A Garden Without a Lawn

What to Grow

Most of us inherit a lawn when we buy our homes, but there is no reason to keep it. There is no law that says you have to have grass! A more Mediterranean look to the garden can provide interest and colour without requiring the level of care and watering that a lawn needs.

Ground Cover

Once you've lifted the lawn, you need to improve the soil underneath by adding a little compost and then plant your drought resistant species: fescue, carex and sedge grasses in a variety of colours, lavenders, low growing geraniums for colour, along with pulsatillas, sempervivums (house leeks) and asters. When they are all in place, scatter small pebbles over the rest of the surface to hold down water and suppress weeds.

Specimen Plants

Agapanthus produces architectural curving leaves and huge heads of bright blue flowers, all the hebes tend to do well in these conditions and one or two tall shrubs dotted around give interesting contrast to the low growing foreground plants. Gypsophilia, with its tall waving branches of tiny flowers gives a strong impression of movement and kniphofia with its red and yellow spears of colour makes a dramatic statement against the pebbled ground.

Mulches and Weeding

Once you've added peat and compost to your soil, and planted out, your thick mulch of pebbles is designed keep moisture in and suppress weeds. You will still need to weed, but most annual weeds will fail to seed after the first year and perennials will have to be removed for the first three or four, after which they will not reappear. The advantage of this mulching system, in addition to reducing weeding, is that it holds the moisture in the soil requiring less watering and meaning that periods of drought have much less effect than they would on more intensively planted gardens.