We’re okay with our lawn looking rough right now

We’re getting some heat about our lawn from the neighbors

New Jersey is also known in different parts of the world as the land of competitive lawn mowing. Start up your mower on the weekend and you’ll soon hear your neighbors’ mowers and weed eaters running. Soon after, the neighborhood will look new again.  Right now though, our lawn looks, well, like the house has been abandoned for the winter… and we’re fighting our inner New Jersey real bad.

But why let it go? It’s going to be so hard to get it back under control

There’s all sorts of stuff going on in the lawn right now: clover, dandelions, onion grass, and plenty of other random things the birds, squirrels, bunnies and chipmunks dropped. All these things have a purpose right now. The flowering weeds are feeding the first emerging pollinators, and boy do they need all the help they can get. Even though some species can be invasive, many “weeds” can help the soil and others are good to help out early pollinators after a cold winter. So read this before you start making your lawn beautiful.

Soil helpers

Tap-rooted weeds such as dock, burdock, mallows, and dandelion grow deep roots.  This helps increase airflow, aerating deeply, and also improving drainage. If you pull these weeds you will make room for water, air, and nutrients to get deeper into the soil.  Other weeds like clover accumulate nitrogen in sacks at their roots, which helps fertilize the ground around it.

Pollinators

As white butterflies, bumblebees, honeybees and pollen beetles emerge in early spring, they need every source of pollen they can get. Leaving clover and dandelions to flower helps bridge the gap between the late frosts and early flowering plants and shrubs in our gardens.

Mulch and compost

When you’re ready, instead of using herbicides or fertilizers to choke out those “evil weeds” consider pulling them. Okay, okay, we hear you, it’s a load of extra work, and whether you have a garden tool or just your ever capable hands, just the thought is enough to make some folks shudder. Read us out okay? When you’re done, you’ll have this nice bundle of FREE biomass for your compost or mulch pile.

Give ’em another week or so, okay?

Yeah, yeah your yard’s gonna look like a mess, but the time you’re not weeding now will give you extra time to spend turning over your flowerbeds, mulching and transplanting your leaf babies before the last frost