Lawn

A lot of gardens have lawns, and it's worth thinking if you want one, rather than automatically assuming that you do. Lawns require a certain amount of maintenance, and of course they take up space. But a lawn gives you a flat piece of garden to contrast with the flower beds, and it is greenery, rather than paving or decking. It manages to smoother a certain amount of weeds (although not all!) You can sit on it, and it is a soft surface, more pleasant for children can play on.

We have a small lawn, about 3 yards (metres) square. There are two ways to make a new lawn, turf and seed, and we got turf.

You can feed a lawn, although we don't bother. There are special weed killers which kill dicotyledon plants (plants with two leaves when they germinate). Grass is a monocotyldon, so isn't killed by this, but lawn weeds will be, so it's sometimes combined with a lawn feed. However, we don't use any type of weed killer or lawn feeder.

The main maintenance of lawns is cutting. Lawns grow most in the spring and autumn, are dormant in the winter, and sulk during the hot summer. Basically, if the grass is long, then cut it! We have a hover mower, because hovercraft were invented in our childhood, and we're fascinated by them! But they are good for a small lawn. They are electric, so you have to be very careful not to cut through the cable. There is a circuit breaker device that you plug into the socket, then plug the mower into that. It's a bit fiddly to test and use, but worth it to prevent electrocuting yourself! We put lawn cuttings on the compost heap. Lawns tend to grow outwards into the flower bed, so it's worth reshaping the lawn from time to time with a spade.

Lawns also die back from the edge as well. You can buy patching lawn seed, in a small box, to reseed bare patches. It takes time to regrow (and may need watering) but it's cheaper than getting a whole new lawn.

In summer, particularly if it's hot and dry, the lawn will go brown and bits may be bare. Usually, in the wet weather, the grass will grow back. The hottest ever temperature in the UK was in Cambridge, recently - we're very proud of that! But the local lawns survived that. If bare patches develop and don't grow back after a few months, then reseed that part.

Grass grows from the root, unlike most plants, which is why cutting the grass works. Most plants are cut off and so die, or are at least discouraged, but the grass carries on growing. Lawn weeds survive by lying under the cutting blades, so they avoid being ccut. Dandelions are good at this. You may think that some plants look attractive in a lawn, but I find that dandelions spread sideways, and suddenly you have a patch with no grass at all. So they have to be dug up.

Crocuses and other bulbs are a more conventional plant to grow is in lawn. However, you can't mow when the flowers are there, obviously, and it is best not to mow until the bulb leaves have died down, since they provide the bulb with energy for next year. That means that bulbs in a lawn mean patches of unmowed lawn for some time! So we keep our bulbs for the flower beds.

Lawn in winter

Lawn before cutting, in spring

Lawn after cutting

Weeds in lawns

Dandelion

Clover

Plantain

Click on photos for large version.