Keeping your lawn in "The Painterly Manner"....
A few years ago we rented the house of some dear friends in Waterford, CT. It was a lovely old house with an expansive yard and a full natural zoo of turkeys, foxes, groundhogs, and deer (emmm.. “rats on stilts"). One day, having gotten behind in mowing, I was lamenting about the state of the lawn when Roxanne quipped “Its just ‘painterly’ “. “Painterly?" “Yes" she said, “its like an impressionist painting done with a palette knife". Needless to say, I have never looked at lawn care in quite the same way again. Today, I strive to keep in the lawn “In the Painterly Manner". You can too.
Essentially, The Painterly Manner has three aims:
- Keep the soil healthy by adding natural amendments and avoiding pesticides, excessive watering, and non-organic fertilizers.
- Keep the grass as long as practicable, especially in hot weather. Which means right up to (but not much beyond) the point that you're embarrassed by the neighbors.
- Minimize the size of the lawn (and thus, its maintenance) by cutting out great swaths of lawn with flower beds. If you have to choose lawn or flowers, choose flowers.
Soil is the most important factor. When we installed this garden (“never again" I remember myself thinking), we started with the beds the first year and left the lawn for the next year. When I took on the lawn we dug in as much organic compost as possible into the builder’s soil. I’m glad I went to all that trouble (although one neighbor thought I was wasting my time!). Good soil means lots of food and minerals that plants need. It also teems with natural fauna (bugs, earthworms, & stuff) that heathy soil always has. Good soil means good plants, and great roots. Roots are the point. If the root system is long, it can reach the water it needs far below. And healthy grass keeps out the invasive weeds.
With the soil in place I seeded with Midnight II Kentucky Bluegrass. There are more earth-friendly choices than Kentucky Bluegrass, but I got seduced by the green of the stuff! Besides, I was keeping it “painterly" anyway!
I try not to water if I can help it. Kentucky Blue Grass can go dormant in the summer, and some of the grass in these pictures is there. Generally though, it stays pretty lively, even in hot weather and I attribute that again to good soil and deep roots. If we have missed out on rain for a few days, I’ll give it a good hour soaking.
Weeds have not been a problem. They have nowhere to grow. We get some clover from time to time, but that’s OK… all paintings are enhanced with clover as it turns out.
Maintenance is an important factor. It should be “thin". I don’t put any chemicals or non-organic fertilizers on this lawn; I don’t have to because the soil is good. I don’t control for bugs and would be worried about controlling a lot of beneficial bugs if I did. But, I do add some organic amendments from time to time:
- A thin layer (~1/2") of compost on top of the lawn either in the spring or fall, but I haven’t done this very faithfully. Great food for the worms who dig it in for me.
- I also add alfalfa pellets (50 # bag of rabbit food covers everything sufficiently) about every other month or so. This year I mixed some blood meal to the pellets before I spread them. I haven’t had problems with deer or rabbits with this practice, but your milage might vary.
- This being Connecticut, I add lime in the spring and fall to neutralize the pH.
I really worry about the accumulation of fertilizers and pesticides and the impact those chemicals have on the environment and those of us who live in the environment. Also, I think the lawn can grow “dependent" on these chemicals in ways that undermine long term health.
For cutting (when I get around to it) I use this Fiskars reel mower. I’ve had two other reel mowers before this one and it is hands-down the best thing out there:
- It will cut even high grass which is a challenge for reel mowers. Its not perfect, and tall seed heads are “beyond the scope" of this machine (get to that point sometimes).
- It is quiet… so very quiet. Its just a pleasure… the “whisk whisk" of the blade… the gentle falling of grass on turf… the fresh smell of the lawn without fumes of gas….ahhhh… a perfectly introverted machine!
- Safety is not the issue it is with an automatic mower, so if you want to kick off your shoes while you mow, there is no better feeling.
If you are going to use a manual reel mower, you have to get it settled in your mind that some… maybe a lot… of blades are going to escape. Its just not as efficient as a gas powered rotary mower. Its good enough though, and if your looking for that coveted “painterly effect", this is the mower you want.
So the bottom line is that we have healthy, “good enough" grass and I can tell the difference between our approach and the cut-way-too-short grass alongside, even in the heat of mid-summer.
The best part of all though is that painterly lawns attract painters! I caught this one in our yard recently while I hid in a blind with my camera. Checking my Field Guide of North American En Plein Air Painters, I think this is the fabled and rare Red-Bottomed Palette Flinger (Raptor- Rubrum Carinis Tabulis Smite-us)… can be dangerous if provoked, so keep a distance!
I think they’re more attracted to flowers than lawns anyway, so there you go...