Designing functional lawn areas is a critical step in creating a sustainable landscape on your property. Whether you are building or remodeling, you don’t want someone else deciding how much lawn you should have. At Eco-Building and Forestry, when we redo a landscape at an existing home the unused lawn areas are the first to be removed. On a new home project, the lawn is the last thing to go in because we want to make sure there is enough space for all the other uses you want to achieve.
What do you use or want to use your lawn for?
If spending all of your spare time mowing, trimming, fertilizing and raking sounds appealing to you, your lawn will take a lot of work and cost you more than it returns in potential dividends. Some people detest having to mow their lawn. Fertilizing and watering lawn grasses gets them to grow faster and requires an even higher level of maintenance.
Deciding functionality is the first step in creating an organic lawn.
Do your children need a play area? How about a soccer field? Do you need an area to spread out when you’re entertaining? Planning a wedding at your place? As you anticipate these “rooms” and actually measure the space you need, you will be pleasantly surprised at how little space you need. High use areas of your yard probably account for less than 25% of lawn space.
You can save money and still get the really nice lawn you’ve always wanted by controlling these smaller areas with the proper amounts of water, organic fertilizer, and organic weed-and-feed. Areas of your lawn that are not being used can have significantly reduced maintenance, still look nice to your neighbors and save you tons of money. They also represent a great opportunity to try new plants, raise some vegetables, or convert to natural areas for better bird and wildlife viewing.
