Is it ok not to have a lawn?

‘Don’t worry about putting in a lawn mate! Just get some fake turf, it’s green all year and you’ll never have to mow it’

Thoughts? Do you agree? I don’t know of any other gardening topic that is as polarising as lawns. Growing up in Melbourne suburbia, a well maintained lawn was a great source of pride, and the chk, chk, chk of a moveable sprinkler attached to a hose was a common sound of summer alongside children yelling out ‘car’ to alert the kids playing cricket on the road to pick up the stumps and move out of the way.

Today lawns are still extremely popular, and although the sight and sound of sprinklers is less common, they still a great sense of pride to the Australian homeowner. Just last week I’ve seen lawn sprinklers on several front lawns while taking my dog Ziggy for a walk. And this is in April!

Over the last thirty years as a gardener, I’ve heard many questions revolving around the choice and maintenance of lawns including:

• What is the best lawn to have?

• Should you use seed or instant lawn?

• Is it ok to let your lawn ‘brown off’ during summer?

• How high or low the lawn should be cut?

• What type of mower should you use?

• How do you get rid of weeds in your lawn?

• Do you need to aerate and scarify your lawn?

• When should you fertilise your lawn?

In all the questions above the answer is ‘it depends’? It depends on what turf you have; how much sun it gets; how much water it gets; how often it is cut, and how often it is fertilised etc. To get the right lawn for your specific situation, I advise you to analyse your site to monitor how much direct sunlight your lawn will receive and for how long. I would also be realistic about how much maintenance you are prepared to put in to nurture your lawn and if you’ve got a dog that likes to dig!

Once you’ve answered these questions, do your research. If you look up the websites of professional instant lawn businesses, they will have plenty of information to help you select the lawn that will be most suitable for you. For example, if your lawn is going to have small kids kicking the footy or playing cricket on it, a self-repairing couch grass may be the way to go.

As far as fake turf goes. I can appreciate that it stays green and doesn’t require maintenance. I’m personally not a fan though as I can’t get over the fact that you’re covering the ground with plastic. It all feels a bit soulless to me which brings me back to my initial question ‘Is it ok to not have a lawn’. My answer is yes! I love a good lawn but there are so many alternatives to the traditional lawn nature strip, front lawn and back lawn, and this will be the topic of my next blog!