Is Eco-Lawn for Real?Inquiring Bloggers Want to Know

by Susan
Googling around the web for low-maintenance groundcovers I stumbled upon a product called Eco-Lawn, developed and produced by Wildflower Farm, a native plant nursery and "natural landscaping" company in Canada. Their site tells us that Eco-Lawn is:

Environmentally Friendly!
                               
Drought Tolerant!
                               
No fertilizers or chemicals required!
                               
Less vulnerable to grubs!
                               
Grows in full sun, part shade and even deep shade!
                               
Reduces mowing time or don't mow at all!
                               
Saves you time and money!
                               

If you've recovered from the excitement of all those exclamation points, shall we proceed to consider what's actually in the stuff?   Oh, let's.   It's comprised of the following seven fine fescue grasses and the approximate percentages:

Sheeps Fescue, 15%
Dawson Slender Red Fescue, 20%
SR5210 Creeping Red Fescue, 20%
SR 5100 Chewings Fescue, 15%
Jasper Creeping Red Fescue, 10%
Scaldis Hard Fescue, 10%
SR 3150 Hard Fescue, 10%

Now one of the FAQs on the site asks why local garden centers aren't selling the stuff, if it's so great.  Good question! The answer?

Since Eco-Lawn does not require any fertilizers or pesticides, which make up a large percent of a garden stores profits, they have been reluctant to carry Eco-Lawn.

Ooh, is how it works?  But why haven't the garden writers heard of it, or the Extension Services?  Or maybe they have and I've missed it.  When I asked Mitch Baker about Eco-Lawn he suggested these species would do best in shade where there isn't much traffic.  And he wonders how drought-tolerant are they.  Indeed their growth rate is slow enough to require infrequent mowing, though.

Turfgrass geeks may want to click "Continue reading" for a chart comparing this product with "traditional" turfgrass, and tell us your reaction.

Of course I immediately wrote to ask for some sample seeds - no shame for the gardenblogger.  Hey, I'm trialing here!  And the good people at Wildflower Farm sent me a 5-lb bag of Eco-Lawn seeds (retailing at $30), some of which are germinating as I type.  At least I hope so - full report coming later.

By Googling the term "eco-lawn" one also finds that academics sometimes use the term to denote a mixture of grasses, flowers and herbs that can function as lawn.  And guess what - in Australia it's the name of an artificial turf product.  But hey, our commenters have educated me as to the environmental benefits of the damn stuff, especially in arid places like Australia, so they're not getting any grief from this Ranter.

Photo of unmowed Eco-Lawn from Wildflower Farm.  Looks gorgeous to me; but is it achievable?

ECO-LAWN vs TRADITIONAL TURF
What's the difference?

	Eco-Lawn	vs.	Traditional Lawn
Root System	Grows to a 9" to 14" depth thus able to source water & nutrients naturally		Grows only to a 2" to 3" depth thus has a shallow root system
Fertilization Requirements	Zero		Mandatory
Grows well in Sandy Soil	Yes		No
Grows well in Clay Soil	Yes		No
Grows well in Rich Loam Soil	Yes		Yes
Grows in Full Sun	Yes		Yes
Grows in Part Shade	Yes		Depends on degree of shade
Grows in Deep Shade	Yes		No
Grows under Pine trees (acidic soils)	Yes		No
Watering Requirements	Minimal		1 inch per week
Blade Characteristics	Very fine, requires less water. Soft, easy to walk upon. Bends over under its own weight		Thick, rough blades require frequent watering, fertilizing & mowing
Weeds	Dense root system crowds out most weeds once mature		Requires chemical weed control
Mowing Requirements	usually only 3 - 5 times per year		weekly

In other words . . . Eco-Lawn, developed by Wildflower Farm thrives in sun or shade, sandy soil or concrete clay and even under pine trees. Unlike regular, shallow–rooted sod, this fine bladed lawn develops dramatically deep 9 to 14 – inch roots to successfully source water. Once established, a new or converted Eco-Lawn grows so slowly you can leave it to form a fine bladed, flowing carpet or mow it once a month for a traditional lawn look.

