It’s been quite the wet spring. We finally got a bit of break this week from the rain, but it’s back again today. I have yet to turn on the irrigation system. (I did see someone hand watering their yard the day after a week long rainstorm. Why do people think that lawn is aquatic?) I finished planting up the veggie garden (I have three spots this year to garden due to an unforeseen move.) Now I’m starting to think about the ornamental part of gardening. I want to get a good perennial bed in somewhere. I also have to move the few perennials I planted at my old apartment. They are a few weeks a way from peak bloom, so I might miss out on some good blooms.

I’ve been killing off a section of grass in the front of the condos. I’ve sprayed it twice with round-up. After the first time, it was extremely spotty. To cover that up, I mowed it extremely short with the mower. I think it’s worked pretty good–the only problem is now getting funds for mulch. Hopefully people don’t mind the dead grass for a while. I think it is better than the dying grass that was there. The section I was killing no longer had irrigation due to foundation problems. And I was more than happy to get rid of some of the mowing and trimming I have to do.

Lately I’ve been thinking about all the lawn everywhere. People tend to think of it as a low maintenance plant, but it’s not. The only way lawn takes less maintenance than a good shrub bed is with a large-deck mower.  At my condos where I do maintenance mowing takes forever because of the amount of grass and all the trimming I have to do. I would much rather have good shrub beds.

But I think the reason behind the huge amount of lawn is relatively low installation cost, and a lack of weeding in other garden beds. It’s really easy to let garden beds get overrun with weeds. I think if someone was out weeding every week, like they mow, the overall time of maintenance would decrease with more shrub beds. Now I want to actually try this out.