Could you live without a lawn? Lawns are horticultural Hummers. For one thing, they are close to being monocultural deserts, but their major crime, environmentally speaking, is that they require constant input of time, petrol, water and fertilisers. I have a feeling that here in the UK we don't have quite such an issue with this as they do in the US, where the perfect, be-sprinklered lawn is the ultimate mark of respectability, but however slack your maintenance regime and unkempt your lawn, I'll bet it still takes more energy to maintain than any other part of your garden.
I know all this, and yet - and yet - I still cling to mine. There is something about that expanse of green, the way it calmly sets off the other, busier plants, the way it softens the blow to the head when small people tumble off of bicycles and trampolines. Gravel is all very well (and plum-coloured slate chippings particularly lovely) but you wouldn't want to go frolicking on it. You could do yourself quite a nasty elbow injury.
Instead, inspired by the website Less Lawn, and following the piece I wrote back in January on lawn alternatives, I have set about shrinking my lawn. The measuring tape, string and half-moon came out and many worms were, er, evicted in creating a brand new shape for the garden. The basic premise is not to lose the lawn entirely, just the awkward bits. If you find yourself hazardously pushing a running lawnmower up a steep slope, turn this bit into planting. If you have small beds of plants with awkward grass paths in between, join them all together to create a big border. Make swooping, easy-to-mow shapes. My garden is pretty small, but it has always taken a good three quarters of an hour or more to mow. My problem was simply an ill-defined lawn shape that allowed grass to slowly spread in among plants, and so I had to painstakingly mow in close to them and try not to harm them.
So I cut all those corners off, and created an almost perfectly circular lawn with two paths at either end. It looks exceedingly smart and, as an added bonus, I suddenly have more planting space. What more could one ask for? There is more work to do. I want to over sow with microclover to keep it fed and verdant without fertilisers, add a mowing strip of low-set pavers and remove its many annoying lumps and troughs so that I can mow with my ancient push mower and ditch the flymo entirely. It will be the greenest lawn around.
Is your lawn a millstone around your neck or do you love the ritual? Could you (or do you) live without one? Let me know your lawn-related thoughts, below.
