Best way – take it out – change part or all of your yard to garden, mulched area, or low water ground covers.
Next best option – learn a few environmentally friendly steps to keeping your grass green and green at the same time.

Step 1 – Cut high – Taller grass causes competition for sunlight – naturally deterring weeds. Taller grass also shades the soil better, preventing it from drying out quickly. There are many species of grass that you can avoid cutting altogether for a wonderful meadow look – take a trip to Sausalito to visit what used to be Fort Baker, now Cavallo Lodge and check out the meadow grasses growing between the buildings – un-mowed.

Step 2 – Organic, organic, organic – Do your best to minimize or eliminate any chemical fertilizers or “weed and feeds”. Chemical fertilizers work quickly, but they damage or kill natural organisms in the soil, leaving your plants dependent on them. Use them once and you’ll need to keep using them – yes, like a dependance. Break the cycle – spread compost on your lawn. You can do this now – buy a bag or compost (or use your own) and spread a thin layer in the same way you would spread fertilizer.

Step 3 – Grass is food – Throw out the clipping bag on your lawn mower. By leaving the grass clippings on your lawn, you are returning needed nutrients to the soil. No, it won’t cause thatch or brown spots. Cut regularly, and cut high, and set your mower to mulching if it has that capability.

Step 4 – Watering – Once or twice a week for longer time is better than more frequently for less time. Why? Longer deeper watering trains roots to grow deep into the soil – frequent short watering encourages shallow root growth. Water in the early morning – less wind to blow the water into the street, less evaporation from hot sun, and the grass is dry in the afternoon when the kids want to play catch with you.

Step 5 – Sprinklers – Fix them. Sprinkler heads are cheap. They twist off and a new one twists on. Don’t just add more time to the timer to compensate. And adjust them now before the summer’s here – sidewalks don’t grow, they don’t need watering.

Step 6 – Seed – Spreading new grass seed on your lawn at this time of year will fill in the lean spots with grass – keeping the weeds from taking over.

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Right – they aren’t the greenest things out there. But, they exist, and you’re going to get them now and again, so you might as well have some good ideas for what to do with them. First off, don’t throw them away! Recycleable? Nice idea but doubtful that your collection will have any viable market for them at the moment. Instead, keep them in the reuse category – keep a few boxes full for the next time you need to ship something. If you have too many, bring them to any packaging store – they will gladly take them and reuse them. I save up boxes and packing material and make a trip to Piedmont Ave every few months. Remember to remove the labels first – they’ll use the boxes and the peanuts.

Even more peanut uses (I saw these in a recent issue of This Old House magazine):
• Heavy planters? – Instead of putting large rocks at the bottom of a planter pot, put a few handfuls of packing peanuts at the bottom. They will take up space, give the roots room to grow, and make the pot lighter for when you need to move it.
• Screws loose? – For a screw that won’t stay put, stick it in a peanut first, then drive it into the hole. Pull away the extra material once it’s set.
• Short stems? – Stuff a few peanuts at the bottom of a bud vase to give the stems a lift.
• Limp bean bag chair? – Add generous amounts of peanuts to a bean bag chair to bring back it’s 70′s glory.
• Don’t touch it! – Use peanuts to spread glue, paint, and assorted other sticky gooey stuff.

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Besides being time to prune your roses, this time of year is perfect for getting the garden ready. And by garden, I mean any space where you throw seeds or seedlings into dirt. Whether you plow under your entire yard, or keep planters by the back door, think about adding some finished compost to your soil to get it ready. While your at it, get the garden going now with lettuce seeds.

With all the rain we’ve had, it’s also a great time to plant new fruit trees – shovels go into the dirt like scooping out butter from all the moisture. For as little as $15 you can get bare root fruit trees – soak the roots for an hour, dig the hole, and stick it in the ground.

A few other projects for sunny winter weekends:

• Take out the water thirsty hydrangea and plant a Mediterranean/Bay Friendly garden
• Take the dried up, dead plants out of your pots and replace them with succulents
• Mulch, mulch, mulch – in your flower beds, around your raised garden planters, even your whole front yard
• Dig up that grass that always starts looking bad by June and mulch the area instead
• Sprinkle compost on your grass – for simple natural fertilizing

Still need inspiration, take a walk around town and see what type of gardens your neighbors are planting in their front yards.

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