The LawnOur lawn may be as much a part of our garden’s identity as our flower beds. Open space is a rarity in urban community gardens, but ours was conceived of as place where gardeners and visitors could move about freely and relax on the cool, soft grass. Gathering and relaxing on the lawn, however, comes at a price as growers of lawns everywhere well know. Though often lovingly maintained by different waves of volunteers through the years, the lawn developed intractable bare spots and dips, and provided areas for crabgrass and other invaders to take root. The compacted, clay-heavy earth discouraged the tender roots of new grass, no matter how good the seed and care. An exasperating result of this was flooding. In the winter, sliding on the lawn has been a popular children’s activity while in other seasons rubber boots have been essential so that one can wade from one side of the west lawn to the other.
A few years ago, Tom, a gardener well known for his gutsy approach to projects few others would attempt, began to try to figure out how to grow a better lawn, and the more he studied our lawn and its problems, the more he came to see that we should aim not just to fix the lawn but to nurture a self-sustaining one. There are important environmental reasons for doing this: In a city of many hard surfaces where even the soil tends to be packed down, such a lawn happily absorbs rainwater and puts it to good use instead of letting it form pools in the garden or flow into street drains and contribute to run-off pollution. A hardy, self-sustaining lawn resists invasive weeds, hosts beneficial bacteria and fungi, tolerates human and wildlife traffic, and shrinks our carbon footprint with fewer trucked-in purchases of soil amendments needed. And it will eventually save the garden money too.
So, egged on by some other intrepid gardeners, Jane, then co-chair of the steering committee, and Joseph and Linda, who have been studying at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Tom has been hard at work ever since. You can read Tom’s own words below, describing the process and progress of establishing a self-sustaining lawn at the Clinton Community Garden.
A 100% Self-Sustaining Lawn
The first photo, below left, was taken just a three years ago in the spring of 2007, when the lawn was unusable because it was a mud hole. Last year, Joseph and Linda took a course in land management, which helped them understand what we needed to do. The first thing was to have the soil tested. This was done by the Cornell Agrarian School. Their recommendations were to increase the organic matter, and acidify the pH. In the second photo, taken in spring 2009, lawn repair is underway.
2007 
2009
The prescription for nursing back our lawn:
◦ Compost
◦ Fertilize
◦ Cover to keep the birds from eating the seed
◦ And restrict the traffic.
The seed takes two to three weeks to germinate. The roots then need another five to six weeks to establish themselves. We re-seeded this spring on April 3, 2010, which gives the grass enough time before opening the lawn on Memorial Day. Cornell recommended that we repeat this process, fall and spring, for three years in order to increase the organic content 5 percent and increase the acidity 1 percent.
As you can see, this spring we are starting to have some real success (see photos below). In another two years, the lawn will be self-sustaining and will NEVER HAVE TO BE CLOSED OFF AGAIN!
That is our goal. Until then, if the new grass is trampled before it roots, it dies. That just sets back the whole plan.
We realize that closing the west lawn is inconvenient for many of the ongoing garden activities, but in the long run the benefit to the garden and the garden users will be worth it.
April 2010. looking west. Silky grass awaiting Tom’s first spring mowing.
April 2010, apple tree surrounded by lawn. Big change!
