Growing Lawns
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Me: learning to walk by learning to mow |
| TYPES OF LAWNS |
So let’s consider the alternatives before laying the foundation for a new organic lawn.
FINE LAWNS
The pride and joy of many gardeners. These are well-greened up, neat edged lawns with an even surface. They are created by growing fine leaved grasses. Putting, bowling and croquet greens are typical examples – although these are cross mown for an even finish.
Ornamental lawns are well located front of house or nearby in front of a patio or window from where they can be viewed. But ideally they should not be walked on.
Neat flower borders make a good boundary for these lawns. However, trees can be deleterious to fine lawns as they compete for water during summer months when drought causes browning.
Fine lawns require mowing several times a week in the growing season, plus organic feeds spring and autumn. Attention to aeration and drainage is also required depending on soil conditions. If moles are present they will be intolerable.
Try this Organic Mole Repellant
You can choose Britian's finest turf online for growing lawns at home & for trade
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Young family’s decide on growing lawns for utility value as they want a children’s play area - for ball games, tennis, football etc… . A delicate ornamental lawn would be ruined by any of these activities. So tough Rye grass that spreads quickly to fill in gaps is used when growing lawns for utility purposes. Note that the latest Rapid Green lawn seed consists of a fine leaved rye grass to give the appearance of a fine ornamental lawn but with the toughness of a utility lawn.
When there’s sufficient space, utility lawns are well placed further away from the house where noise disturbance and damage to the house from ball games can be limited. Utility lawns may also be put down as garden pathways.
Get fresh turf for lawns
ORNAMENTAL DESIGNER LAWNS
How about growing lawns in two tones to include permanent stripes or other patterns?
Mohon Designer grass seed
is a new product made of two different grass varieties. One grows with a light green shade the other with a dark green shade.
Therefore you can sow the 2 different seeds in distinct patterns: a Yin-Yang symbol, spiral, chequer board, banding, or a picture can be grown; or, as I prefer, you can highlight the edges around certain borders or shapes. Remember that rows running into the distance accentuate awareness of depth and rows running across the view accentuate width. But you could also try grading shades of green by mixing the 2 seeds types.
Growing lawns of this type involves a lot of care in design and sowing. Aftercare is essentially the same as for ornamental lawns.
GRASS WILD FLOWER LAWNS
A lawn can also be made to include low growing wild flowers or beginning and end of season bulbs. The last thing many gardeners need when growing lawns is clover, daisies, plantains etc… But this has more to do with classy gardening convention than organic gardening or a beautiful lawn. Because many low growing flowers (those just mentioned are not my first choice) truly enrich the appearance of the lawn and provide food for bees.
Indeed Clover and Medicago produce root nodules with help from bacteria that fix nitrogen. This leads to natural fertility. Wild flower lawns should not be given artificial fertilizer. The best wild flower lawn feed is probably organic bone meal every few years.
Low growing herb seed mixes for mixing with grass seed are readily available - Suttons Flowering Lawn Seed - U.K. . Suitable flowers include: blue flowered Ajuga, Self-Heal, Harebell; yellow flowered Hawksbit, Cowslip, Medicago and yellow/orange Birds-foot-trefoil; white flowered Daisies, Clover and Mouse Ear; purple flowered Thyme; fine leaved Yarrow… … All of these remain low growing and can be mown, but if allowed they will send up flowers.
Suitable bulbs for planting in lawns include: spring flowering Crocus, Snow Drops, and small growing Narcissi.
Mowing is not a priority with Wild Flower lawns. You would mow around the Crocus until about mid summer to allow them to re-generate. You may decide to leave other areas un-mown for a couple of summer months every few years to allow plants with erect flower stalks to blossom. Although a good few flowers - Thyme for example; will flower beneath the cutting blades, you could experiment with raising the blades a little.
FRAGRANT LAWNS
Probably the best example is the Camomile Lawn made from Anthemis nobilis. You can either sow seed of Anthemis nobilis and plant out, or buy plants of the Treneague variety from a nursery. In addition to being drought resistant the latter is a sterile variety grown from cuttings.
Camomile is fragrant when walked on or cut. Thomas Hyll had the right idea when in 1577 he suggested using Camomile for “benches to sytte on”. One of my own innovations involves planting Camomile along a lawn/flower border edge so that the grass blends imperceptibly into the flowers. This eliminates the need for regular edging. Once the Camomile thickens up as happens over winter, it should contain grass invasion - my experiment continues on this.
People often ask; what makes the sweet smell of freshly cut grass? Well, Sweet Vernal grass is just as the name suggests; there may be others. In a herb grass mix try to include Sweet Vernal grass Anthoxanthum odorata.
HERB LAWNS
Other herbs are also used to make green lawns.
Grass is used for lawns because of its creeping habit and growing points at the base that stand cutting. On the other hand, most herbs have growing points on aerial stems. When these are cut, the plant is severely affected. Yet some low growing herbs also have a creeping habit or have buds at soil level. Many of these are suitable for making alternative green lawns.
Although they may not have been intentional, I’ve seen lawns made from Creeping Buttercup, Daisies, Plantains as well as Clover and the like. Beware with Creeping Buttercup, it is poisonous to animals and kills off the clover. So don't allow Buttercups where you'll be growing lawns properly. But the yellow blanket of flowers looks tremendous.
LAZY LAWNS
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So if you don’t feel constrained by gardening convention then, you might try reduced mowing from every week, to 4 or 5 times a year. With good timing a rougher but not unkept lawn can be achieved by mowing a few times before and after the summer resting period.
But the cutting blades must be set higher. This can't be done with some fine lawn mowers; it usually requires a hover mower or side wheeled mower. There are problems: Harder cuts may cause the grass to thin out which often leads to weed invasion - the finer grasses will become reduced and course grasses gain ground.
In early summer an area of the lawn can be left to flower. If you're planning on growing lawns afresh for this type of maintainance then adopt the Grass Wild Flower approach. But existing lawns can equally be managed in this way.
PASTURE LAWNS
The Pasture Lawn consists of course grasses and is grazed by goats, horses or sheep rather than being mown. Bear in mind that these animals have different grass preferences. For this purpose, you should include fodder grasses in the seed mix.
This is a useful approach when you have a very large area to manage, when the site is sloping or uneven, and when you have children who may benefit from an introduction to animals. Goats also provide good milk.
SEED MIX CHOICE FOR SITUATION & USE
Sun, Shade, Drought, Fire Resistant Grass seed mixtures can be specially formulated for growing lawns in particular situations or for particular uses. So there are grass seed mixes for sunny lawns, shady lawns, drought resistant lawns, damp lawns, and lawns on exposed coasts. In addition there’s grass seed for grazing, for tough utility lawns and for fine ornamental lawns.
Fescues are fine leaved and drought resistant, Bent or Brown Top is fine leaved and creeping, traditional Rye grass is tough and creeping. In addition, there are fodder grasses such as the large Fescues and Poas.
INTO THE ROUGH - more information and links on growing lawns
