BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine

Your lawn – the long and short of it

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So what exactly is a lawn? In essence a garden lawn is an area of close-cropped grass, valued for its aesthetic appeal but also as a surface on which games can be played – from croquet to non-league football – and on which you can arrange your garden recliner to bask in the sun or cosy-up in the shade of a tree. Its purpose is to give you pleasure and to show off the beds and borders, shrubs and trees that surround it.

There have been suggestion­s, of late, that close-cropped, striped lawns are not environmen­tally friendly. I would dispute that. Compared with block paving and gravel, lawns are enormously beneficial to wildlife, to the environmen­t in general and to gardens in particular. Don’t feel guilty if you enjoy your stripes – I certainly enjoy mine, and no one has told the blackbird and the robin, the starling and the thrush, who peck at its surface for worms and grubs, that they would be better off in the long grass. I have plenty of that too and it’s all too obvious which surface they prefer.

It seems to me that the best gardens achieve a balance. By all means have some longer grass around the edges of your close-cropped lawn and under fruit trees – perhaps planted with wildflower­s and spring bulbs – but appreciate, too, the calming effect of a close-mown lawn, whose even surface and soft texture do much to soothe the fevered temper.

It is true that a close-mown lawn demands regular attention. Between April and September it will need cutting once a week and the clippings taken off and added to the compost heap. The edges will need regular trimming. This takes time. But so too does sitting on a riverbank when you go fishing. It may say a lot about me as a person, but I do actually enjoy mowing my lawn. It allows my mind to wander, and at the end of the operation I have a crisply mown lawn, a well-exercised body and the ability to look forward to doing it all over again in a week’s time! Gazing on the lawn immediatel­y after mowing, taking in that unique aroma, gives me an inordinate amount of pleasure and in so doing contribute­s to my mental health.

Looking after your lawn

It is worth saying here that the time-honoured ‘lawn maintenanc­e programme’ of weeding, moss-killing, feeding, scarifying and aerating is very much reduced on my own lawn. I use no weedkiller­s, I apply organic fertiliser in the form of blood, fish and bonemeal in March and again in June, and only occasional­ly rake out the moss. My green sward is comprised of a botanic garden that is mainly grass, but with other species in and among it that contribute to its velvety appearance. I remove individual rosette-forming weeds, such as dandelions and plantains, by hand with an old-fashioned tool called a daisy-grubber.

And that really is all I do. Watering? Not at all. Of course newly created lawns, whether seeded or turfed, do require watering in dry spells, until the grass is well rooted. But an establishe­d lawn, while it may turn brown in prolonged dry spells, will always be the first thing to recover come the rains. So save your water for other plants, and save your money and energy too.

 ?? ?? Mowing and edging your lawn can be a relaxing process leading to a satisfying­ly smart result
Mowing and edging your lawn can be a relaxing process leading to a satisfying­ly smart result

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