Mow-less Lawns - Ask Extension
Is there any sections or pages on research or testing on mowless lawns? I'm very interested in learning
1) What plant options there are (especially...
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Mow-less Lawns #875313
Asked June 30, 2024, 3:33 AM EDT
Is there any sections or pages on research or testing on mowless lawns? I'm very interested in learning
1) What plant options there are (especially for Oregon)?
2) How it performs.. DURABILITY.. handling foot traffic, rolling a wheelbarrow over, having a dog run around on it, or perhaps other scenarios
3) How it performs.. in terms of environment such as sun vs shade or other major factors. I ask this because I tried to make a moss lawn and I can't tell if birds dug it up or it performed poorly due to much more sun exposure or something else. Thus some plants may not be hardy in certain conditions and continuing the mowless lawn into the yard with those conditions may cause the individual to choose a different option considering the conditions their yard presents or if they want one type of lawn to continue over their entire yard vs have different plants in different parts of their yard or other permutations
4) Height metrics and/or analysis.. perhaps some plants could be mowless... buuuuut they are pushing the limits of tripping people due to being rather tall.. (love those photos of the keys in the grass to show their coarseness.. really did help a lot.. as an example)
5) Maintenance.. mowing may not be a concern with with some plants but perhaps they require some other types of maintenance..
6) And perhaps some plants grow to height that requires maintenance.. but slowly.. so some plants could fall into the mow-much-less category..
7) You know how those water bottle fill-up stations have their stats.. saves 50,000 bottles from going to the dump or what have you from this one station or what have you.. perhaps their is a way to measure or quantify mowless lawns.. if every lawn was converted in America to mowless.. ending the use of gas powered mowers.. this could save so many XYZ amount of carbon emissions, or XYZ amount of carcinogenic emissions, or other things that help in terms of noise reduction, hours people save from working that could be spent elsewhere.. nauseous fumes.. neighbor complaints going down.. or other possibilities.. state or city goals or initiatives.. or yet others
8) Some tips on how to source one of these plants and them propagate on your own or what have you
Clackamas County Oregon
Expert Response
Dan: There has been a lot of OSU research on water and fertilizer saving and less lawn mowing. The "Eco-lawn" uses a mix of a fairly low growing ryegrass species mixed with low growing herbaceous broadleaf perennial species like yarrow.
Here are some links that can get you started re the science of these approaches, at least in Oregon (mainly western) environments:
One challenge to these innovations is that many housing projects require (through their homeowner associations) all the owners maintain a conventional lawn in front. In their view, it maintains the property values of all the homes in an area. Attempts to get rid of these front grass lawns can result in lawsuits by the neighborhood associations. I do think, eventually, this will change but it hasn't much yet.
I hope this helps. Chip Bubl, OSU Extension Agent (retired) <personal data hidden>.
Here are some links that can get you started re the science of these approaches, at least in Oregon (mainly western) environments:
https://agsci.oregonstate.edu/beaverturf/low-maintenance-turf
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/lawn/through-thoughtful-practices-lawns-can-be-climate-friendlyOne challenge to these innovations is that many housing projects require (through their homeowner associations) all the owners maintain a conventional lawn in front. In their view, it maintains the property values of all the homes in an area. Attempts to get rid of these front grass lawns can result in lawsuits by the neighborhood associations. I do think, eventually, this will change but it hasn't much yet.
I hope this helps. Chip Bubl, OSU Extension Agent (retired) <personal data hidden>.