Lawn Alternatives

My flowerless lawn chamomile plants keep on multiplying. So much so that I have decided to turn part of my front garden into a rich, apple scented mat of greenery.

Chamomile is a great alternative to normal grass but I am finding it does have one drawback, it’s pretty submissive when other plants challenge it. Unlike regular grass which will be more or less trouble free to establish, this chamomile needs a bit of care and attention until it forms a mat on the soil. I added some well rotted horse much when I planted and am regretting the decision. It was mixed into sterilized soil and compost but the horses must have been eating a lot of weeds as the seeds are all germinating in and around the plants. It used to take five minutes to mow the grass every fortnight but so far I have spent a full day on my hands and knees weeding the tiny seedlings out of the soil. Time and labour saving the chamomile isn’t but it’s very relaxing and meditative and hopefully it’s a one off getting rid of the seedlings.  

There are other benefits to not having a lawn other than the need to cut it weekly in summer.  Grass free means reducing the need for fertilizers, not having to put up with brown patches in dry periods, no aerating, scarifying or watering is needed either. Here are some other suggestions but if my chamomile is anything to go by all we really do is substitute the job of mowing for a job of weeding, sowing and tidying. Like most things in life it’s probably best in moderation. Start with a small patch first and expand if it works. That’s what I have done with the chamomile and that’ why there are three distinct sizes of plants form the mature ones to small offsets. They should all merge together soon though I hope.

Chamomile isn’t the only plant that will cover the ground as an alternative to grass. Take the council offices in Letterkenny, their rooftop has been growing succulent sedums for years and it looks great. We can buy these sedum plants in metre rolls now so they are so easy to lay and work with. This type of plant is ideal for any dry sunny spot but you wouldn’t want the children playing football on it.

Clover

Not just a weed!  It’s surprisingly beneficial as a lawn plant. It creates nitrogen; enriching the soil and helping other plants grow stronger. The added nitrogen also means that the lawn remains green, even in dry weather. White flowering clover makes good lawn alternatives and attracts plenty of pollinators. You can also use micro clover, which is a variety with tiny leaves. It doesn’t flower but it is hardier for walking on and really low-maintenance. 

Wildflower meadow

There are hundreds of wildflower meadow seed mixes available. They make a great lawn alternative in areas like front gardens. You’ll need to spend a bit of time keeping tap rooted weeds off the site for a while. You could colour co-ordinate the display and even intersperse the seeds in an axisting lawn if it’s poor quality gound (the wilflowers will prefer this as there’s less competition)

Creeping thyme

Creeping thyme is a great choice for sunny spots and releases a rich scent when you walk on it. The purple flowers also look stunning in summer and you can get other colours too. Sow creeping thyme from seed or buy plug plants and let it spread. It is really low-maintenance and can also be used to fill gaps and cracks in the patio.

Eco lawn

These seed mixes are ideal if you don’t want to get rid of grass entirely. They use hardy, slow-growing ryegrass and fescue that will only need mowing once a month or less.

They are widely available in America and slowly making an appearance here. Eco lawns are perfect if you still want to have grass, especially if you want a hardy lawn that children can play on.

Moss

Moss is a cool alternative if you have a shady, wet spot. Moss plugs can be bought but I doubt there’s any shortage around Inishowen.

Mind your own business

This is a creeping perennial It’s a great lawn alternative because it has rich green colour and needs little maintenance. But it is invasive and only suitable for enclosed spaces where it can’t get out of hand. It tolerates shade and sun and should be sown from seed.

Corsican mint

This is a low-growing and heavily fragrant alternative. It grows happily in full sun or partial shade, but can rot in wet conditions. Like all mints, Mentha requienii is invasive and spreads quickly, so only plant it in enclosed spaces.

Edimentals - A Fine 'Blend'

How do you like the words Brexit, Jedward, brunch, chillax and mansplaining?  These new words formed by fusing together parts of existing words are known as blends. Some are more popular than others as there will probably at least one word above that makes your skin crawl.

Blends

They used to be called portmanteau words, but this term isn't used as much nowadays. Blends are very common in the English language and account for a very large number of the new words added to encyclopaedias each year. Blends are not strictly the same as ‘compounds’, which are made by joining whole words together, rather than parts of words. Examples include website, housemate, keyboard, makeup, lawnmower, pitchfork, bluebell and motorbike.

More well-established blends include guesstimate, motel, fanzine, and shopaholic; among the more recent coinages are affluenza, infotainment, botnet, and labradoodle. 

The gardening world doesn’t escape the fusing of words either, take the broccoflower , tomacco, peacherine and the latest buzzword is taking the word edible and ornamental to make ‘Edimentals’ which translates into decorative plants you can eat. 

