having a capital “G” Green lawn

Were I disposed to holding my nose high and telling the world just how good I am, I’d probably not hesitate to declare that MY lawn has ALWAYS been a Green lawn; no chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides have been used on it. However, I’m not disposed to do that, and truth be told my lawn is Green due to equal parts desire not to use chemicals and outright neglect.

Unfortunately, this means that the dandelions have been having a field day on our poor lawn. Our front yard (I can’t even really call it a front “lawn”) is simply chock-a-block full of dandelions, some Creeping Charlie, and who knows what else. It’s a sad state of affairs. Instead of being content to let my wife work out her frustrations on our multitude of dandelions, I bought myself a tool: a Lee Valley water-powered weeder. It arrived today.

I didn’t get a chance to tackle the front lawn yet (that task will be this weekend’s work), but I did manage to spend some good, quality time with my new tool in the back yard this evening. Let me tell you, this is a great tool. It works exactly as advertised, and I managed to extract quite a number of dandelion roots that were well over 15cm (6 in) long. With our hard-packed clay soil, there is no way we ever would have managed to extract those roots intact with a standard dandelion tool.

The only drawback? Muddy backspray. But I figure that’s just part of the learning curve. Yes, I got muddy, but it was a happy muddy – after all, I managed to de-dandelion the back yard while aerating and watering it at the same time.

Now we just have to deal with the grubs and leatherjacket larvae. Quotes for nematode applications (small worms that kill larvae in your lawn) are forthcoming. With luck and some proper attention, hopefully our Green lawn will become a healthy Green lawn.

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