Occasionally you find gardening sites that actually offer good, sensible advise. And then – if you’re me – you choose which advise to follow (and how you interpret the advise)…
As is the case with grassclippings.co.uk, more specifically their guide to “renovating a tired worn-out lawn“.
Here is a slightly truncated version of that guide:
To keep it simple, there are a few rules to follow – more of a flow chart of tasks. This process can be performed at any time during the lawn growing season but allow at least an additional 6 weeks to complete the growing process at the back end of the year before the autumn frosts and leaves fall from the trees as the frosts will slow the germination process and the leaves will smother the new grasses!
This process will work if the lawn is around 50% weeds/moss and grasses.
(Then there was some silly text indicating that you actually had to DO something, but I choose to discard that…)
Sit back in the garden chair, relax with a glass of Pimms and view your new lawn…..
Of course, November is the time for neither lawn re-vamping nor Pimm’s so I’ll just do my version of the process and substitute a glass of merlot for the Pimm’s.
And for the record, the picture is NOT what the lawn looks like in November. Judging by the flowering rhododendron I’d guess the photo was taken in May, when the lawn hadn’t been mowed since October- or maybe September – the year before…
I’m not sure how effective my version of the lawn re-vamping will be, but at least I’ve mowed the lawn today, so that ought to earn me the right to a glass of vino, right?
Either way, my lawn sees so little wear that it’s all right if it is 20% daisies, 10% dandelions, 20% buttercups, 10% ajugas and 40% grass. (And because 100% is never enough I’m sure there are also loads of other weeds in there…)
I have one area of ‘lawn’ that is more weeds than grass. In fact, it’s cold enough here that I don’t need to mow the lawn anymore, but just today I had to mow the weeds! Perhaps I should follow your lead and just sit back with a glass of merlot.
Well, I figure I could be weeding the lawn and raking out moss till kingdom come, and still not have the perfect lawn, so why not enjoy it as it is.
I do like, though, that the guide that involves so much work also remembers to remind people to then sit down and enjoy the result of their efforts; it is something that we should always remember.
My neighbors would freak if I did not have grass in the lawn. They are none to happy about how little grass I do have studded with dandelion and clover. I just raked the leaves yesterday and the thought went through my mind that if I didn’t I could blame that for no grass next year. But the grass does make a nice foil for the planting beds though.
A little bit of lawn is a nice thing, but for me it really doesn’t matter if it’s a mix of different plants, rather than a barren monoculture of grass.
I garden in a holiday home area, so most of the gardens around mine are a bit hap-hazard and there’s no garden fascism about how a lawn should or shouldn’t look. People just do their thing, and as long as the verge of the road is cut on a regular basis so it can be used as a side walk, nobody will ever complain. I like that…
I’m with you. Mowed weeds look just as good from a distance as mowed grass. Or so I like to think! There are plenty of more important things to be doing in the garden.
Some weeds even look better than grass; I love it when there are all sorts of flowers blooming in the lawn! It makes it so much more interesting, and the wildlife really seems to enjoy it. Bumble bees, hover flies, butterflies and so on all love hopping from flower to flower in the lawn.
My back grass paths are more clover than anything and at this point it is too much to try to eradicate so I leave it for the wildlife…we have to mow it less often too.
Normal lawn grass just isn’t very appealing to wildlife, so any flowering plants that live in my lawn are welcome, and not just because I’m lazy… *cough*
We put down new sod last summer with our garden reno and now we are half dead grass with weeds moving in with great speed. Too much shade. I should stop worrying about it and just have a Pimms.
Our soil is so wet there will always be significant areas of moss wherever there’s just a little bit of shade. Well, moss is pretty in it’s own way! (And needs less mowing…)
But yes, sometimes we should all just stop worrying and have a Pimms – or tea or coffee or juice or whatever. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the things that are good and overlook the things that might be better.
I really dislike the pristinely mown lawns, particularly those with stripes. The more rustic look of daisies and even dandelions looks so much better and provides flowers for insects. I love the yellow of the buttercups in yours. So bright and cheerful to see the photo on a November day.
I think a pristine lawn can have it’s place in some gardens, but it does mean that the house, the borders, the shrubberies and so on all have to be up to the same standard, and in my garden that’s definitely neither an option nor the goal…
But yes, I do love my buttercups, as do the bumble bees and many other insects. They start blooming early and finish late… What’s not to love?
Reliable lawn care information can be quite helpful for the finished product. These steps might be the real thing/
I actually think it is a really informative site; I just know that personally I’m never going to spend that much time and effort on the lawn. To me, the lawn is definitely just something that fills in between shrubs and flower beds, but I know other people (like my Mum) who are really into having a perfect lawn with no weeds.
Oh Søren, you are so funny! I had to laugh at your skipping the ‘to do’ part–so funny and so familiar. Cheers!
Well, let’s just be realistic about how much work I want to put into the lawn: Very little!
-But it has now had it’s autumn trim, so it looks presentable enough for winter, and the lawn mower also chopped up all the leaves so I have loads of mulch. Done and dusted!