower. Clippings just disappear into the lawn.