A lawn comes as standard in most gardens, even if it’s just a teeny tiny patch of grass - but maintaining one can involve quite a bit of work. In addition to mowing and edging, people who want a perfect sward also aerate, scarify, weed and feed.
In summer our lawns are increasingly affected by heat and drought, turning beige and crispy; while in wetter winters, they become muddy and waterlogged. A lawn is, of course, lovely for lounging and playing on and gazing out at, but if you’re not making the most of it, or it rarely looks its best, might it be time to replace it with something else?
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We’re not suggesting that you pave over your lawn, as President Trump did to much horror recently in the Rose Garden at the White House. Nor are we suggesting plastic grass – a terrible option for the environment and far more maintenance than people realise.
But it’s worth thinking carefully about whether your lawn is still working for you, so we have drawn up a pros and cons list for you to see if the grass will last, or should be in the past.
Reasons to keep or lose your lawn
The most commonly cited reasons to keep your lawn include that, well, everyone else has one. Many British and American gardens come with a lawn as standard and mowing them is almost seen as a patriotic duty. But you don’t need to keep a lawn just because everyone else in your neighbourhood has one. Consider whether your lawn actually works in your space. Does it look good? Do you enjoy looking after it? Are you using it? Does it bring you joy?
I wanted something different, a surprising family garden, with a large seating area and as many plants as possible to create an intimate, immersive feeling.
If you love the weekly ritual of mowing and edging, and the seasonal delights of aerating, scarifying and feeding, then of course, carry on enjoying taking pride in your green sward. But if you dread having to haul the mower out all the time and despair of the dandelions taking over in spring, when you would rather just be chilling out and enjoying the outdoors, then it’s good to know you can unshackle yourself from the duty and try a different tack.
Another widespread belief is that you need a lawn when you have kids. Lawns are great for ball games, badminton, swing ball and clock golf, for kids to run around and roll about on.
But before you consider this a done deal, gardens without lawns can still be attractive to kids. Dutch garden designer Arjan Boekel opted to forgo a lawn, instead creating a woodland glade in the garden of his new home. “I wanted something different, a surprising family garden, with a large seating area and as many plants as possible to create an intimate, immersive feeling. I didn’t want a ‘children’s garden’ either, with a playground and toys, but rather an adventurous natural space that we could all enjoy,” he explains. His kids love clambering over the rocks, paddling in the water and hanging out on the long benches in their small urban backyard.
“Most people with children think they need a lawn," says designer Sarah Samynathan, who has created a child- and wildlife-friendly front garden in California without any grass, in a neighbourhood where a neat square of lawn is the norm. "The clients understood that not having a lawn still allows for curiosity, exploration and creativity," she explains.
Lawns are the most sustainable usable surface we can make, absorbing carbon, retaining water and sustaining wildlife that thrives in low grassland habitat.
When she visited the flowery gravel garden after it had been completed, the clients' young daughters were busy cutting the heads of flowers off with scissors and drawing them. "It was really good to see them enjoying, and connecting with, the garden in that way.”
She adds: “A garden doesn’t just have to be for kicking a ball around. Kids use their imagination – they’re creative in how they play and they work with what they’re given. Having little trails through the tall plants encourages that same playful energy.”
When it comes to reasons why you should definitely consider ditching the grass, the first thing that springs to mind is that it probably doesn’t look good most of the time, if you are being really honest with yourself.
If we get a hot, dry summer, your lawn will go beige or brown as the grass goes into dormancy to cope with the conditions. Lawns can also become soggy or waterlogged in our increasingly wet winters. If the lawn is in a high-traffic area that is walked on a lot, used as a football pitch or is on poorly drained soil, it will look especially bad and have bare patches. And if you have a dog, it’s likely you’ll get yellow patches of scorched grass too, which is never a good look.
Often the argument is made that lawns are not very eco friendly, but compared to hard standing such as paving or decking, “lawns are the most sustainable usable surface we can make, absorbing carbon, retaining water and sustaining wildlife that thrives in low grassland habitat,” says landscape designer Jack Wallington. However, a highly managed lawn could be using precious water, damaging herbicides and fossil fuels in terms of power tools for mowing and strimming, so it’s best to try a lower maintenance approach if you want to be sustainable – perhaps mowing a bit less.
“How much of our lawn area do we really need to keep permanently short?” asks renowned planting designer Nigel Dunnett. “I reckon if you did a really rigorous audit, then for most of us, even in the smallest of gardens, the answer might be not all of it.”
The No-Mow May movement has been growing in popularity in recent years, and the idea of having a meadow in your yard is becoming an attractive option for many, but Jack Wallington cites a note of caution if you think you can just let the grass grow long a bit and also keep your perfect lawn.
“If you take part in No Mow May and then cut your grass back to lawn, be aware that it will look awful for a month or so and could lead to dead patches that need repairing,” warns Jack Wallington. “If you’d like a meadow area, the best solution is to choose a permanent spot for longer grass and then stick with it, maintaining it for just that purpose. For instance, one half of the area could remain a lawn, while the other half becomes permanent meadow.”
This is what lawn expert David Hedges-Gower does: he simply leaves part of his back garden unmowed, regularly mowing paths through it. He chops it down once a year, usually in October. Cut flower grower Charlie Ryrie did something similar in her former home: she cut the areas under her fruit trees only in early spring and late autumn.
Nigel Dunnett has taken a different route: “In my rewilded lawns I have planted hardy geraniums, persicarias, shasta daisies and oxeye daisies,” he says. “They are all fairly vigorous plants with leafy flower stems – plants that can compete with the taller grasses. Between them, I have flowers from May to October in the tall grassland that once was lawn, and it’s much more straight-forward than trying to make a meadow from scratch or from seed.”
This is certainly a lower maintenance, more sustainable and wildlife friendly approach, but for some people what it comes down to in the end is that if you have a tiny, awkward area of grass to manage, is it really worth the hassle? Do you hate dealing with fiddly edges such as those that butt up to fences? Do you really have storage space for a mower? Wouldn’t you rather spend your time doing something else? If so, here are some alternative ideas for what to do instead of a lawn.
Top alternatives to a lawn
You could simply replace the grass with plants, enlarging your existing borders, or adding new borders or planting beds, maybe with one or several simple paths, trails or stepping stones through them. Allow yourself to be immersed in the planting.
If your lawn is prone to drought, you could consider replacing it with a gravel area filled with drought-tolerant plants. “Top the soil with four – or better six or eight – inches of gravel,” advises plantswoman Derry Watkins. “The deeper the gravel, the hardier the plants become.” She points out that a gravel area could simply be a dedicated raised bed. Whatever you choose to do, it will need a definite edge – it can’t just bleed into a border or another section of lawn.
If part of your lawn is prone to frequent flooding or waterlogging, you could plant up the area with plants that are more suited to the conditions, such as plants suitable for a bog garden. Or take it one step further and replace part of the lawn with a pond. The sky’s the limit.
Find out more about how to have a low maintenance lawn plus top grass alternatives for a green sward without all the work.