Hope this is an okay post for this sub, unfortunately there is no r/OnTheWayToNoLawn 🙂
This has been my first year owning a place with a yard. I have quite a bit of lawn and my goal is to turn it over to some sort of permaculture plan. In the meantime, while I learn and plan and figure out what the heck I'm doing, my approach is basically to let it grow as tall as I can and then mow once I'm worried it will start pissing neighbors off. What I have appears to be a reasonably diverse (for a lawn) mix of grasses and a few other plants like Rumex and Queen Anne's Lace.
The lawn did not seem to appreciate my most recent aggressive mow from probably ~18" to ~2" and it's looking pretty dead now, with the soil very friable: https://imgur.com/a/oDi7hXa
Am I at risk of significant soil erosion here? Or is a season or two of this not much of a worry? I'm in a valley bed with supposedly great fertile soil that's classified under USDA's "All areas are prime farmland" category and I'd hate to damage that resource through foolishness.
by autumnoliveoil
2 Comments
Nah the roots will help hold the soil in place. You could start piling up the cut grass to make swales and help add more biomass to the soil too.
r/nolawns is primarily a sub for people wanting to transition to less lawn, so this is absolutely an ok post. And I agree that you don’t need to worry too much about erosion since those roots from the grass will hold things for awhile, but beyond a year might be a stretch. What are you putting in this area eventually? A veggie garden?