Side Yard Seeding

The weather has finally turned cold and damp, bringing winter a bit late, but it won't last long. The leaves are coming out on the trees, the spring bulbs are blooming, the garlic is five inches tall, and the other day I counted 35 robins standing around in the park like they were schmoozing at a sales convention. So I think it will soon be warm enough to seed the side yard at the church.

We have plans for a garden there, eventually, but until we can do that project, we need to do something about the field of mud left behind by the septic installation. If I put it to grass, it will need mowing. I thought about investing in the expensive low-mow/no-mow varieties of grass, but it seems silly to do that if I'm going to be ripping it out again in a year or two to do the garden. I've thought about planting the whole thing in saffron crocus or strawberries to get a cash crop out of it, but there are so many dogs running loose in the area that it wouldn't succeed. I considered a field of wildflowers, but I think the roots would be too deep and interfere with the septic system. I think we've landed on seeding it with white clover for now, which has to be mown less frequently than grass and will build up the soil with nitrogen. I can chop-and-drop whatever is left for compost after the garden goes in (and yes, the garden will have a fence to keep the dogs out). 

When I harvest my broccoli and cauliflower from the garden in the city, I know chickens would love those leaves, and so I feel the need to one day get chickens. Verlyn Klinkenborg, in his book The Rural Life, writes that the idea that cattle would eat his tree seed pods will haunt him until he gets cattle. Similarly, I know if I have clover, I'm going to end up with a beehive or two...