Prolonged drought has turned everyone’s lawns to stubble. I wonder how many people have wondered why they bother to have lawns at all, and, what with climate change, whether lawns will be sustainable? Consider: back in the Olden Days, ordinary people, if they had gardens at all, would use them to grow herbs, vegetables, flowers and chickens. Maybe a goat. Lawns – well, all that space for, essentially, croquet – were for posh people. And with good reason. Lawns need an inordinate amount of care, and were once luxuries that posh people would use to demonstrate their status. For lawns imply servants, with scythes, and, later, mowing machines. The growth of Metroland meant that the rising middle class could have lawns of their very own… and then spend all weekend mowing the things.
Here at the Maison des Girrafes we once had a lawn, but free-ranging hens and occasionally rabbits reduced it to a desert. When the rabbits went, and the hens were corralled, we hosted, on all that nitrogen-enriched soil, the British National Collection of Stinging Nettles. Mostly it’s now a Shrubbery, with the beginnings of Another Shrubbery down the end, separated by a path for that Split-Level Effect. Also, a failure of a pond. No more lawn. And you know what? Even with hardly any rain for weeks, our garden is as lush as lush, and requires virtually no maintenance. Here are two views:
The reason why our garden is an oasis is, I think, that the mature shrubs, trimmed weeds left where they fall, and other bits of neglect rewilding create humid microclimates, retaining such moisture as exists. Wildflowers and herbs have been brilliant this year and have attracted a lot of bees, which has to be a good thing. Many years ago I had the good fortune to interview gardening writer D. G. Hessayon and fellow Leeds University alumnus for the Leeds University alumni magazine. The best-selling writer in Britain (virtually everyone has a copy of one of his many Garden ‘Expert’ books) he lived in an enormous Georgian pile, maintaining it himself (he was in his eighties) with the help of one gardener. What was his secret for a maintenance-free garden? Put loads of black polythene everywhere and plant shrubs in it. Job done. I have followed his advice.
So why would you even want a lawn? Football? Go to the park. If you persist against my reasoning and have a lawn, please don’t scalp it. Cut it long, at least two inches high, so that at least some moisture is retained between those benighted blades.