Petalicious

Edimentals fall into a couple of categories. We can have leafy ornamentals that can be used in salads such as young hostas and nasturtium leaves but this week I want to concentrate on edible flowers.

 It’s the time of year when we are spoilt for choice with colour. 

The first plants that spring to mind are the pansies and violas all members of the violet family. The leaves are added to soups and stews and the petals can be candied and used as a cake decoration adding sugar and eggwhite. Angelia flowers can be used in the same way.

Borage is next on the list. The leaves can be eaten (as long as you don’t mind hairs) but it’s the flowers that have more versatility. They can be candied like the violets and also eaten straight from the plant. They look great individually frozen in ice cubes too and taken out on hot sunny days to add to the drinks on the patio table.

Daylilies - although you have to be fast getting them because as their name implies, they are not around for long.

For a huge show, how about adding hollyhock flowers to a salad? They can be nearly the size of a side plate so really make a statement. Flower buds can be added to stews.

The weedlike Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) is a very versatile plant with not only the flower but the whole plant being edible. The young shoots are eaten like asparagus and the roots cooked up like parsnips make a great talking point at lunchtime.

Chrysanthamum flowers are edible and make a fine drink and let’s not forget nasturtiums for edible leaves and seeds.

You can keep the spread of forget me nots down by eating their flowers and begonias and daisies can be nibbled too. If you are lucky enough to have St Johns wort in the garden, these flowers can be added to salads and made into herbal remedies.

Clover flowers are good if you have that growing in the lawn and coltsfoot flowers are edible if you have them growing on newly disturbed patches of ground. Lavender flowers add a touch of class in both savoury and sweet dishes and like a lot of herb flowers; sage makes a great addition to stews.

Of course please take allergies onto consideration when going around munching on the garden flowers; some of them such as chamomile flowers might cause an allergic reaction.

Scrace (Scratched the Surface- my blend)

I’ve only really scratched the surface of flowers we can eat in the garden and I can only ‘guesstimate’ the vast range available. If you have young children playing in the garden it’s always handy to know which flowers are edible so we don’t fly into a huge panic when we see a stem sticking out of some smiling teeth. 

Children’s safety is important, so much so I’ve just invented a new portmanteau word especially -  “Chifty” – Children’s Safety - You are welcome…..There’s one for the English dictionary (drops microphone and walks off the stage)

Favourite Plants You Wouldn't Be Without

Do you have a plant you wouldn’t be without in the garden?

My mother in law loves poppies and much to her husband’s irritation will happily let them self-set all over the vegetable garden. They come and go in a flash of purple and soon die back so don’t really get in the way. 

Julie loves her marigolds but this year for some reason none of the seeds that fell from last year’s plants germinated. The garden does lack that rich orange colour I must admit.  We tend to go more for the annuals for a splash of colour and have bulbs in the front garden for early colour in spring.

Favourite Plants

My favourites seem to change often and this year my plant of choice would be the chamomile, mainly because it’s given me a revenue stream. It is the most relaxing plant I have ever dealt with because of the fragrance and I am at peace when putting the plantlets into envelopes to post. Even weeding out the rogue nasturtiums and chickweed in between the plants is a meditative experience. 

These are the types of plants I would dig up or divide and take with me if I moved again. I think that is an indicator that the plants mean something to you. I would take herb cuttings I think and also a few bay tree cuttings to grow on. 

There are plenty of lists for plants you shouldn’t be without in the garden. A lot of them concentrate on attracting bees and other beneficial insects. So many in fact they are split into the different seasons. In spring you might like to see wallflowers, cyclamen, daffodils, tulips pansies and violets. The summer could give you alliums, clematis, bellflowers and geraniums. Autumn gives us asters, red hot pokers, penstemons and smoke bushes and there’s colour in winter too. Winter aconites, dogwood, hazel, skimmia and cotoneaster all give lovely shows.  

It all depends on personal choice of course and some plants will be on the favourite list because they hold a reminder of something, evoking memories in much the same way that music does a smell can take you back to a happy place. Useful plants are good to take with you into a new garden too. Bamboo for poles, comfy for fertilizer all come in useful and can save you money in the annual upkeep for the garden.

What’s your Favourite?

I couldn’t let this opportunity go by without asking you which plant you would always have in the garden or take with you when you move. 

Here are some of your replies:

Kelly - Peonies! They smell heavenly and remind me of my childhood.

Merry -Old roses for their delightful smell. 

Andrea- Peonies they remind me of my grandma. Actually have some growing that were taken from roots of her plant. They are over 60 years old. 

