The Green Abundance “Lawn”
The Lawn is the single largest component to our suburban landscape. In this way, we see the lawn as key to having one of the biggest positive impacts to our local environment. We see a way where we can balance the elements of why we enjoy our lawns with a more nuanced approach in how we maintain them.
From here we can expand upon the idea of the suburban lawn and begin to connect higher ecologically valuable plants with the space.
Mowable Meadows
The next evolution in lawn care is what we call the mowable meadow. The concept of this service is to pair a more careful and managed lawn care routine with a plant community that incorporates more drought tolerant grasses and perennial wildflowers. The design is an effort to balance the expectations of a suburban lawn while increasing the ecological function, lower maintenance inputs, and increase the flowering display not typically found in our existing lawn spaces.
Through the proper timing of mowing we see the opportunity to maximize the late spring flush of flowers like clover into the summer months with warm season native wildflowers. By June most of the growth of our cool season grasses has climaxed and will slow as the lack of rain and higher temperatures trigger its natural dormant cycle. From June through the summer months the mowing schedule will shift from mowing an entire lawn to designated pathways and play spaces while leaving larger swaths of the lawn unmowed. Through this management schedule we can allow native wildflowers to emerge and flower during the height of the summer. By mowing the warm season flowers during the later months of spring and early summer, the overall height of the flowers will be reduced helping maintain a shorter meadow space than traditional meadow plantings. This approach is designed to offer a more visually dynamic landscape and opportunities to better support pollinators and wildlife. By using warm season wildflowers we also fill in the gap of the cool season growth cycle when most lawns have turned brown from going dormant due to lack of water.
Mowing would resume in the early fall months resetting that seasons declining growth and allowing the cool season grasses to once again become the dominant focus of the space and prepare the area for fall leaf mulching.
Fill out our Meadow & Lawn Care Service Form to bring Green Abundance to your landscape.
Featured
Lawn Care
Over the years we have heard over and over from our clients asking if we manage lawns. Since our beginning we have considered all the ways in which we could take on the stewardship on lawns but in a manner that matches Green Abundance’s ethos of ecological landscaping.
The principals of how we steward our clients lawns are:
• Less frequent mowing which promotes a healthier and deeper rooted lawn throughout the season.
• Mowing at taller heights (~4”) especially in areas with low foot traffic.
• Mowing only when necessary and especially avoiding mowing during drought times when the grass is not growing.
• Favoring flowering plants in lawns by over-seeding problem areas with polycultures of grasses and mowable flowering plants.
• Organic fertilizer applications with no broad scale chemical weed control applications.
If you are interested in bringing Green Abundance to your lawn please fill out our client survey below.
Meadow & Lawn Care Service Form
Fill out our services form to request Meadow & Lawn care for your landscape