I’ve planted two small no-mow lawns this fall. One I planted for a Connecticut neighbor who had removed several overgrown Norway spruces and had been left with 1,600 square feet of bare earth as a result. The other lawn occupies an area around my Berkshire cottage that had previously been left to weeds. To keep the weeds in check, I mowed them once a month or so with a brush cutter, and I was anxious to end this activity.

It’s common to think of spring as planting season for all sorts of seed, but in fact early fall is a better time of year to plant cool-season grasses such as fine fescues. The cool, moist weather of this season favors the germination of the grass seed and the growth of the seedlings. Fall-planted lawns also require less irrigation. For the first month after sowing the seed in late September, I had to water whenever the surface soil dried out, but now the seedlings are getting all the moisture they need from natural rainfall. Spring-planted lawns are still rooting in when summer arrives with hot, droughty weather, so they must be watered regularly the first season if they are to survive. A fall-planted lawn has had several more months to send down roots and can be left to fend for itself by the arrival of its first summer.

I used the no-mow lawn seed mixture from Prairie Nursery, and so far I’m pleased with the results: germination and initial growth has been vigorous. Like any gardener, however, I can’t resist experimenting with recipes for my own seed mix—I’ll write more about that in my next post.