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Published in Jacksonville's Times Union 01/06/08.  Also, here is a related podcast.

Cutting Edges
by Ginny Stibolt

It's winter and most of the leaves have dropped from the deciduous trees. This is just one of a number of reasons why it's the time of year when I make my annual tour around the edges of our mowed areas.  Here are some other reasons:
1) The leaves need to be removed from the grass so it's not smothered and those leaves also provide an excellent mulching along the edges.
2) We haven't mowed the yard since October and now is the perfect time to pull those pesky tall weeds such as the Asiatic hawksbeard (Youngia japonica).  You've probably seen it--it looks kinda like a dandelion, but the stalks are longer, a few small yellow flowers are grouped at the top of each stalk, and it doesn't have much of a taproot.  It's an annual and the more of them I get out now, the fewer I'll have (ha, ha!) in the future.
3) This time of year is perfect weather for working in the yard.
4) The grass, weeds, and leftover leaves from this project produce just the right mixture for starting a new compost pile.  Here's a link to a related podcast on fallen leaves and another one on cutting edges.

Managing the Edges

Here's my cutting edge strategy.  I remove grass runners from the wooded and mulched areas using a shovel or claw and bend back as many runners as I can toward the lawn.  Murphy's Law of lawn care is that grass may not do well in an area, but when you remove it and install a mulched bed instead, the grass will try to repopulate the very same area that it hated before.  Cutting the runners will stimulate sprouting, but folding them back and weaving them into the lawn does not. After removing the wayward grass, I tamp down the exposed soil by walking on it and then I rake a thick layer leaves over the soil.  I again walk along this area to compress the leaves and to keep most of them from blowing away.  

I do this annually, so the plants in the wooded and mulched areas are usually larger than the previous year and hang over the edge of the grass.  I remove another six inches to a foot of grass on each trip around the yard.  If I keep this up, pretty soon the lawnmower will have a lot less to do!

We've reduced the care needed for the lawn by replacing difficult-to-mow sharp corners with gentle curves that our riding lawnmower can easily negotiate.  Broad, gentle undulations in the borders of the lawn provide interest in the overall landscape, but too many tight turns are more difficult to mow, and may make the garden area look too chaotic.  While we haven't installed the plastic edging along most of my lawn edges, doing so would probably reduce the maintenance even more.

One of the objectives of a more sustainable lawn is to reduce the use of string trimmers and leaf blowers.  One of my friends asked why I just didn't use a leaf blower instead of hand raking.  My answer was that I was reducing the lawn, getting more exercise, pulling weeds, removing all the leaves and other stuff from the turf grass (that the leaf blower would leave behind), plus it's sooo much quieter than the 90-decibel racket produced by leaf-blowers.  And then there's the little thing about the high amount of air pollution. Some two-stroke engine leaf blowers can emit as much as 25 percent raw unburned gasoline in their exhaust.  The Los Angeles chapter of the American Lung Association has produced research to illustrate how leaf blowers generate as much pollution in one hour as a car driven for 100 miles.  In many Californian cities, there are exchange programs for leaf blowers with engines that don't pollute so much, but there will still be all the noise.

For more information on how these high polluting engines work, see this article: www.essortment.com/hobbies/howtwostrokee_sbch.htm.  
For more information on other detrimental effects of leaf blowers, see this article: www.cleanhouston.org/comments/archives/leaf_blowers.htm 

Re-mulching Paths

As part of our annual meadow management, I clear the vegetation from the pathways.  I dig out the runners and remove the brambles near the path so it's comfortable to walk or run a wheelbarrow.  As I chop down or pull up tall plants such as pine trees, dogfennel (Eupatorium capillifolium), goldenrod (Solidago spp), and grasses, I lay their stalks along the paths.  Then I apply a generous layer of dead leaves on top of the long stalks and stomp the leaves to break them into smaller pieces.  Later I'll gather pine needles from the gutters and streets in our neighborhood.  Pine needles on top of the leaf layer will make an attractive pathway mulch and will last the whole year until next fall when Mother Nature will again provide the perfect weather for working and an abundance of mulching materials.

Thinning Out the Ferns from our Downspout Rain Garden

When I planted this rain garden a couple of years ago, I dug a small drywell under the area and planted some blue eyed grass, rain lilies, and two types of ferns--ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron) and netted chain ferns (Woodwardia aerolata).  There are more details on this project in my article on ferns and this one on rain gardens.

Well, the spleenworts have really been successful and I have plans to enlarge this rain garden later in the spring, so I pulled most of the spleenworts from the rain garden.  Now I'll be able to see what else is still growing there this spring.  I plan to remove a significant amount of lawn from this area.  It hasn't done all that well and it would be a perfect place for a woodland path from the front porch over to the pond.  More on this project in the next few months.

An added reason for thinning our ferns was a Christmas visit with my daughter and her husband in Lake Worth down in south Florida where they are redoing their yard for more ease of care.  My daughter and I planted these ferns all along the narrow area on the side of the house.  We dug out shallow wide holes and placed 5 or 7 ferns around the edges of the holes and filled the centers with loosened soil.  We built berms around each fern circle so water collects in the holes, then we mulched the whole area with sustainable eucalyptus mulch.  We watered after planting, again later in the day, and each of the next two days. They promised that they'd keep them watered for the next few weeks.  They have an incentive for the ferns to grow well--their house will be on a house tour in March.

Whether your home is on a house tour or not, I recommend more ferns, less turf grass, and clean edges for ease of care as part of your greener 2008!  Happy Green New Year!

~ ~ ~

Ginny Stibolt is a naturalist and a gardener with a master's degree in plant taxonomy. She's in the process of writing a book—"Sustainable Gardening for Florida" to be published by University Press of Florida. She’d like to hear from readers who have suggestions and questions. After all, there are more than a few transplanted gardeners here in northeast Florida trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t in planting zone 8/9. You may contact her or read more of her articles posted on her website: www.transplantedgardener.com.

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