Fleur deLawn vs. whatever it is the rest of my lawn is made of: a comparison.

This summer I leveled my back yard and seeded some Fleur de Lawn in an attempt to give my kids a place to play that doesn't have any cars driving through it. My goal is to have my front yard provide food and/or beauty while my backyard provides entertainment.

I figure as long as I still have grass in my front yard to compare it to, I might as well post results for people that still want lawns for whatever reason.

In the foreground is my monoculture grass that gets no attention from me other than an occasional mow. In the background is the Fleur de Lawn I seeded in August, and since September has gotten no attention from me other than an occasional mow. I haven't done much walking on the Fleur de Lawn, and probably won't until spring. There is quite a bit of observation to do before I declare this a victory over traditional grass, but early returns look good.

Edit::: If I remember I'll post updates in spring and summer.

Update: The traditional grass in these pics is undergoing an attempted kill. Future updates will be a comparison with my neighbors lawn.

Traditional grass in the foreground, FdL in the back.


Closer shot of FdL.

I pulled the protective fence a couple weeks ago and my kids have been playing on it since then. I mowed for the first time this season today. That bare patch is from poor seeding distribution caused by the fuchsia that was too attractive for my wife and the hummingbirds to trim back.



For comparison, here is my neighbors lawn. I don't know when he mowed or how his lawn got that patchy.



And another comparison, a patch of parking strip that I have done nothing to since last fall. It has not been mowed this season. The dirt in the foreground was where I had a basketball hoop set until a month or two ago.



I have a bunch of other monoculture areas of grass, but they have mostly been abused as I replace them with raised mounds, so they're not a fair comparison to what I'm doing in my back yard.

So far I am very happy with the results. Up close you can see all the 'weeds' and other things integral to the Fleur de Lawn mix, but from the street, or even my window, it looks like a mat of grass with excellent color. The real test will come as my kids continue to run on it and the inevitable summer drought starves it of water.