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Lawn Nouveau provides a little relief from monotonous mowingBy Lee ReichThe Associated Press If you’d like to mow less for environmental reasons or because you’d rather be doing other things, give “Lawn Nouveau” a try. (An hour of lawn mowing pollutes the air as much as a 250 mile drive.) With Lawn Nouveau, you sculpt out a design in your lawn with two tiers of grassy growth. Keep the low part that way with your lawnmower; mow the taller section with a scythe or by hiring someone with a small tractor. The low grass is kept short and neat, just like any other lawn. Unless the tall grass is chopped as it is mowed, it needs to be raked. But these rakings make excellent material for mulch or for the compost pile. A crisp boundary between tall and low grass keeps everything neat, not looking like a partially unmown lawn. The time savings from Lawn Nouveau comes about because the tall grass needs only infrequent mowing, only once or twice a year. Part of the beauty of Lawn Nouveau is that the “tall grass” will not be only grass. Other plant species gradually elbow their way in. Which ones gain footholds depends on the growing conditions, the weather and how frequently you mow this tall portion. In one area, for instance, you might find a mix of Queen Anne’s lace, chicory, and red clover mingling with the grass. In another portion, a wetter portion, you might find ferns, sedges, and buttercups. Lawn Nouveau can be fickle, changing by itself through the season, or each time you mow. This is fortunate, because anything you don’t like in the design can easily be corrected with your mower, scythe, rake — and some time. Rather than carving fancy designs in your lawn, use tall and short grass portions to help define areas of your yard — “garden rooms,” you might say. But no need to restrict yourself to straight edges and 90-degree corners here. Use bold sweeps whose curves carry you along, then pull you forward and push you backward, as you look upon them. These undulations are more than just imagination, for they can literally move back and forth with each mowing, as suits your fancy. In a couple of places, cut low grass avenues into the tall grass. Such avenues invite exploration. Like the broad sweeps, the avenues themselves may be modified throughout the season. Such is the fluidity of Lawn Nouveau. Who knows what next year’s lawn might look like? [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
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