The bare facts

... about the lawn, that is.

Some of you have been concerned.

And rightfully so.

*sigh*

It's sure not pretty.

I sincerely doubt that it will be okay after some decent rain.

I'm afraid there is going to have to be a lot of reseeding.

It's been so hot and dry that, as you can see, there aren't even any weeds to speak of.

I've found a few bits of crab grass, but only in the flower beds.

No dandelions, no thistle, no henbit.  If there is any clover, it's gone back to roots.

Some places, like in the last pic, it's just bare dirt.

We'll just have to wait and see when the rains come back.

As for the grass clippings, there really weren't many, but I've used them all.

While I've had concerns that using mulch would prevent rain from reaching roots, I don't think it really matters in these applications.

The asters in the first pic are so drought tolerant they are amazing. (Deer tolerant? Not so much...) So today I pulled up the henbit that was under it and applied clippings instead.  Better to have the clippings shading the roots than the henbit sucking moisture from them.

In other places I've just put the clipping on parts of beds that have no plants this year (either the deer ate the plants, the early March sprouts were subsequently frozen to death in April, or moles so demolished the root system that things just up and died).

In the last pic (one section of privacy fence bed), is kept mulched because even hand watering does very little for these poor annuals.  The crabapple is taking whatever moisture is available out to the drip line.  So keeping these subrotundas, zinnias and marigold mulched is the only hope for them.

But, truly, at this point it doesn't matter.

It just doesn't.

Eventually the clippings will break down and, hopefully, add tilth to NEXT year's gardens.

That's the plan, anyway.