I love using creeping thyme in places like this. Mother of Thyme grows much higher, if you prefer it about a foot off the ground. Some people are replacing entire lawns with creeping thyme these days. The best attribute is drought tolerance.
Answer from Evil Elf on Stack ExchangeVideos
I love using creeping thyme in places like this. Mother of Thyme grows much higher, if you prefer it about a foot off the ground. Some people are replacing entire lawns with creeping thyme these days. The best attribute is drought tolerance.
Daylilies if in the sun, hosta if in the shade.
The best mulch is arborist wood chips because they break down over time, feeding and building the soil. There's no maintenance beyond laying down a fresh inch or so every spring, unlike rock or rubber which require you to manually remove spent leaves and to use a leaf blower over and over again in the fall. Rubber and wood chips both help keep the soil moist, which in moderation is a good thing for the plants and prevents you from having to water the area much during the growing season (unless you're in a drought).
Contrary to what some rubber-is-great! sites say, wood chips do not attract insects to your home - not even termites; rock mulch is actually great for attracting everything except termites (I've never had so many box elder bugs and biting lady beetles than when I had rock mulch around my house).
You can definitely grow grass right up to the foundation - it won't harm your house in any way. That said, there are a few reasons you might not want to do this.
- First, your mower is unlikely to be able to get the grass right next to the foundation, which means you'll need to take a trimmer around the house every time you mow to get a nice, clean look.
- Second, your yard is most likely graded to direct water away from the foundation of your house quickly or keep it away altogether, which means the grass right next to the foundation may struggle to get enough water. Dry, brown grass right next to your house is a real possibility; on the bright side, you won't need the string trimmer if the grass is dead.
- Finally, foundations aren't the most beautiful thing in the world, and you can really soften their look/hide ugly concrete foundations with some nice plantings. You may be happier with the way it looks if you do beds instead of just grass.
You most certainly can lay you sod right up to the foundation. The reason people talk about foundation planting with shrubs is to have a transition between the home and your yard. Those foundation plantings are usually too narrow and too simple to do much for aesthetics/composition anyway.
What you are trying to do right now is the simplest thing you can do to get your yard, albeit small, under control. You can put in plant beds later. But do not try to seed for your lawn crop. It is very affordable to do sod. That sod will stop weed seeds from growing and it sounds like you've got an old yard with tons of seeds as well as perennial weeds.
Have you laid sod before? You do have to prepare a good lawn bed. Most of your labor will be clearing, grading and rolling your lawn bed. Do not skip the rolling! It is helpful to bring in 2 1/2 yards of screened topsoil to spread, grade over your lawn bed. That will give you enough for 2" deep. Roll it with a water filled roller you can rent from the equipment rental store, cheap. Grade again, filling in dips and roll again.
Glad you knew that the siding needs to be a minimum of 4" off that grass/soil. The foundation should have asphalt emulsion painted on the concrete to be between the soil and the foundation. What about your fences? Is there enough space between the bottom and the soil/grass? Do you have a basement or crawl space? We won't worry about that now. You won't be changing anything drastically for your foundation.
After laying the sod (will you be doing the work)? roll that sod as well with the roller. Water shallowly until the sod is rooted to the bed. Then go look up all the information on how to train your grass to be drought tolerant and save water bills, make your crop of grass healthy and keep it healthy. Look up all the question answers on our site. Don't bother with other sites on the internet.
Love this sub and looking at the lawns. Trying to replicate it myself. I was wondering whether people here typically grow their lawn to their house/foundation? I've heard that can be an issue with respect to drainage and seen recommendations to have a rock drainage perimeter around the house before the lawn. What are your thoughts / what do you do?
Ps I'm a cool season lawn person in case that matters.
Thanks lawn lovers!
I’m not anti lawn. They are nice for a lot of reasons, but how and why did it become a “thing” to be a small time grass farmer? Is there a historical readon or do people just like it?