doodle by andre: what your lawn is telling you
IHAVE READ (AND WRITTEN) ABOUT HOW YOU CAN “read your lawn weeds,” about how what’s invading your lawn (moss? plantain? dandelions?) reveals issues with the underlying soil, the light conditions, and so on. But now Andre the Doodler brings new meaning to the phrase “read your lawn weeds” with his latest graphic utterance. Arse (as in, “you total arse!”) indeed (and his lawn has a British accent, I see). Speaking seriously: Only use organic fertilizers if you must feed; more on that and on reading the signs of an ailing lawn and managing it organically at Safe Lawns [dot] org.
No, I know it won’t work. It was just wishful thinking.
Your mown weeds look stunning in the photos.
Thanks, Margaret.
Carol
What’s wrong with moss? Everything is green and flowering now where I live on Cape Cod, but during drought in August and sometimes even July, the lawn is partly brown.
I would be thrilled to have rich green moss accentuating the New Dawn roses and perennials in front of the house during that time. This is the only place in my yard I don’t allow to grow wild with blackberry and as many native shrubs as I can afford. I plant only clover as lawn there to give the soil nitrogen (and feed the rabbits), but no matter how hard I try to water sensibly, even that goes dormant then, because I choose not to contaminate the groundwater with chemical fertilizer.
Welcome, Carol. I have lots of “velvet,” as the lawncare oldtimers sometimes call moss, in my “lawn,” too, in shadier areas of course. I don’t think it will like the same spot as the roses, but you never know. I don’t use any chemicals, either, and add clover to my turf as well, and basically mow the weeds (and never water).
Must tell you that on page 168 of your new book I was stunned by beauty.
Here goes as you wrote it:
“This year’s giant pink puddle of rose petals forms beneath the rose climbing on the garden shed, whose blooms have begun to shatter in the ceaseless storms: extravagant beauty born of impermanence.” LOVE THOSE WORDS-“extravagant beauty born of impermanence.” Wish I’d written them…or thought them.
Thanks!
Sharon Lovejoy Writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island
LOL!!!
When I was a teen, my friend’s brother wrote a bad word in the lawn with fertilizer, then watered it in. That f word was there for months…
estyn, you are most kind
One more reason to love Andre. Keep em coming.