Leaving a lawn alone will allow it to flourish

SIR – Jonathan Margolis suggests that lawns use a huge amount of pesticide and water, and prevent wildlife from flourishing (“Is the great British lawn about to be cancelled?”, Features, May 21). It doesn’t have to be like that. We have a large lawn and I put its good health down to the things I don’t do. I don’t water, which over time encourages the strong, drought-resistant grass to take over. I don’t fertilise and I don’t pick up the grass and weed clippings, which then act as fertiliser. I don’t use pesticides and our lawn is always heavily populated with birds foraging for an easy meal (unlike the ragwort-infested meadow in the next field).

I don’t cut the grass very short, which means I get fit having to dig out the bigger persistent weeds.

Our lawn is calming to the soul and I’m told absorbs vast amounts carbon and emits life-giving oxygen. GC Brown

Cookham, Berkshire

Daubigny’s Garden by Vincent van Gogh, finished in 1890, about 10 days before he died