Comments

[Trey]

Damn, the secret is out! Yea, our garden center only carries lawn varieties that require lots of high profit fertilizers and pesticides. We do it on purpose so you’ll have to keep coming back again and again.

Turf type tall-fescue, which is by far the most popular lawn variety in Northern California, can send roots down many feet into the soil. It’s only the fine fescues, bluegrasses, and ryegrass that have shallow roots.

Drought resistant they say? Let’s try some here, where there is no rain for five months in summer. I do see however that they don’t recommend it for the southwest or most of California.

Finally, no grass variety requires chemical weed control! It’s up to the owner of said grass as to how they control weeds.

We have been selling fine fescues for years. People will plant them on hillsides or other places they don’t want to mow. It looks just like the pictures of the un-mowed eco-lawn.

This is marketing at work. Call it “Eco-Lawn” and it gets peoples attention.

[Reading Dirt]

For those who would prefer a mix of lawn plants instead of a fescue monoculture, Nichols Garden Nursery carries a variety of Ecology Lawn Mixes in their catalog:

http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/

[susan harris]

Interesting. Here's the mix that Nichols recommends for my area:http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/store/product.asp?dept%5Fid=80&pf%5Fid=1193&mscssid=UF0TK9PS05078LHS49JFJT9MUN1F8TRE
But it includes tall plants like yarrow and california poppy, and the shade annual Baby Blue Eyes mixed in with fescue and creeping thyme (which, btw, does thyme grow well from seed?) And they don't give Latin names or percentages. So I'm skeptical of this mix, too - isn't it a supposed "meadow in a bag"?

[Brice Maryman]

Out here in the great Northwest, Seattle University, which is completely organic in its landscape maintenance program, uses the Eco-turf varieties provided by Nichols to great success. From a distance, you can't tell the difference and up close it is a riot of diversity. One caveat/drawback, the product does take a bit more care and time to establish than a traditional lawn, but once established, all of those exclamation points actually hold up.

[Pattty King]

I tried Eco Lawn a couple of years ago on a couple of small areas with full sun and sandy soil. It grew, it prospered, it has a much finer blade than the original grass. It did not need mowing as often as the rest of the lawn either. Oh yes, it was even greener during the driest part of the summer! I would recommend it.

[The County Clerk]

Now this IS interesting. I'm glad I surfed over. I have a 50lb bag of Kentucky Blue in the truck. Maybe I'll just take that on back.

Thanks Susan.

Honestly, I'm not sure why I come to the Garden Rant (it may to do with the entertainment value of incindiary and provakative positions) but learning about stuff like this is CERTAINLY part of it.

I'm not sure if I'll do it. But maybe.

[The County Clerk]

Provocative (not provakative)

My spelling is terrible. Clearly, I've lost the ability to write without spell-check.

[Terry]

Fine leaf fescue "no mow" lawn mixes have been offered by Prairie Nursery, Westfield, Wisconsin for at leaqst fifteen years. You can also find a similar mix offered by SeedSuperStore.com, http://seedsuperstore.com

These mixes have been studied at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chanhassen, MN, since the late 1990's, http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/YGLNews/YGLN-Dec0100.html

And, there's an ongoing display of "no mow lawn mixes at the Master Gardener Education & Research Display Garden at the University of Minnesota Outreach, Research and Education (UMore) Park in Rosemount, MN (a southern suburb of the Twin Cities), http://www.mggarden.umn.edu/components/gardens/nomowturf.htm

Fine leaf fescue mixes have been used for many, many years as meadow roughs on "links"-type golf courses around the world where the climate is moderate - e.g., the northern part of the U.S. and southern Canada. Fine leaf fescues do not do well in the southern U.S.

Oh, one more thing, almost all of the cool season grass seed sold in the U.S. is grown in the rain shadow deserts of Oregon and Washington State where there's hardly a tree for miles. In other words, fine leaf fescues prefer full sun all day, every day, are moderately tolerant of shade, but will struggle mightily in dry shade under large shade and evergreen trees.

