Unrequited love, also known as one-sided love, is when you give your time, affection, and energy to someone who can’t – or won’t – return the feeling. It leaves one weary and disheartened.
Why does this sound so familiar?
Because it’s happening to every Tom, Dick and Sherry with a lawn. We pour out our time and valuable resources to keep our lawns green and cut at just the right height. In return, they’re guzzling water and fertilizer, demanding to be mowed, and crowding out native plants. Instead of vibrant ecosystems, we’re left with thirsty turf that fails to support pollinators, provide shade, and nourish their plant friends. This hurts!
The ecosystem isn’t meant for one-sided relationships. If you’ve been reading our blog, you know that every single part of the ecosystem is interconnected. These green carpets have become ecologically sterile spaces, incapable of supporting the biodiversity necessary for healthy ecosystems. These expanses offer little in terms of natural habitat, which in turn undermines the crucial ecosystem services – such as pollination, water filtration, and soil health – that biodiversity provides.
Thankfully, there is a solution that the average homeowner will find manageable!
We can begin to reduce our lawns, repurposing some of that green carpet. A simple garden bed of five feet by five feet is a great place to start. Though it can be overwhelming to imagine the space changing, just start small. A 5×5 bed is large enough to create beauty and make a difference in your neighborhood, and it’s small enough to keep up with the maintenance.
Think about your lawn becoming a few pathways through your garden beds instead of the main event, and imagine how many plants you can squeeze into this space; the habitat and food that will be available for our feathered friends, pollinators and other critters.
What part of the lawn should I begin with?
Great question, Sherry. If a utility box in your yard is interrupting the aesthetics, start there. Disguise the box by planting grasses or flowering perennials. Maybe there are areas of your lawn that are hard to mow, like tight corners – or places that are having a hard time draining. Turn them into a garden bed.
Which part of the year is best for this project?
Fall is a great time to take on this quest because of the access we have to fallen leaves. Increasing the organic content of the soil helps improve the health of the soil, and leaves carry a variety of nutrients that the soil loves. Interestingly, turf grass has the shortest root structure in our zone, whereas a lot of other perennials have longer roots. When we add more organic material, like leaves, we’re encouraging these roots to tunnel deeper and break up the clay. This helps with nutrient cycling and soil structure.
How do you reduce your lawn and create garden beds instead?
Get started by laying down a piece of cardboard where you’d like your new bed. Rake a pile of leaves on top. A pile of leaves two or three inches high will be matted down and broken down to an inch or two by spring (read about running leaves through a mulching mower to make them even more effective here). Water it all down and mix in some chemical-free grass clippings. Continue layering leaves and grass clippings, and then top with compost or top soil.
After creating your new berm, leave it through the winter and let nature do her magic. The snow and rain will help it break down, along with the worms underground. In the spring, add another layer of mulch or compost, and you will be ready to plant!
When you break up with that patch of thirsty grass and make space for a garden bed, you’ll be in a relationship where your efforts aren’t taken for granted. Flowers will turn their blossoms towards you as you walk by in your gardening hat. You’ll pluck a fat, ripe tomato and it will burst in your mouth like blazing sunshine breaking through a veil of grey skies. Butterflies will caress your cheeks and flirt with you. Giggles!! You’ll realize you’ve been ghosted by your lawn and now you’re ready to be adored.
The cool thing is that you won’t be the only one that will be loved. The whole ecosystem will receive a boost. When one of us is nurtured, the care ripples through the soil, the air, the pollinators, and every growing thing around us.
Let’s get it. Grab your rake!
Until next thyme,
My Thyme Gardens