For those of us in North America, the days are getting shorter, and the trees are losing their leaves. (Though, it seems, much later than last year.) Today in Austin was the first really cool day in a while–50s and rain. It’s nice to get a break from the heat, though it hasn’t been a super-hot summer (I don’t think it went over 100 this season).

Ah, fall. A lot of people love fall. I hate fall. I think it sucks. It’s always meant less sunlight, going back to school, allergies, burning leaves (not good for a kid with asthma), and less green. Walking in the crisp air, my aching ass. You fall lovers can keep your annual reminder of death to yourselves. I’ll take the eternal green of Puerto Rico any day.

To help combat the lack of green, you can have house plants, or sun rooms, or whatever. The problem is that most house plants don’t give you that summer-green look. And, being in a tiny apartment, we don’t have room for much in the way of plants.

So, what gives that summer feeling? Well, grass, of course! So, we’ve started growing little containers of turf in our apartment. As strange as it sounds, it really is super easy to do, and give you the most wonderful color of green in your home.

You need is a little container. We use old plastic containers from “fancy” ramen packages–old plastic microwave dinner containers work fine, too. They are about 5 x 7 and about an inch or two high. The perfect size to put on a windowsill, on a desk, on a nightstand, whatever. 

Next up, the soil and the seed. (Remember: As my sister taught me, dirt is what you clean up, soil is what you plant in. Thank you FFA!) We got a small (8 quart) bag of Miracle Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix. This is about the smallest bag we can find and will fill up about 25 of those containers, if you want to go crazy. It comes in a resealable bag and is not messy to work with (since it’s mostly peat moss).

For the seed, we got the smallest bag we could find. A one pound bag of “Bare Spot Repair” from Pennington Seed. The spot repair stuff is great because (a) you get a small quantity–though there’s enough seed for 100 square feet of containers, (b) it’s designed to germinate quickly, and (c) it has magical chemical coatings which prevent fungus.

Planting is super easy. Put in some soil, sprinkle a good quantity of seed, cover with a bit more soil, “rake” it in with your fingers, and you’re set. Give nice spray of water every day. Within a week you should see it sprouting. We had 3-4 inches of grass after only 2-3 weeks!

See Turf Fullsize

The best part is that, if/when it dies, who cares! It’s grass! Just “till” the soil and sprinkle in some more seed.

We’ve yet to see how it looks over the winter. So far, even with this fall light, it’s very green and growing like a weed. (It will soon need a haircut with some scissors–or maybe I can make a tiny lawnmover that a hamster can push. Or a tiny, genetically engineered, goat.) I’ll keep you posted.