[Mary Ann Newcomer]

Local turf companies have a mix for our area called Sun Valley mix. It is a combo of the sheep, red and Idaho fescues......looks lovely once established (needs some water to get there). It needs full sun. Some folks mow a swath through it and leave the rest of it tall....like in some of the London parks. Naturalized bulbs look great in the taller part.

I have had this Sun Valley blend on a very steep hillside of mine AND on a typical mown lawn area for eight years. The part that is mown, watered every third day and used for light foot traffic has failed miserably. The steep hillside, which gets watered about once a week and really needs no additional water, is great.

I had my hillside hydroseeded (blown on in a sludge like mix) and added california poppy and gaillardia seed to the wet mess.

We never fertilize the hillside and weedwhack it every couple of years. My OCD-type husband will then rake it hard, to remove the old dead thatch. We have allowed sage, bitterbrush and rabbit brush to take hold

As I said, the hillside looks great, the turf type area is getting ripped out.

And for folks in the Western US, there are companies such as Granite Seed that can make custom mixes based on your geography. Just google them.

[susan harris]

To correct what I quote Mitch Baker as saying, I see from his website that fine fescues are shade-tolerant, not that they prefer shade. (Bad note-taking!)

[Paul Tukey]

The principles behind ecolawn seed mix have been out there for years. Neil Dibold in Wisconsin has been selling a "no-mow" mix forever. These seeds do offer many of the attributes that the ecolawn folks are selling, but . . .

1) These grasses are extremely slow growing

2) These grasses don't tolerate much foot traffic

3) They won't do their best in full, hot sun

Having said all that, I think the ecolawn and no-mow mixes ought to planted as widely as possible in the climates where they're applicable (primarily northern climates). These grasses are better for the environment, use less fertililzer and water and require less mowing. They're the kinds of grasses that were growing here when the first settlers arrived; since they don't rejuvenate fast enough to sustain cattle, the settlers when back to Europe and collected the seeds of what we now call Kentucky bluegrass. If you like mowing every five days in the spring, plant Kentucky blue and knock yourself out. But if you only want to mow a few times a year, ecolawn might be a good choice for you.

Paul Tukey, Founder, SafeLawns.org

[firefly]

Based on the experience I had with Wildflower Farm this spring, which is that I placed a $120 order for seedlings and wound up with a total of one survivor, I strongly caution against ordering plants from those people.

Most of the plants arrived dead, or they died a few days later. Roots were soggy and brown or invisible. They blamed UPS. I can't see how 2-day shipping can zap a dozen root systems that far.

Worst of all the nursery does not offer to replace plants. After they ship on May 15 they don't ship again until the next year.

Thanks to that experience, I wouldn't trust any claim Wildflower Farm made without checking it elsewhere. And I would think twice even about ordering seed from them.

Eco-lawn by all means, but try to find a *reputable* local nursery for the purchase.

[Jeff Ball]

Yo Susan,
The issue is not that such a grass type is available, which it has been of course. The issue is that it is very hard for an amateur to be successful planing any kind of grass seed, especially on bare soil. We screw it up a number of ways, but watering is our weak link. We don't water frequently enough. You want turf as thick as new sod, and lawns planted with seed usually have only half that density.

In most cases, anyone, like your brave self, will probably have to plant Eco Grass twice, once this fall and then overseed again in the spring. Otherwise, in the space left in the thin eco turf, weed seeds will germinate and there goes your organic dream.

The no mow grass I've worked with grew to an average height of four inches. It took no foot traffic.

You ranters are perfectly willing to spend inordinate hours and hours messing around in your flower beds and call that fun. If you want a really good looking lawn that is truly organic, you have to spend the same amount of relative time.

There really is no free lunch.

Jeff

[How To Start Your Lawn Care Business]

Not only should home owners be aware of this but how to start your own lawn care business courses should cover topics like this too. Thanks for the info and keep em' coming. ;)

Chris J.

