What do you need to create the perfect lawn? It is known that this case is not easy. It is not enough to lay it according to all the rules — you still need to provide appropriate care, which requires a lot of effort and time. And if you look at it from the other side — do you need to do it at all? After all, there are alternatives! This is worth talking about: maybe then the idea of creating a model lawn will be replaced by another, more pragmatic one.
What is a lawn
We have a long-standing popular saying that in order for your lawn to become perfect, it must be mowed for at least 300 years, as in England. But this is nothing more than a myth. No lawn can be created without the help of technology, namely a lawn mower. But it was invented only 200 years ago. Then one worker of a carpet-weaving factory guessed to put a device for cutting carpets on wheels. The first lawn mowers were of cast iron, really heavy. For processing large spaces in the estates used horse traction.
As the technology of cutting grass improved, mown lawns became fashionable in Victorian England. And tennis courts in this country were green areas. Lawn tennis first appeared in the UK.
What happened before that? There were sheep that were driven from paddock to paddock, where they grazed peacefully, eating grass. So much for the secret of the English lawn. By the way, in one of the estates in the suburbs of London (Syon Park), guides are trying to convince visitors that the lawn circle around which carriages once drove up to the Palace is the same three-hundred-year-old lawn. It’s hard to believe.
And here’s why. Any owner of our 6 acres, who plans to have such a lawn, will certainly face a number of difficulties, even if everything was done according to the rules when laying: carefully leveled and rammed the area, filled with a drainage layer of sand, selected the appropriate composition of herbs (for shady or Sunny places, for sports or for the parterre lawn as a “frame” of flower beds, and so on).
Unfortunately, after a few years, your carefully arranged lawn will gradually lose its original appearance. Mosses will begin to appear on it in some places, and clover will come by self-seeding. And what can we say about dandelions! Surrounded by neighbor’s untrimmed allotments and overgrown roadsides, the lawn, even if mercilessly fighting with weeds, still will not stand.
What is the conclusion from all this? Well, first of all-do not make a tragedy out of a dandelion or clover Bush that has grown on the lawn. Although only one dandelion, if you let it bloom, can inseminate your entire site. Therefore, we go out into the garden and uncompromisingly dig up all the yellow flowers, certainly with the root. If they are simply cut off, they will release a few heads in return: so great is their desire to prolong the race.
Secondly, do not try to create an ideal, so-called parterre lawn: spend your energy, but in the fight against nature, you will inevitably lose. There are no dandelions in England, no matter how hard I try to find them. The English bred this plant as a class. And we can’t beat all the dandelions: they are everywhere and everywhere. Or maybe you shouldn’t be so upset and do everything like in England? After all, there are excellent alternatives to an ideal lawn.
The first alternative
The first option is the simplest. It is obtained by simply cutting natural vegetation — something that has grown in the garden itself. Needless to say, this is the most common way to maintain relative order on the site.
Paradoxically, but the fact is that such, if I may say so, “lawn” is extremely resistant to trampling and much more durable than its pampered, artificially sown immaculate “brother”. Care for the first is much more simple: you just need to not be lazy and systematically mow the grass. It is noted that with regular cutting, rhizomatous perennial grasses go away (disappear). In addition, annual weeds are not allowed to be sown again.
Allow the area to grow white (it is white, it is low, unlike red) clover. This is a beautiful honey plant. How pleasant it is to watch the cheerful hum of bees and bumblebees, who climb their proboscis into each small “pipe”! Such a lawn does not require frequent mowing — you do not have to cut the grass every weekend, let it remain an uncut field.
Moorish lawn — the second alternative
There is also a variant with a Moorish lawn, which should be cut only at the end of the season, when the herbs and flowers will bloom and be sown. But you can not walk on such a lawn — it is best to divide it along the periphery of the site as a flower garden in a natural style. It will give a special charm to the garden.