Grass vs. something else?

[FlanneryCam]

I've always grown up with lush grassy lawns. But my new home is out in the country and we don't have grass like they do in the suburbs.

Instead I've got natural grasses. They are rough and have different colours and textures. I find it beautiful. And I want to leave it as is. My only question is what should I do with the bare patches? Can I re-seed them? But at the store they only seem to have "normal" suburban grasses. Or can I just leave the lawn (keep my dog off the patch that died last summer during the heat wave) and hope it springs back?

 

[Jed]

In Oz the predominate grass found in the country area where I live is rye grass.
I suggest you go to your local agricultural store and ask what varieties are available. You probably like we can buy it by the pound from large containers.

 

[Tmann]

Why not just dig up small plugs of grass throughout your yard and plant them in the bare spots.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

One time I planted a section of my yard with wild sedges from a variety pack. The intent was to have a wild area where the dogs could lay under the trees, and provide a tall grassy border on one side of my pond...

What I ended up with was a patch of yard that suddenly looked better than it had in years, growing thickly despite being in a heavily-shaded area. I think I could have run the lawnmower across it, and it would have blended in with the rest of the yard. That are ended up getting re-landscaped again last year and now has some grass attempting to grow in, but I think I will overseed with more of the native sedges again this coming year just to really fill in the area and make it more hardy.

The point, however, is that just because something isn't considered suitable for a standard lawn like Kentucky bluegrass, doesn't mean it won't give you great results. Check your local farm supply stores, ask what they may carry for local native grasses. Those will require the least amount of maintenance and watering to keep looking nice. They may not look exactly the same as every other lawn, but different can be good!

 

[Arzosah]

Good for you, for embracing biodiversity in your grass! Heading a bit further out of town still, to the more agricultural type stores, is probably the best idea, as people have mentioned. Or you could broadcast sow some wild flowers, to make it a meadow as well? It would have to be flowers local to your area, because the whole point is to let them take care of themselves, and not "tend" them as you would a suburban lawn. The result can be very beautiful, and is always individual.

The other thing is to find out if there are any low growing varieties of, say, mint, that might be appropriate. If you scroll down to the second area of this page, you can see *very* low growing mint between granite setts, I think it looks wonderful:
http://www.alannewbould.com/decking-is-out-paving-is-in/

 

[loopyloo]

I would think that you could let the grass go to seed then plant from that. The nice thing about the country is there is generally not a group of neighbors to get pissy about your brown spots. I live in a HOA neighborhood and cant wait until we can move to a home in the country.

 

[Pat]

I have always like the look of wild flower gardens through out the yard. That maybe something you can do in the bare spots to give some additional texture to the yard, it would go along with the not kept look of the other wild plants.

 

[RedNeckCowBoy007]

We had/have a big spot of reclaimed corn/bean field on the side of our yard. We moved our garden to there to help reduce the amount of weeds and grass in the garden (since the garden was originally reclaimed yard). The old garden filled in very nicely with no new seeding by me. The rest of the reclaimed field has some spotty fill. There is a nice strip of grass between the field and garden that I seeded to help differentiate. I need to seed the rest of it come some warmer weather.

 

[justusforus]

You have been given good advice above. I had a spotty lawn here in the rural areas and I set aside a large garden area. I was able to transplant all of the displaced natural grass from the garden area to fill in the spots where I have a lawn. My yard is terraced with a lawn nearest the patio with natural grasses and the garden is the two lower levels to take advantage of gravity when it rains. If you want seed, I am sure a feed store as above or a local hardware store will have a selection.

 

[Ruth B]

I live in the country also, and also have a spotty lawn. I don't really care for a lawn anyway. In the spotty spots, the dogs dig summer cool off holes in the dirt. I have refilled dozens of times to no avail. Heck, it's hot, I can't blame them. I thought about instead, trying other projects out, like decks, gazebo's, sitting areas of some kind, trails, whatever. I have lots of ideas I'm mulling around. I don't really want such a hard yard for the yard people to mow in that it is broken up really funny. Unless it was 'all the way out' and all they had to do was use the weed eater around what I did. I do need some grass for the dogs to potty tho. So it's not an active project exactly, but ideas are there.

 

[alexiskilgannon]

Personally, I would drop some soil just to hold the moisture in to give the grass a chance to spread. I would also go in there and turn the dirt a little bit so it is aerated.

 

[Rosyrain]

I would try doing many gardens throughout your yard with a waterfall or a pond. It would be a fun experience for guests to walk through the gardens.

 

[DancingLady]

I know that grass requires a fair amount of water, but I am not a fan of this "get rid of your lawn" movement. One of the biggest reasons I am not fan is that lawns actually help keep things cool. If you remove the lawn, you are likely to have darker colored dirt, rocks, or whatever you have, which will soak up more heat and keep your yard warmer well into the night. This is one of the reasons it is hotter in cities than in the countryside. If you are concerned about rising temperatures, you need to keep those lawns and other plants that will not soak up heat.