On Sun, 13 Apr 2003 14:36:01 +0100, "Dave Arthuro" wrote:

I am purchasing a house with a small back lawn and some side plants. I
really have no interest in, or knowledge of, gardening

I've been considering replacing the existing lawn with a chamomile lawn,
rather than paving it over. The only reason I'm suggesting this is because
somebody told me it would be a maintenance free lawn. I wont be walking on
it much.

Is it cheaper to do this rather than to have it paved over. I probably
would pay somebody to do it in both instances.

Thanks

Don't know much about camomile lawns, other than when people do have
them, they're quite small (the lawn, not the people!) because you need
lots of individual plants fairly close together, and I think it works
out pretty expensive. I don't think they're that easy to establish or
maintain, either. It's not like sowing grass seed and waiting for it
to come up, or having turf laid. If it was easy, everyone would do it.
The benefits are that they don't need mowing, apparently, and they
smell nice.

Looking in a back number of 'Gardeners World' magazine (March 2002),
an ad says that 50 plants are needed per square meter (that's about 1
plant every 15 cm, or 6 inches, in all directions), costing £12.50.
There's also a web site www.camomilelawns.co.uk . If you do try it,
the recommended variety of camomile to go for is 'Treneague'.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net