by Cindy Burch

Created on: June 17, 2008

As a mother of six now adult children, I have dealt with stains that you would not believe! Luckily for you, this is only about grass stains because otherwise I could really tell you some stories. Since all of the kids so cheerfully took turns mowing the lawns and weeding, grass stains were right up there as one of my most common laundry problems. I confess I too have knelt with my unprotected jeans in the grass to pull those exact same weeds. I would actually hum my variation of Crystal Gayle's "Don't It Make Your Brown Eyes Blue?" "Won't This Make My Blue Jeans Green?" Well, it made the weeding seem to go faster and it kept those nosy neighbors away.

I read about soaking grass stains in milk and thought it just sounded ridiculous. It actually works!* As with any stain, the sooner you deal with it, the better. If the garment has already gone through the dryer - well, you might consider dyeing it green... If the jeans have not yet been washed since the staining, soak the stained area (It's too expensive and unnecessary to soak the whole pair of jeans.) in a small bowl of milk. Now while they're soaking, I know you're going to be thinking about stretching your grocery dollar even more. However, I do not recommend using the green milk for Saint Patrick's Day. Go and tell the kid who was cutting the grass to: 1.)quit stalling and 2.)to put their GREEN pants on and finish the lawn and 3.) no they can't have any milk - we're out! You can speed things up by brushing the milk-soaked stain with the milk and an old toothbrush - or use one of the kid's toothbrushes if they've been behaving badly. They'll just blame each other and never suspect it was you.

*(Scientific dazzlement: it's the enzymes.)

I am sure there are a lot of fancy name brand commercial products that will remove the grass stains. Most of us don't have them on hand or we're pressed for time and aren't willing (gas prices) or able to run to the store. They're also pricey. It's easy to justify throwing those jeans in the wash and crossing your fingers and when they come out stained, calling them yet another pair of work pants. But milk is something you probably have handy and it's a real "green" solution (I couldn't resist.) so give it a try.

If this doesn't work, (but it should) have the stainer put the jeans back on and roll around in the same grass until they are of uniform color. Just watch - this could be the newest trend!

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