It's important we do not disturb the wonderful original state of the field. Most of the field in it's natural state has wonderful grasses and flowers, but it needs good footwear to walk on. To be livable the house needed to have some sort of lawn. Something to walk and play on in bare feet. In summertime we live outside.
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| December 2009. Rubble. |
Green lawns are not considered correct in some places because of the water use. Here, in this dry landscape we have huge rivers running through. With very small demand on their use and very low populations. While there is increasing agricultural demand in our area it will be managed well I believe.
Timing was important to establish a lawn in the rubble. It had to be done following the heat and dryness of February and before the winter. We hired a guy with vast expertise who leveled the ground with his tractor and leveling bar. Next came about 40 cubic meters of topsoil. Again carefully spread.
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| April 2010 |
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| April 2010 |
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| April 2009 |
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1st May 2010 Two weeks later it had thickened up nicely.  15th May 2010 Two months after that it had stopped growing for the winter. But yellow. It's OK I think.  23rd July 2010 Then we were waiting to see what happens in the springtime. The orange seems to be going and the lawn is getting greener. Looking a bit better.
Then in the middle of October the lawn man came back. He fertilised what was there and said "three weeks" Three weeks later he was exactly correct.  Notice the contrast of the green house lawn and the natural grasses and flowers of the field.   So on the 7th of November (springtime here in the southern hemisphere remember) there was green grass everywhere and the inevitable lawn mowing. When you get to read this we will be enjoying our summer out here. End. |
You'd better get a ride-on mower. It looks lovely btw.
ReplyDeleteI yearn for the smell of new mown grass right now. Some hard frosts to come before things get moving again over here. Greened up lovely by the way!
ReplyDeleteThe lawn man did a pretty good job. It looks great!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment on my blog about the efforts to create a more sustainable lawn in a Paris park, which essentially uses this approach - allowing some grass to stay long with other plants seeding and spreading, while keeping some lawn short and more usable. Of course, Paris is a rather more degraded landscape than your field of gold, so much of what pops up is not native grasses and flowers...
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