No-Mow Lawn Seed Mixes: A Grass Roots Transformational Biotechnology

My only problem with this is that each region has its own 'personal' mix of grasses and perennials that are well-adapted to a specific area. If only the people who lived in a region would take the time to get to know these plants and allow them to grow! It doesn't take long to identify them--just watch what people weed out of their lawns year after year without fail...
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The first site linked to has regional seed mixes.

is this stuff genetically modified?
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No it is not GM. Just mixtures of short growing varieties.

there you go

After checking the first site linked to, I wouldn't call 'habitat' and 'soil type', etc. specifically regional. That's matching plants and seed by habitat, soil & moisture type. That's still making a preference for certain packaged species over local plants. I like the thinking this all leads to, but I dislike the way it attempts to basically 'override' the actual local plants in order to fulfil the concept of 'lawn'. All regions will have some 'sameness' to them (ie. dandelion, coltsfoot, clovers), but each region has its own unique 'fingerprint' that can be easily worked with. I'd rather see things go in that direction.

This lawn issue is a huge deal in Southern Cali where we live. Virtually everyone here has a bright green lawn that they water with millions of gallons of water. We can't stand this green lawn business and so just stopped watering our lawn, which quickly turn brown. This resulted in us receiving a city code violation, presumably from a neighbor trying to sell his house. Now we're just ripping this "foreign" greenery out, placing it (along with the soil) elsewhere in the yard for another purpose, and will be planting low-water usage desert plants. No reason to have these East Coast-type lawns in the middle of the Cali desert!!! It's ridiculous! I wish people would wake up and realize how much water they are using for the most ludicrous purposes and how much easier and just as beautiful they can make their properties by planting natural desert plants.

i have installed a few no mow (fescue) lawns. it doesnt eliminate mowing but it does reduce it. it lasts a bit longer in the warm dry summer months. definately an improvement of the footprint of the homeowner on our earth.

tho, its a little more 'tufty' than regular bluegrass. but they are simular in most respects.

froggy

I purchesed "no mow" grass seed last fall and planted as directed. It came in very nicely and evenly however by early May in Minnesota it was 12 inches long!! twice as tall as my regular grass. When I emailed pictures, I thought I may have recieved the wrong seed, I was told it was a very healthy crop of low mow grass. When I asked what I should do the answer was mow it.

I'm looking forward to not having to water but this isn't the 4-6 inches that were advertised.

Becky

What I am looking for is something that will grow in the shade. I have five 30-50 year old oak trees around my house to keep me cool in the summer, but can't get much of anything else to grow except English Ivy and some patchy grass.

Any suggestions?

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Oak acidifies the soil under the canopy rather strongly, tying up nitrogen and excluding many grasses, etc. Spread lime pellets or ash from your fireplace/woodstove in later winter or spring. You will be amazed at the change.

Over here in Australia we have water restrictions galore - in Perth you can only water your garden twice a week on specific days, which means a lot of dead grass during the rainless 6-month summer. In some areas the restrictions are so bad you aren't even allowed to cry.

Some city people solve the brown lawn problem by planting native grasses (much hardier) or ground covers, some skip the grass and have rock gardens with cacti and succulents.

But of course most people use bore water, because water that comes out of the ground is free and limitless and would never have any effect on the water table (that's sarcasm, BTW). It's very frustrating.

I purchased a bag of EnviroLawn grass seed from OutsidePride.com. It's a great mix of hard fescue, red clover, yarrow, blue-eye and english daisy that doesn't require any fertilizer, only needs watering a couple of times a month, and what the website calls "infrequent mowing". The only catch is that you can't overseed with it, you have to plant it on bare yard... something about bermuda or bluegrass preventing the fescue from growing in. But I used it on the "dog spots" in my yard, and it's coming in nicely.

