Maggie's Farm

I have posted often about grass lawns in the past.

Meadows are far better than lawns, but pretty lawns are a suburban real estate necessity. They are completely artificial. They rely on irrigation, fertilizer, weed and bug chemicals. etc. Like hydroponic gardening.

I happen to feel that lawns are perfect parts of English-style gardens.  Lawn is one part of an appealing garden.

How can one minimize the artifice and fragility of the unnatural thing which is a mowed lawn (especially in the northern half of the US)? 

- Irrigation. It fools the grasses into thinking it's Spring.

- Topdressing. It's what woodland grasses get naturally from fallen leaves and detritus.

- Aeration. It's what grasses get naturally from worms, moles, and digging animals.