Grass between rows

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

Someone once told me it is horrible to have grass between rows because it sucks up nutrients.  Wondering what other folk think.  Works great for me.  Between the rows is slanted to route water away from the rows.  Grass helps with erosion.  Also,it helps with weed control.  The space between rows is about right for a walk behind lawn mower.  I leave the bag attachment off and it blows the grass up onto the rows where it acts like mulch.

Seems to me, any nutrients is taken from between the rows where I do not much care and deposited on the rows where I care.

This year, likely going to run the tiller between rows to more level the ground.  Last year, flipped rows with shovel and left some holes in between the rows.  Trying to get rid of trip hazards.  Thing is, hay field on two sides are always grown to seed, so it will reseed on its own with a wee bit of wind and will have grass between rows again by fall.

Opinions?
 
It really depends on the type of grass and how wide you allot for planting rows vs grass rows. If you have 18-20 inch planting rows I wouldn't see a problem besides the grass invading the planting space.

Grass tends to leech a heavy amount of nitrogen so as long as that is accounted for I don't see an issue.

It just adds a variable for you to control.
 
With how hot and dry you guys can get in mid summer, I think the grass would help keep the moisture in the soil.
 
I would say keep it mowed though to reduce the chiggers and ticks :)
 
Why not plant something like White Clover that's a nitrogen fixer and pollinator friendly. Also walkable and mowabld.
 
jblo said:
Why not plant something like White Clover that's a nitrogen fixer and pollinator friendly. Also walkable and mowabld.
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I want to do that myself, at some point, to attract bees.
 
Depends on the area. In some, the grass will promote more insects, most of which are not friends of your plants. If the grass looks healthy it is not excessively depleting the soil... soil depleted of nutrients that grass absorbs, would result in bad looking grass, but yes with all else equal, the more you have growing in an area the more nutrients - be they synthetic or organic, the area needs.

For me it would be more of a challenge to keep weeds out. Fewer would set, but I wouldn't be able to take a lawn spreader and put down lawn fertilizer with weed killer in it next to rows of peppers as it'd kill them. I'd be paranoid about manually spraying a liquid too.

Blown cut grass can be a problem in the damp spring months and cooler days of fall (dew) as it is likely to land on the plants and promote fungus.
 
Myxlplyk said:
 
Only problem with crimson is it's an annual. I like it so much, tho, I'm planting some as well.
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It says annual but I am in zone 7 and mine is coming back. :) Perhaps I am lucky but I had a bunch mixed in with wild flowers and it has started growing already. 
 
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