So there I was, thinking “Grass isn’t edible! What a waste! America grows too much grass! Well who cares if I kill a bunch of it in my yard?”

“Grass is going to get smothered under this pile of tree cuttings? Ah that’s fine, it’ll grow back!”

Well now it’s summer, and in the areas where grass died because I put cardboard over it, or where I put grass clippings because I thought I was going to plant a bed, the clay in the soil has hardened, and the grass has not grown back. It’s struggling in the summer heat to come back. Tiny little delicate grass leaves are growing here and there, but not in its former density. So now there are hard patches here and there in the back yard. Not good because moisture will escape.

Re-seeding lawn by hand is extremely difficult in the summer. Summer is NOT a good time to try and re-seed a lawn, because the heat from the sun will dry up anything that’s sprouting, and hungry birds are always looking for seeds.

In retrospect I also extended cardboard too far from the raised beds. Four inches is enough. The space between my raised beds could just as well be grass. The raised beds are probably three feet apart. Well, grass could be growing there, preserving moisture.

I suspect that cardboard on the ground around the edges of a raised bed is not necessary if the raised bed is high enough. (6+ inches)

Reasoning: Grass may grow like crazy in the spring, and it may enjoy some nutrients from the raised bed runoff, but come summertime, grass will also help keep the edges of the raised bed moist, and block sun from the sides of the raised bed (so the sun will not bake the roots of the plants in the bed). Grass leaves will catch morning dew, and any way to trap water is a help in any garden.

Now, I’m taking a “If it grows, it stays” approach to the yard, except for vines. Grass, clover, lamb’s quarter — please grow, please preserve water, and help me build soil.

Grass is OK: Lessons learned by mehron is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International