What Makes a Good Lawn?

Just what is a good lawn? 

Is it all about the uniformed growth and greenest weed free swards? Is a good lawn one you can play football or golf on? Does it just need to look nice from the kitchen window when you are washing the pots? Has it got to be full of wild flowers and only need to cut it twice a year? 

There are so many different variables to lawns and the answers are as diverse as the gardeners who look after them. 

Over the past few years these green patches of ground have come under increasing criticism both for their high maintenance and need for chemical use to keep in tip top condition. But it doesn’t need to be that way.

 I for one have tried alternatives on a small scale. I set aside a small area to go wild (much to the annoyance of one of my neighbours) and turned one area into a chamomile lawn. I can tell you now both of these take up far more of my time looking after than a conventional lawn.

Over the fence

I don't think I know one person in Inishowen who is totally happy with their lawn.

 As a viewer over the fence, most gardens look lovely. I have some old images of my plot when we first moved into the house and the whole garden was overgrown and neglected, I couldn't wait to get stuck in and ‘improve’ the place.

 Looking at the pictures now seven years later, the garden actually looked far more lush and colourful than it does now after all my work. The garden in the pictures hasn't changed but the way I look at it has.

Overall the garden looks lovely in the pictures but it's only when I hone in on the details and imperfections as I did when I moved in that I started to worry and think about making changes, it's a similar principle to most issues we have in everyday life.

I think I tend to look at my own lawn and project my irritations and frustrations on the rough patches before realising the imperfections are in me and not the grass. 

Let’s  see what gardener's actually say about their lawns.

The most common observations and complaints about lawns here in Inishowen are:

• Too wet and waterlogged.
• Costs too much to keep as we need to get someone in to cut it twice a month.
• Need too many chemicals to keep it looking nice.
• Moss growing everywhere and taking over.
• Not growing well in shaded areas.
• Takes up too much time cutting it in summer.
• Not hard-wearing enough to play on.

All of these issues can be overcome to some degree apart from finding someone to cut the grass for free if a family member isn’t available. The reality is that there will always be something that needs doing. I've just come back from a family wedding in Alicante and I only saw one or two patches of grass growing. There were plenty of herbs and picking the pomegranates is fun , the local council seem to favour artificial grass now as it saves on water  in the city centre. So just growing a lawn here in Ireland seems easy in comparison.

Regardless of how you look at your lawn, plants will be plants and the grass will need a bit of annual care, especially in the case of moss. The only place you'll see grass without moss is on the sandy golf links around the peninsula, you will even see moss on artificial grass eventually! So living with it seems to be the easiest option. Apart from digging up the whole garden, raising it about a metre and putting in new soil/sand and drainage it will more than likely come back every year and need to be treated with a chemical.

Drainage is the answer to lawns being too wet and compacted, but can be a costly job on large areas.

If you have bald patches the autumn is a great time to overseed the area. If you don't have the same grass mix to add and want a more uniformed colour them scatter the seeds outwards from the patch putting fewer and fewer seed on the ground as you work out. It's a bit like blending colours in paintings. Mix the seed with a bit of sharp sand so it goes on more evenly.

If an area is in shade there are certain types of seed you can get to put in these areas. They might look a bit different but at least the area will be green.

Scarifying the grass with a spring rake can get a lot of the moss out. After this you can aerate the ground with a fork and sweep sand into the holes. This will help with drainage and compaction.

If the lawn has a lot of crane fly larvae in it you could put black sheeting over the ground then check it every morning putting the leatherjackets out for the birds. These will probably only be temporary measures in the same way that chemical usage will be.

Conclusion

Instead of us looking for the 'perfect’ lawn for our garden and being annually disappointing, we can ask ourselves...

Does the area look generally pleasing to the eye and give us and the family pleasure?

Is the lawn suitable for purpose? Game playing, dog use, defining borders siting the barbeque, table and chairs?

After sitting four stories up in a city centre apartment block for a week at the family wedding in Alicante I'm just pleased to see any greenery and I must say from the plane up here at 20,000 feet, all of your lawns look absolutely wonderful!