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Warren Schultz is one of the nation's foremost experts on natural lawn care. He is the author of The Chemical-Free Lawn as well as nine other books. Schultz, who lectures frequently about lawn and garden topics, has received several awards from the Garden Writers Association of America."I believe a blade of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars."br--Walt Whitman,iLeaves of Grass/ibrbrAs I wrangle the power mower across the lawn on a Saturday morning, I can almost hear, above the roar of the engine, a small voice calling out plaintively: "How can you say you love me when you don't even know me?"brbrNo, it's not someone complaining from inside the house. It's not an argument overheard from next door. It's the voice of the lawn itself. And I have to admit, it has a strong basis for complaint.brbrI know every inch of my property. I know where the buried ledge sticks up through the soil and chips the mower blade if I'm not careful. I know where the backyard stays boggy well into June. I have notes (somewhere) about the shrubs planted along the property line, including variety names and when they were planted and pruned. I study nursery catalogs and memorize tongue-twisting botanic names. I do my homework and know the best plants for the sun and shade and which will survive our frigid winters. But the grass under my feet--that's a different story. It remains a cipher. Even though I spend more time tending to my grass than I do to any other plant, I can only guess at the species of the grass in my lawn--or even how many different types there might be there.brbrBut there's one thing that I do know: Each grass plant is a marvel. Any single grass plant in my lawn may be ten, twenty, as much as fifty years old. There may be as many as eight to ten individual grass plants per square inch of turf, or 8 million in an average lawn. And what we see is only a small part of the plant. A little grass plant can produce more than th | |||
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