Should you put grass in your yard? The answer of a landscape designer.

The grass! If there is one essential element for every garden, it is this.

Unless you live on the edge of the desert, I think so It's impossible to imagine a garden without a lawn.
Close your eyes and think of this green carpet, cut short, very thick on which you would like to walk barefoot. A nice program.

Now open your eyes and look at your outer space. Does this description match your lawn? Despite what many think, Having a beautiful lawn is not the easiest thing in landscaping.

Some people ended up giving up. They are happy with a space that looks more like a lawn than a golf course.
Still others want to believe it and do their best to maintain it, but it seems like a never-ending task.
Finally, there are those who put money aside and, every 10 years, turn to a landscaper to redo the lawn, vowing that this time he will maintain it well enough. Because we need to face the facts, if a beautiful lawn makes everyone dream, its maintenance may seem complex and above all time-consuming.

And that's the problem. When we create the garden, we don't hesitate to include large areas of lawn, because it's not too expensive to create and we think that maintenance is reduced to mowing about ten times a year. Then we realize that cutting the grass, although it is an essential and recurring task, is not enough to maintain your beautiful carpet over the years. Other interventions are necessary and some require a minimum of knowledge.

At this point you are probably thinking that the answer to the title of this article “should you put grass in your yard?” » is no. I'm not that categorical, far from it!

The lawn is important in a gardenboth on an aesthetic level where it brings an essential vegetal side, and on a practical level: so that children can play, lie down and enjoy the sun, read a good book…

I think so it's all a question of proportions and the time we wish to dedicate. So it all depends on you. The password should be: It's better to have a smaller, better-maintained lawn.

To take into account what maintenance of a beautiful lawn entails and therefore know which area you want to maintain, here is a review of the tasks to be carried out.
Immediately afterwards I will explain how to determine which parts of grass to remove and what to replace them with.

Why is it so difficult to have a beautiful lawn?

Before telling you about the interview, here are some explanations about it creation.

If you opt for a lawn to be seeded (by yourself or by a professional), you need to be aware of this It will take several months before reaching the final result. In fact, several mowings will be necessary to eliminate the weeds that have begun to grow at the same time as your blades of grass, but also so that the tufts of grass become denser, so that you no longer see the ground and obtain a soft carpet.

Contrary to popular belief, veneered turf (in rolls) has nothing providential about it. Once created it will be magnificent and will save you time, you will immediately make a great impression, but it will need the same maintenance as any lawn to maintain this beautiful aesthetic over the years.

So you understand everything happens at the maintenance level.

Here are the essential steps :

• Mowing : it is necessary to mow regularly so as not to cut too much at a time, which is harmful to the lawn. Don't cut it too short either, especially in summer or before winter.
  Collecting clippings is necessary to maintain a beautiful lawn. Otherwise the cut grass dries out, which is not nice, but above all it prevents the grass from catching the sun well. For the same reason, don't forget to collect dead leaves from trees at the end of the season.
• Fertilizer : Like any plant, grass needs nutrients to grow well and because lawn roots are very dense and concentrated a few centimeters deep in the soil, reserves are quickly depleted. To keep your lawn in good condition you need to fertilize at least twice a year.
• Weeding : I prefer to be honest, you will never get to the end! There are thousands of seeds present in the ground in addition to those that move with the wind. Weeding is therefore a necessity. If you do it chemically, two procedures per year will probably be enough. If you have decided to deal with this problem manually, I advise you to do this as often as possible, for example before each mowing of the grass.
• Scarification : it is not the best known intervention and yet it is multiple advantages. You can remove dry blades of grass, some weeds, moss and aerate the soil using a scarifier. The manual versions look a lot like a rake, but if you have a large surface it is better to turn to electric or petrol models. One or two visits a year is a good rate.
• Irrigation : When building your lawn, watering is essential if there isn't enough rain. So, I would be more in favor of letting the lawn fend for itself, so that it produces deeper roots to collect water and will be less sensitive when the soil dries out on the surface. But in the case of a perfect lawn this principle must be qualified. If you live in an arid region, watering will still be essential for its survival. Otherwise we will intervene if we see that our beautiful lawn is suffering from drought. In any case, keep in mind that it is better to water a lot and infrequently than the opposite. Then the water penetrates deep into the earth and the roots follow it.

You see it, Proper lawn maintenance includes four to five different tasks which are necessary for optimal results.

Now that you know exactly what proper lawn maintenance entails, you can choose between spending more time on it or reducing the grassy area.

How to reduce routine work?

As I told you before, I think the lawn is almost essential to the garden, so I don't encourage you to remove it completely. I rather think that it is necessary to reduce the surface area to maintain a space of reasonable dimensions, that is, adapted to the use you make of it and the time you can dedicate to it. It's better to have a small, well-groomed patch of grass that you're proud of and want to walk on barefoot, rather than a large area left abandoned.

How to choose which parts to keep?

I advise you to only keep the spaces the easiest to maintain : easy to access with the mower, not too steep, with as few edges as possible to trim with the brush cutter.

What to do with the areas where the lawn has been removed? What are the alternatives to weed?

You have several possibilities. This will depend on the desired aesthetic and whether or not you need to walk in this space.

• Create a bed of flowering plants. Pruning flowering plants is often scary because it is a technical operation. In fact, you will need to know how to do it and the right period for each plant, but in most cases one intervention per year and per plant is enough, and it is much more pleasant than pushing a lawnmower. To limit weeds, mulch at ground level.
• Cover the space with ground cover plants. If it is an embankment, I advise you to opt for ground cover shrubs or creeping conifers that do not require maintenance.
  There are also ground cover plants that can be walked on and are often presented as ground cover plants alternatives to grass. There are several varieties, but none are miraculous. Some resist drought well but fear harsh winters. Others have no problems with frost but dry out after two weeks without rain. Some produce flowers that attract insects, which is ecological but not very reassuring when you want to go barefoot. Some are very beautiful but can only withstand light foot traffic. If you want to opt for this solution, choose a variety suited to your region and the use of this space.
• Install synthetic grass. The models increasingly resemble a real lawn, but it is a rather expensive alternative.
• Carry out differentiated management. Behind this jargon of landscaping professionals lies a simple principle: have a well-kept lawn near your home and elsewhere, let the grass grow. For the latter, instead of mowing regularly, we will cut once or twice a year and will not remove the weeds that will bear some flowers. This space will give a natural and rural look to your garden.

Now it's your turn.

Find out which parts of your lawn you can reduce or eliminate. Replace them with an alternative that will require less maintenance time. Use this saved time to take better care of the remaining surface and finally have the lawn of your dreams.

In the end, you will get better results without having to spend more time. You have everything to gain!

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