[Spidra Webster]

I haven't tried "Eco-Lawn" but I've had Pacific Sod's "No-Mow" mix in my backyard for a year now and it looks great. Of course it needed water to get established and in the beginning the raccoons kept rolling the sod up to get grubs, but it DID get established. And it could hardly be more gorgeous. I get compliments on it all the time. The foot traffic was light in the winter, but once it got to be the season to garden again, I was walking back and forth on it at least a couple times a day. I recently had a birthday party in back and though I have a deck and deckchairs, many people went to sit in the grass because they thought it was so beautiful. And the lawn still looks good. Not picture perfect, but very good. I never mow it. Pacific Sod recommended one fertilizer treatment so I sprinkled organic lawn fertilizer on things. After a year, weeds are only now making occasional inroads, but it's still pretty densely lawn.

[rock man]

I put in ecolawn five years ago and lost the front yard this year, probably due to the unusual heat we had here in the Northeast. I brought in 15 cubic yards of topsoil and planted evergreen shrubs and various perrenial bushes and am now considering what I should fill it in with. Whatever I plant has to be as low-growing as possible, since I have all species of rodents. They can't be able to hide from the hawks!
Any suggestions?

[Xenamom]

I planted ecolawn seed about 4 weeks ago. It is coming up (although sparsely) and is about 3 inches long. I was surprised at how fragile it appears. I have a female golden retriever who will (when the chicken wire fence comes down) be using it as her "area". How well does this type of lawn hold up to pet waste?

[Bruce Richardson]

I planted a rather large eco-lawn 50' wide by 200' long about three years ago in the high California desert mountain area of Lake Isabella. It looks good now, but there are a few problems. It does chock out a lot of weeds, but not all of course. It is not drought resistant to my climate, I water the shit out of it. Almost two hours every morning this time of year seems to keep it looking good, but that's only if it doesn't get really hot, say 105 degrees for a week straight. But that's not what's really bugging me. The big problem is rabbits. They love this grass. The fine blades make for very good eating. I know what you are thinking, a bunch of cute bunnies all over my lawn, how lucky can I get. Well, it turns out that eco-lawn is highly susceptible to cottontail rabbit urine. Everywhere they sit themselves down to eat, the grass dies. Brown spots everywhere, and they stay brown for a long time. The grass dies right down to its roots, then the weeds grow in. However, there was one bright spot last year when a bobcat move in because of all the easy pickin's. He or she was very good at eating dumb bunnies with their heads down eating my lawn. It was like divine intervention, you know like what happen in Salt Lake with grass hoppers and sea gulls. Anyway, things were looking up, the bobcat stuffed itself, my lawn was on the mend. And then of course it happened, one of my dumb neighbors, even dumber then the bunnies, shot and killed the bobcat. The bunnies are back wracking my beautiful lawn again. Can anybody suggest anything. No I can not shoot the rabbits there are to many of them, and you know they multiply very fast. No, I can not fence them out, it's a longer story then the one I just told. Nope, can't poison them either. Someone please save me from the bunnies before I go insane.

[Tom Broadbent]

I have found EcoLawn to be fragile and tricky to grow in the Northeast, but I think it's my fault.

I have a nearly 3 acre lawn and thought not mowing it (much) would be G-d's gift!

I planted EcoLawn in September last year, and the landscaper claimed it didn't need to be hayed-- cold snap came, seeds never germinated.

Fired landscaper.

Re-seeded and hayed this past April/May, seeds germinated nicely, but our fertilizer guy, who claimed to know all about Eco Lawn and its fescue mix, put some "mild" broad-leaf weed killer on the Eco Lawn way before it reached the 3" they reco on web site-- lawn died and crabgrass sprouted everywhere within days while I was away.

I have hand-weeded areas close to the house to remove crabgrass, and am planting a mix of 80% EcoLawn with an annual grass mix to help crowd out the crabgrass while the EcoLawn tries to get established, and it is growing, though very slowly.

In the fall, I will need to figure out what to do with the rest of the lawn covered with crabgrass-- the EcoLawn is so darn fragile I am worried about pre-emergent spray next spring, and am unsure I have enough time this fall between the die-off of the crab grass and winter to get a new batch of EcoLawn to grow (web site says it's fine).

I have called and left a message with Wildflower Farms hoping to get their thoughts on what to do this fall and if they say anything helpful I will post.