Tracy- Tulips of all colours but especially the black are favourite flowers. 

Karen- I love daylilies. I always plant sunflowers, they are so cheerful looking and my bird and I love the seeds. 

Nikki- I live in Portugal and it's really dry here, so my favourite plants are globe artichokes as you can eat them, they are really beautiful and quite drought resistant. 

Laurie- Hydrangeas are profuse bloomers with beautiful green foliage...a must have in my garden.

Heather- Chinese lanterns. Reminds me of my grandmother's house when I was growing up.

Trudy- Clematis! My favourite is the old fashioned Jackmanii. I love the profusion of purple blooms! I planted one every time I moved to a new location. There is a trail of clematis vines behind me in several different gardens!

Bob- Lavender, we distil our own oils. 

Janet- Gardenia... my grandparents had one outside of EVERY window in their house.

Rebecca- Old favourite peas....my dearly departed dad would not let my mum go to the hospital and give birth to me until all the peas were shelled.

Frances- Hydrangeas are my favourite flowers. They take me back home to my Grandmas farm.

Looking around my garden I realise that a lot of plants we took for granted haven’t made the journey with us from older gardens. We have lost a lot of herbs and shrubs as well as some lovely flowers such as the large daisies. Our relations still have some that we gave them years ago so it looks like we need to make a list of plants we want to get back and go visiting some friends where the plants still flourish.

The Right Gloves

Gloves to suit most jobs in the garden

There are work gloves to suit most manual situations. It took me a long time to realise this and for years I tried to work with potting compost using porous orange builders’ gloves. The result was always a total waterlogging of the fabric backing and the lime in the bag eating the skin away on my hands.  I would actually have been better off not wearing any gloves at all.

Rubber work gloves like the red cotton lined pvc ones weren’t much better either, especially when using a hose pipe as they would fill up with water and my hands would slosh around like feet in oversized wellingtons.  I have tried the leather and suede rigger gloves, pvc dotted gloves, fabric types and sometimes even resorted to ski gloves. One time I even used a pair of glow in the dark ones . I’m not sure why but I’m guessing I was doing something at night.

The Right Gloves

Now my favourite glove of choice is a heavy duty rubber pair. They don’t give the same level of protection as the leather type but they are perfect for washing the roots of my chamomile prior to selling and most other weeding jobs. I do tend to leave the bright yellow gloves on a bit too often but as yet I haven’t been to the local shop in them. I did go out in my “washing up pinny” once to the shop so I can’t rule it out altogether.

Regardless of which type of glove I am wearing I have also got into the habit of wearing a pair of nitrile powder free disposable gloves underneath. I’m sure they were around in the years when I was using the lime based potting compost and if I knew of their existence would have saved me years of uncomfortable cracks in my skin.  I do meet people who would never wear work gloves in any situation as they take away the tactile connection to what you are doing but I like clean finger nails so have an array of gloves at my disposal.  

I was going to do a review on the best gloves on the market but as I mentioned, it all depends on what you are doing and how much you are willing to spend.  So I’ll narrow it down to this if you are looking to wear a bit of hand protection. If you are doing things that get your hands wet, use waterproof types, heavy dry work, use thick types and the nitrile disposable gloves come in packs of 100 which last for ages.

New Mower

I’ve bought a new lawnmower. I just couldn’t face the disruption of the strimmer so got online to read some reviews of the lower priced electric type which suit my small patch of lawn. I settled for a small rotary type with a metal blade and I must say I am impressed with the cutting power helped on by a 1200 watt motor. It cut through the foot long grass with no bother.  It’s far better than the Flymo and the only negative comments on the reviews were about the grass storage not being large enough and having to take too many trips to the compost bin. As I am never more than 10 paces from one of my bins I didn’t think that was too much of an issue and most of the time I wouldn’t even bother with the grass collector as I like to keep the cuttings on the lawn for a mulch. 

Bargains.

When I was down at the DIY shop buying the mower I noticed they had loads of bedding plants for sale at reduced prices. Some of the trays were beyond reviving but a lot of plants were still in great condition. I got a car full of petunias, geraniums, begonias, marigolds and daisies for under twenty euro. I must confess that I am a bit naughty when it comes to picking the trays; I will take a few of the good plants from one tray and swap them for the dead ones in another. I justify this by thinking that none of them would sell if it wasn’t for me taking the initiative to make one good (ish) tray out of two. I would have done that myself when I was selling plants. I’m not really sure if it’s illegal but I do feel like I am doing something positive so I am sure I could talk the sales staff around if they catch me in the act.