Fennel and Fern » Five ways to make your lawn greener this year

February 27, 2013

by F&F

Rolelawn

Five ways to make your lawn greener this year

How to cut down on watering and ditching fertilisers for plants which work with your grass.

Now, if you’re reading this post because you want a smooth velvety green sward, then hop along to another blog. The problem with lawns like that is that they really aren’t very good for the environment. Your ego, maybe, but not people who want to wander over them, play on them, loaf on them and watch bees and butterflies zooming over them and birds hopping about.

But if you want a lawn that’s green: as in, one that doesn’t guzzle water or fertiliser or need cutting so much with a petrol mower, then stick around. Here are five tips:

1. Sow some white clover in amongst the grass seed. The clover will nurture the grass through the nitrogen-fixing nodules on its roots, and is wonderfully durable and lush. It is the organic alternative to lawn feed. You can buy White Clover here.

2. Relax when it gets hot. Have you noticed how resilient grass is? It covers huge stretches of this planet, and survives when trees and other plants find it too cold, and when trees and other plants find it too hot. Your British lawn will be just fine if you let it go a bit brown midsummer when the rains don’t come, rather than mollycoddling it with a sprinkler hose and wasting tons of water.

3. Raise the blades on your lawn mower. Cutting the grass right down means it needs more water. If you can, use a push mower rather than a petrol-powered one.

4. Leave the daisies, and maybe the dandelions, too, if you can bear it, so insects have a source of nectar.

5. Leave a patch of grass that you really don’t need to become a meadow, thus supporting even more wildlife, and bringing even more flowers and joy into your garden.

If you’re really keen on the idea of a green lawn, look at this chapter in our biodiversity series for more ideas, and for a detailed guide to meadow management too.