I am concerned about the advice given to the person with the oaks. I live in Southern California and have oaks and I did a lot of research on planting around them. I don't know what type of oaks this person has, but the ones around here have rather shallow root systems and it is very important not to dig around them! You also should not water my type of oaks within their drip lines - they need only natural rainfall - overwatering can kill them. A native plant nursery gave me some suggestions of other no-water plants that could be planted with minimal oak root disturbance. I hope this is helpful.

There is another, better eco-friendly lawn seed that in addition to requiring little mowing and maintenance, also requires very little water and will grow in any climate. It's called Eco-Lawn and is a blend of seven natural fescues. You can buy it online at www.Eco-Lawn.com. Your lawn will look lush and green and be good for the planet! The stuff is amazing!

I am living in an area which is quite cold in winters ( -70 degrees)with heavy snow and hot and dry in summers (100 degrees). I have a very large surface on which I wanna plant a lawn. I need it to be resistant to the weather conditions, require little water, and be very easy to maintain ( no mow, no pesticides etc...) any suggestions anyone? thanks in advance!

I live in California, where we have no rain from May to October. I was wondering if the EnviroLawn can be green in the summer without being watered more than once a week. Our utility district limits our water use.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

There is even another, better eco-friendly lawn seed that in addition to requiring little mowing and maintenance, also it will grow in almost any climate. It's called "nomow" grass and is a hybrid bentgrass variety. You can buy it online at www.nomowgrass.com. Try to figure the cost of mowing per year and the cost of re-planting. You will be surprised in the cost. Check it out.

Hi M Stosh -
Hands down - the stuff from NoMowGrass.com is naturally shorter, less mowing, less watering and according to the website, once it is established - it is too thick for weeds. Besides - they have such an organic way to do natural lawn care.

We tried both varieties (the wild flower site's and nomow grass's site). Just for little test. The eco-stuff grew really high and then bent over - like 1' high. The short stuff from nomowgrass.com just creeps along the ground. . .I have to trim the edges but not much for mowing. And it even grows on my hard clay soil.

T Ja

Right Stosh-
I think people confuse the 2 "No Mow" grass companies. The 1 in the article sells fescues, which can be bought most anywhere. The one you listed NoMowGrass.com sells a supine bent grass that is suppose to be the shortest grass blade on the market.

We tried all 3 of the 4 low maintenance lawns - zoysia (a lot of $ and work), the fescues for native areas and the supine bent. If you want native - and don't mind how tall it is - then the fescue is your grass. If you want naturally growing short grass, then get the bent grass exclusive to their website. I won't do more zoysia for a lot of reasons. The other low maintenance grass option I found - buffalo grass we just couldn't ever afford to do a whole lawn.

I was confused by all the Low Maintenance Lawns on the market so I did some researching it a few years ago. Here's what I found:

Eco lawn & eco grass are fescues (fine & hard mixes) which are about the same and fescues are available at most garden center for your area. I liked the look but it needed a lot of mowing if I wanted it to be short as in a lawn grass. It is a Native Lawn if you are looking for native grasses. Adding wild flowers gives it a natural look but not the "manicured lawn look".

Zoysia was another low maintenance option but I had an issue with the price and planting plugs. We only did the smallest order size and that was a lot of work. This is not a native grass and doesn't grow in a lot of areas around the country. It's also brown when the temps drop or heat up (most of the year here).

NoMowGrass.com has a naturally short but not native grass. I ended up planting this one on all my lawn areas since it was easy to over take the existing lawn in a few years and I liked the results. It is not a native but the price for the area it covered (about $.03 a sqft) worked for us. We only mow the public front lawn and leave the side-lawn & back yard un-mowed - but we do trim the edges a few times a year. This grass seems to be exclusive to their company and takes a while to really get established so we planted it thicker than the recommended and that shortened the mature grass time.

Buffalo - a native and short it can also go brown in the heat and takes a lot of watering. The price kept us from doing a whole lawn though and seed is not a dependable way to plant it.