Design and construction
No grass
Have you ever thought of life without grass? I mean, of course, the wet, green stuff out in your garden at the moment. It’s a hard call, and one that men, more than women, are loathe to take. Perhaps the guys still think back to their footballing days and feel that they need a green space to practise their dribbling skills (no comment!) or they’d feel redundant if they didn’t have to complain about cutting the grass on a Sunday after washing the car. Girls seem much more realistic about grass – it’s high maintenance and grass cuttings can cause problems. I know we’re supposed to have equality but I bet another reason is that we girls generally hang out the washing and often the line has been put up by a man in the middle of the lawn. We know about getting our slippers wet.
I honestly think that with a big garden, a lawn is still essential. From a construction point of view, a lawn covering a large area will cost far less than hard landscaping the same space. If you have a growing family, a lawn is also great for cricket and ball games. However, once the family have grown up, the lawn does take a lot of work and effort each week. So, what’s the alternative? How does life work without a lawn? The garden can look really wonderful with the right mix of just hard landscaping and planting. It will be less maintenance than cutting the grass each week and you’ll have a useable surface, whatever the weather. The key thing is not to replace the grass with a hard landscaped area that’s the same size and shape as the old lawn. If the lawn is coming up, something – clearly – has to take its place – but replace it with hard landscaping that has an irregular shape, or use interlocking circles. One circle can be paving, the other can be planting, or planting interspersed with random paving too. Alternatively, interlock other shapes and use the same pave and plant system. In the planted area you could choose all the same plants or shrubs, or put in small fruit trees planted through a membrane and surrounded with cobbles. Plan a garden with a single colour theme using clipped topiary and white plants, or herbs. In a circle garden you could plant white multi stemmed silver birch trees underplanted with spring bulbs and shade tolerant perennials during the summer.
In a small garden, do think about losing the lawn altogether. By keeping the lawn you need additional space for the shed to store the flippin’ lawn mower! A double negative. Children will thrive without a lawn. Paths that lead somewhere and create a circular route in the garden can send them off on small bikes and trikes quite happily. Big shrubs for hide and seek, different places to sit and draw, a safe water feature to observe wildlife – all of these are of more benefit than a spread of grass that’s a no go area in the winter months.
If you would like help designing your garden without a lawn, then do give me a call. Just think – no more grass to cut on a Sunday afternoon but just a seat and somewhere to relax with the paper.
Plants
Primroses
My first primroses have started to flower underneath the willow tree. They’re right by the front gate, and always look so welcoming. The Primrose is native to Britain and Europe. The small plants prefer damp places and good rich soil, just like the leaf mould underneath trees. They grow on banks – I love seeing them along the railway embankments – and in woodland areas. They grow especially well in the warm damp climate of the South West, and Devon is known for its Primrose display in the Spring. Primroses are from the Primula family which also include Cowslips and Oxlips.
The petals of the Primrose are joined together to form a tube and this contains the anthers, style and stigma for reproduction. The nectar is located at the bottom of the flower tube. You can buy Primroses outside greengrocers and at all the nurseries at this time of the year. I prefer the yellow or cream colours (although I did succumb to some double pale pink ones the other day). I keep mine indoors at first – putting six into baskets or round bowls. When they’ve had enough of my centrally heated regime, I plant them outside in the garden, first of all taking them out of the pot and cutting the plant in half with a sharp knife. Plant the two new plants into a shady spot underneath a deciduous shrub or tree and they’ll keep spreading over the years.
Things to do
Sort out the shed
This is the perfect time to get the shed ready for the year ahead. The last time the shed was opened was probably last year when the chair cushions got chucked in there during a thunderstorm, and the barbecue got added after it had got wet.
Wellingtons are covered in cobwebs and gardening gloves are stiff from last year’s gardening. I really don’t like spiders, but I’m not terrified of them. Even so, I do take everything out quite gingerly. Why are shed spiders so HUGE?
Have someone handy who doesn’t mind going to the dump if you can’t have a bonfire. It took us all of last Sunday to sort out our garden shed and I’m quite a tidy person too. One of the problems is that I have to share this space with a man. It doesn’t matter when it comes to things like sock drawers. He can have his untidy drawer and I can have my neat, pristine space. However, the shed is a common area and I havenow put my own little trug – with my gardening accoutrements – safely in one corner. I have found the perfect way to make sure the guys don’t borrow my gardening things and take them onto site, never to be seen again. It was simple. I bought them all in pink.
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