Tldr: using nothing but milorganite, grass seed and manual tools, I made my lawn look great.
Goal: Turn my lawn from a patchy, weed infested eye sore into a lush, green, 1000 sq ft wonderland. Accomplish this using no machines or chemicals of any kind.
Process:
Last fall (with some “help” from my 1 1/2 year old daughter), I hand pulled all of the weeds from the lawn. Then put down Scotts EZ seed in the bare patches. I bought a Fiskars Reel lawn mower and mowed the lawn every week or so myself (I find the Fiskars mower to be as easy to push and use as any gasoline mower I’ve ever used in my life). I set the mower for about 2 ¾ inch (I might raise the mower height just a little more). Then I put down some Milorganite. Every week, when leaves started falling I raked them by hand into a big pile, ran the mower through them to chop them up as tiny as possible, then repeated 4-5 times. I spread the leaves as evenly as possible through the lawn and raked some of the excess into our small flower bed.
In the winter I did nothing.
In the middle or end of March I hand pulled weeds again, raked whatever remained of the leaves into the flower bed again and put down some regular grass seed (all the raking had pulled up some of the young grass, leaving bald spots again). For about a week I watered the lawn twice a day to get the new grass started. Finally, I added a little more Milorganite (I still have about half a bag left). Each week when I mow, I leave the grass clippings on the lawn (spreading some of the bigger piles a little more evenly).
Results:
All of the bare spots have filled in nicely and the grass started growing and turning green much sooner than any of my neighbor’s lawns. I still need to pull weeds every week, but the grass seems to be doing a good job of choking them out; each week there are fewer and fewer and the ones I pulled the previous week don’t come back. My lawn is slowly becoming the envy of the neighborhood; three separate neighbors have commented on how good my lawn looks now.
Overall the reel mower does a great job. The lawn looks neat and maintained, just not “golf course” perfect, and some areas require a 2nd or 3rd pass to get all the stragglers. It also struggles on edges and around obstacles; I have to hand pull the grass blades in these areas to the desired length (and before anyone suggests, I will not be buying a machine to replace those four minutes of work). I think my favorite part is eliminating the noise pollution that comes from machines. My wife, who is an extremely light sleeper and disturbed by almost any noise, once said “I’m going to go take a nap, why don’t you go mow the lawn?”
Previously, I was paying someone to come and mow it every three weeks, so I didn’t spend a lot of time out there. Now I’m working on the lawn every week, so I’m picking up all of thrash more often; the trash is also not getting chopped up by a big gas powered machine and thrown all over the god damned place. I can’t say for certain, but I suspect that my diligence in keeping my lawn clean has also led to some of my neighbors picking up the trash off their lawns more often as well.
I had piled up 2-4 inches of leaves in our flower bed throughout the fall. This meant that the quality of the soil in our flower bed was way up, which leads me to believe that the soil quality on the rest of the lawn was up too (while planting some flowers early in the season I was amazed at how many earthworms were in the soil). It also meant that we had ZERO weeds in our flower bed for the first time ever. The weeds did not interrupt the growth of our tulips though. This was a completely unexpected, but welcome, side effect.
The costs:
Fiskars Reel Lawn Mower: $75 from craigslist
2 36 lb bags Milorganite: $12 (they were the last two bags and were ripped open but mostly full, I asked for and received 50% due to the condition)
4 4lb tubs of Scotts EZ seed: $65.12 (costly, but very effective. It was “grass growing for dummies”, because the fertilizer stuff that is mixed with the grass seed changes to a lighter color when it needs water)
1 Vigoro Grass Seed: $12 (this was less effective than the scotts, but I’m not sure if it was because I didn’t mix any fertilizer stuff with it, if I didn’t water it enough, or if the seed just didn’t take. Maybe mixing this with some sawdust/wood chips and compost/fertilizer would be more effective and cheaper than Scotts)
FAQ:
I currently pay someone to do all of this stuff. If I do it myself, will it be the same amount of work as sitting on the couch, drinking a beer while watching TV? No. However, by slightly changing your mindset as to what you consider “leisure” to include going outside with your family/friends/neighbors and getting some exercise in beautiful weather, you will likely find that you enjoy being a badass mustachian more than being a consumerist suckah. If not, what are you doing on this forum?
I like the idea of doing my lawn care myself, but I’ve heard that reel lawn mowers are powered by sweat and agony. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to use a machine that’s powered by dead dinosaurs instead? Almost certainly not. If you are currently pushing your lawn mower, then the fiskars mower will be just as easy to use, with 90% of the cutting efficiency of your machine. It will, however, come with the added benefits of nearly zero maintenance, no noise, no carbon emissions and it is better for your grass. The only circumstances where the reel mower would be more work are if you currently use a riding mower or if you currently use a “mulching” mower. Raking the leaves into a pile and using the reel mower to cut them up as small as possible was the same amount of work as raking them and putting them in bags, though “mulching” them was much better for the lawn.
Wouldn’t it be more efficient to use a bunch of weird chemicals and poisons to get your lawn looking good? That depends on your definition of efficiency. If you consider a single weed on your lawn as “inefficient”, then yes, using chemicals will be more “efficient”. The tradeoff here is that those chemicals and poisons will likely impact the quality of your soil in a negative way AND kill beneficial organisms such as earthworms. This means that you will need to use those chemicals and poisons EVERY YEAR to maintain the quality of your lawn because there will be no weeds but you’ll have unhealthy grass plants. By eliminating the poisons, you will create healthy grass plants which mostly maintain themselves. Now that my lawn is “established” I will likely only need to add a little bit of fertilizer and grass seed each year to keep it looking as good as it does today.
Related to the above: Have you gone completely mental? 2 ¾ inches high is practically a jungle!! I want my lawn to look like a country club golf green!! Unfortunately, most grass types are not able to thrive at cutting heights lower than 2 inches. Here is an article that explains the reasons why (and was the basis for my lawn care plan)
https://richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp. As I said before, my lawn looks “maintained”, not “golf course” perfect. I would say that my lawn looks about 90% as good as the best gasoline mowed lawns that I’ve seen. I am skeptical of the actual value in that 10% difference and would encourage you to examine your reasons about why your lawn needs to look like a golf course. Is it because you get value out of it or is it because you want to look good to your consumerist sucka neighbors?
Practically no cost? No environmental impact? Same amount of work? This sounds too good to be true. What are the downsides? You’re right, there are some significant downsides. First off, because you will be saving money on lawn care and increasing the value of your home, you will be faced with agonizing choices such as whether to use that money to pay off your mortgage, invest in real estate or put it into index funds. Second, the exercise that you are doing outside will give you more energy and confidence, which will lead you to take on even MORE badass projects. Once THOSE are completed you will have that first downside all over again. Finally, all this exercise and confidence will likely lead to more frequent and better sex with your partner (or attract a partner if you’re single). All that sex will seriously impact your TV watching, so you may need to prioritize between Game Of Thrones, House of Cards and The Americans.
