Freedom Lawn Again.

6-1-10 SHORT HILLS: I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day Weekend. The weather was more like Fourth of July here. Memorial Days that I remember from times past were cold and rainy, especially sailing on Long Island Sound.

It’s been dry lately, so the sprinklers are on after I tested all of them again. Two were jammed by new growth, and two others needed re-alignment.

Over the weekend we put down three bags of Scotts Patch Master. The product has seed, mulch and fertilizer combined in a mix that resembles mattress ticking in texture. At $25 per bag it’s expensive stuff. One more attempt to get the grassy lawn that Judy wants, in spite of heavy dog traffic with digging and ball chasing and deep shade. I keep encouraging acceptance of the ‘Freedom Lawn’ concept. Basically that is going with whatever shows up and mowing it. Judy continues to resist the weeds as lawn approach.


Here's the Freedom Lawn. That light gray-green stuff is the patching. Note the canine culprits and the shade.

Speaking of weeds, there’s always more weeding to do. I planted a couple bucket-fulls of pachasandra, that I pruned back on the paths, to very shady spots in the ‘lawn’ like under the copper beech.

New blooms: linden tree.


Clematis, for red fans. The white stuff is part of the cast iron porch railing.