Do you grow your lawn directly up to your house's foundation?
lawn - Replacing grass against side of house - Gardening & Landscaping Stack Exchange
10 Years in Detroit. 2009 and 2019. House proud lawn mowing to abandoned debris
Before invention of the lawn mower in 1830, how did large houses maintain their lawns?
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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 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).