Have we been brainwashed into keeping a monoculture of high maintenance grass plants across a huge area of our garden, asks Jean Vernon?
I’ll let you into a little secret. I don’t have a lawn. That’s rather ironic, as for many years I tested lawnmowers for The Daily Telegraph. That was possibly one of the catalysts for my decision to replace my lawn completely. Don’t be fooled, I didn’t replace the lawn myself, but I was actively overseeing its removal and rejoiced when we didn’t have a lawn to cut anymore. I still smile when I hear my neighbours revving their mowers as soon as the warmth of spring spurts the grass into growth, not only have we saved hours and hours of mowing time, but we don’t need to find room in the compost heap for bagful’s of cut grass. We don’t need to aerate the area. We don’t need to worry about moss taking over (not that I ever did – I like moss), we don’t have to maintain a lawnmower and we don’t need a shedload of chemicals to keep the lawn looking like a bowling green. Don’t get me wrong, we never did apply anything to the lawn anyway, but knowing we will never need to ever again has been a real balm to my calm.
You might think, aha she has replaced it with an artificial plastic lawn. No, no and no. I abhor artificial lawns. I used to think that they might be OK in a very small garden, but I hadn’t factored in the microplastics. There is no place in any garden, large or small for fake grass. Artificial lawns are impossible to keep clean, think barkers eggs (doggie do do’s), bird droppings and worse. You can’t effectively clean them, and if you try you need shed loads of chemicals. Plastic grass gets ridiculously hot in the summer and will burn bare feet and paws. And they break down into tiny pieces of plastic that will forever be part of the soil beneath. They are not low maintenance; they actually need hoovering and cleaning and they are ridiculously expensive.
Lawn replacements
Most of my old lawn, front and back has been transformed into huge growing beds. Some supporting immature trees, others planted densely with flowering shrubs and all delineated by wide gravel paths that are now softened by the wildlings, the self-seeded plants that grow there now. And it’s all lovely. A great alternative to the monoculture that is grass and much better for my friends the birds and the bees.
For the butterflies and moths that need larval food there is plenty of grass next door on both sides and indeed growing in the hundreds of acres of nature reserve behind my house. I really don’t miss not having a lawn and I rejoice in the savings of time, money and maintenance that this brings. But more importantly I rejoice in the benefits to the wildlife and the environment.
Easy experiment
It’s easy to experiment with how you change your lawn. You might need a play area for children that use your garden, and that I think is the only reason to retain the green green grass of home. The rest of the lawn you can allow to grow taller, or even just part of the lawn. The grass plants will flower and become baby food (think caterpillars) for many butterflies and moths. The seed bank within your lawn will sprout into wildflowers, daisies, clover, self-heal, if you are lucky orchids, cowslips and so much more. You also can add plug plants of yellow rattle and red bartsia both semi-parasitic on your grass plants, weakening them so that wildflowers can thrive and start take over. Plant other wildflowers as plug plants and your lawn will start to look like a romantic meadow of flowers. Now you’ve got flower food for adult pollinators that use the sugar rich nectar to sustain their activity, it looks better and it will attract all manner of mini-beasts and wildlife. Plus, the flower seeds will feed the seed eating birds. When you cut the meadow in late autumn allow the cuttings to stay in place so that any seeds can drop down and restock the meadow with more wildflowers next season. Rake up the stems and stack it up somewhere to break down.
You could mow paths through your new wildflower meadow to allow easy access and play areas for pets and little ones.
Gravel garden
If a mini-meadow doesn’t suit then consider a gravel area. Gravel is a lovely foil for all sorts of plants, especially carpet thyme and other herbs. The warmth of the gravel in summer makes it a great choice for plants that hail from hotter climes, holding the warmth like mini radiators. You can position pots on the gravel or sink them into the gravel where the plants will eventually root through and stabilise the pots.
Choose plants that like hotter climes and are better adapted to drought like succulents and hairy leaved plants. Add things that self-seed will keep the area populated with more plants. Add plants that have aromatic foliage, like carpet thymes, that will emit their fragrant oils in hot weather or when you brush past. You can add stepping stones to protect the plants as they establish.
Paving
You could pave it over, but that will affect the drainage and run off. If you want to extend your parking area, consider leaving generous gaps in the paving for plants to grow or remove slabs from the area and plant these up with cushion forming and carpet growing plants that will look nice but will tolerate a little foot traffic. Many plants like sedums and sempervivums can be used to infill around paving stones. These will spread, they are evergreen and they will even flower.
Trial area
If you still aren’t convinced, try a small area and see what happens. Or make your flower beds bigger by cutting away more of the lawn and planting it up. You can gradually replace the lawn in this way and it’s a sneaky way to increase the flower beds at the expense of the lawn.