By B. Mitchell
Lawn grass: expensive, difficult, fickle … Or lush, green, diverse, interesting, carpet of ground cover. It’s all in how we see it. In Zen, as in business, there is beauty and success in the mundane and simple. The Minimalist Gardener approaches the challenge of the grass lawn with common sense and purpose.
Minimalist principles set our agenda:
• No herbicide or pesticide
• Never remove organic matter from the property
• Nurture and encourage diversity of plants and wild flowers as part of the lawn
• Use gentle cultivating techniques and tools
• Remove undesirable, out-of-place plants by hand
• Seek to maximize the exercise value of the lawn care experience
Once again, wife Teresa awakened the Minimalist Muse. Teresa is a traditionalist in the strongest sense when it comes to the lawn. She has the prevailing preconceived notion that a lawn is a flawless patch of grass all the same shade of green and cut short. This is a challenge for a Minimalist Gardener. Her legitimate expectation and the practical nature of the minimalist approach both must be satisfied if there is to be lawn Nirvana in the Minimalist Garden. Full and green lawn plants are an important component of the Minimalist Design.
The Minimalist Method
First we survey the lawn plants. Which plants are low-lying, have attractive features and are compatible with the grasses?
The Minimalist objective is to maximize the growth of desirable plants by creating an advantage for them. The key to success is to identify the plants we do not want and carefully remove them from the lawn, one at a time.
This task can be fun and easy when undertaken with a positive attitude. In our case a certain broadleaf radiating plant covers the sleeping grass in the early spring, before the grass awakens. This plant has an attractive white flower that beckons early pollinators that are a joy to see early in the year. However, it turns brown before summer and smothers the desirable lawn plants.
