A level area with a well-maintained lawn is certainly beautiful. But if space is limited, there's no point in buying a lawn mower—it's expensive. The lawn is mown with a lawn mower, which is only practical for larger areas. Ours is only 8 square meters.
I tried to sow the free space with a mixture of seeds from Fix Price “Paradise for butterflies”.
According to the manufacturer, this assorted lawn grasses and flowers attract these beautiful insects and are pleasing to the eye. But I failed to grow this masterpiece. Tall grass and nothing more... No flowers, much less attracted butterflies.
No, there was one flower. I tried to replant it separately, but it wilted and died.
For the sake of experimentation, I didn't completely destroy the grass. I left a patch to see what would grow next season. For now, I simply trimmed the plants back with regular garden shears.
The search for a way to fill the space continued. I want to install a swing in this area. My arborvitaes are also growing here, along the fence. To make them stand out, I plan to lay white stones around each one and plant sedum as a groundcover over them.
The rest of the plot, the free one, was planted with knotweed. I'm not very fond of this grass because of childhood memories. We were always pulling it up for the pigs and cows. And my husband really likes to walk barefoot on the knotweed carpet. So he digs it up and moves it to one spot.
To be fair, the lawn is looking pretty good. We're leaving it alone for now, letting it grow. We water it daily and fertilized it once with a complex fertilizer. Next year, when the grass becomes thick, we'll trim the tops. This will give it a well-groomed look and thicken it.
When my husband planted the first 10-15 roots, our neighbor, a grandmother of about 70, came. She looked at the plot and said:
— It’s nice here, but these weeds need to be pulled out.
"What are you talking about?" I say to her. "This is Andrey's domain. He plants knotweed specifically for this purpose."
"Does his kidneys really hurt? He's so young... Poor boy!" she groaned.
- What are you saying, it'll be a lawn. You can lie on it.
"Are you kidding me! Medicine has gotten so bad that you don't even have to brew or drink the herb, you just lie on it. Let him buy some corn silk too—that's good for the kidneys, too."
We laughed for a long time, especially when I explained to her that it was just a lawn, not a patch of medicinal herbs.
So the decision to have a small lawn came naturally. No expense spared. Perhaps we'll come up with something else later, but for now this option suits everyone.