Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Low mow/no mow grass choice
If mowing is not your thing or you’re looking at being more environmentally friendly, consider Eco-grass. A low mow or no mow lawn option.
Prairie Moon Nursery offers a blend of fine-leaved fescue grasses as an alternative to an energy-intensive conventional turf lawn. This blend is hardy from Zone 2 – 7. It is not native to our region, however, due to the other benefits it offers, it’s worth it even if you normally plant native. Eco-Grass is a blend of 5-6 fescues, generally including sheep fescue, chewings fescue, hard fescue, and creeping red fescue. The breakdown among the species is about even at 15-20% each.
It’s also an excellent choice for solid border areas or footpaths adjacent to native plantings. This versatile grass blend of cultivar fescues is reported to establish quickly and grows into a flowing green carpet.
If you choose to mow it, leave it at 3 inches. Eco-Grass grows in most soil types and sun conditions, thriving in all but the darkest and wettest settings in clay or heavy soils. Now THAT’s unusual.
Prairie Moon says that the thin blades of the fescues and their relatively deep root systems (4-9”) make it drought resistant. Most grass blends we buy have shallow root systems and that’s why they get so crispy during August. Last year in Minnesota we suffered severe drought and, in fact, many areas of the country did.
When Eco-Grass reaches about eight inches and begins to form seed heads, it tends to bow or flop over, which can add an attractive naturalistic flow to landscapes.
Once established, it is durable under moderate foot traffic if mowed as a path or lawn. That means, if you run a daycare, don’t bother!
It resists invasion by filling in well but will not encroach on neighboring plantings. I have talked with many folks who have ordered from and worked with Prairie Moon Nursery and have heard nothing but good things.
Here’s another thing about the Eco Grass blend, the slow growing fescues establish even in light or low-nutrient soils and hold no attraction for lawn grubs, one of those being Japanese Beetle larva!
For further information check out Prairie Moon Nursery Eco-Grass.