18 months ago I took over a 30s bungalow in Forest Hall, Newcastle on
tyne. It faces south and is not overshadowed by any tall trees or
buildings. There are 2 lawns either side of a central path, about 7
paces long x 3 paces wide. The grass on them was not much good and
building work had made the levels wrong so last autumn I turned over
the lawns and shifted the earth and left them so over the winter. It
is now February and I must soon decide what to do next.

One possibility is Chamomile - or have I been reading too many novels?
(A garden along the road has lavender - the smell is lovely.)

What is your view of chamomile?

Is it expensive? How long does it take to become established? Is it
going to be an everlasting pain to stop the grass from growing
through? Does it do away with the need to mow?

Are there any other alternatives to grass?

On a related matter, I am not sure how to handle the beds around these
lawns, or even whether to have them at all. I have never seen the bare
earth of flower beds as beautiful. In a house I had before, I planted
Creeping Jenny on the beds around the flowers, and it looked pretty
when in flower and while out of flower it did a reasonable job of
covering the earth and stopping grass from growing.

On the other hand, grass is the perfect ground cover, (it grows
anyway!) and I could sow the lawn to the concrete edges and either let
the flowers grow though it, or cut little holes for each plant, and
fill them in again after. But that creates difficulties with mowing
the lawn. Exactly the same thinking applies to Chamomile.

But I don't feel like planting the whole lawn with creeping Jenny.
Funny about that!

I would welcome some discussion.

Michael Bell
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