permaculture

["Myk Rushton" <permaculture@wave.co.nz>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Claude Genest <genest@together.net>
To: permaculture <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, 25 May 2000 12:34
Subject: Lawn Obsession.....


[snip]

> In the meantime I've added to an already onerous mowing chore. ( have to
mow
> AROUND all those trees now).

[snip]

> here is my specific question:

> Is just letting a lawn go (back to wildness)  a good ( or the best) Pc
idea
> ??

> I'm being told that I'll be creating  a mosquitio paradise. IS that so?

> Just what does happen when you let a lawn grow wild?

> (e.g. "they run you out of town" or "you are shunned by the community at
> large" :-)

Greetings

Hopefully I'm not taking a job away from Lawrence :-)

In some of the urban gardens I've worked on leaving the area of lawn not to
be initially developed to grow wild has shown an increase in local diversity
and an improvement in soil condition in that area so yes I'd say it is a
good PC idea.

From memory mosquitoes need still water for the larval stage of their
growth. I don't see how letting your lawn grow should create these
conditions. It will modify the immediate environment and make it suitable
for other insects though - some of which may bite.

When you let a lawn run wild you relinquish your hold on the successional
evolution of that lawn. By mowing 'you' create a heavily grazed environment
in which only certain species can survive, stop mowing and the environment
becomes suitable for other slower growing species - rudral herbs, woody
annuals, ... etc. As the plant communities change so will the
insect/aviarian/mammalian/amphibian... etc and abiotic components.

The area between the trees, aka lawn, in theory has the same nutrient and
mineral content as the soil that you are growing your trees in so why let it
just lie fallow? I'd try an visualise the area between the trees as a
resource to be planted and harvested i.e. as a field/pasture, for the
benefit of the trees. I'd think about planting herbal lays/deep rooted
annuals/nitrogen fixers/predator attractant plants/pest repellent
plants...etc. I'd then harvest these plants, by mowing if necessary, to
within 0.5M
of the drip lines and use them as mulch around the bottom of the trees up
to 0.5M beyond the drip lines. There are a multitude of benefits from this
kind of management.

I'm contracted by tenancy agreement to keep my lawn mown (read scalped!). I
get on okay with the land lord who knows what I do. He merely raises an
eyebrow when he sees it long. To my friends the lawn is know as Myk's Meadow
:-), I only cut it when neighbourly peer pressure gets to much - generally
when my grass is 0.5M high a swaying in the breeze compared to every body
else's scorched earth. I set the mower to 3cm so  it is still lush even
after mowing, albeit a bit stalky :-)

Myk
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