I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

Draven

"Draven" wrote in message
. uk...
I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

Draven



We opened our garden up to the public this year on a fund raising day. More
than one person remarked 'Thank God 'someone' still has a lawn'

Mike

"Draven" wrote in message
. uk...
I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

We opened our garden up to the public this year on a fund raising day. More
than one person remarked 'Thank God 'someone' still has a lawn'

Mike

Personally, I don't have much interest in creating one of those
carefully nursed, showcase areas of grass. I'm probably a gardening
philistine but I've never really understood the point of them. They
also bring back painful childhood memories of those expanses of perfect
grass that we weren't allowed to play football on.

If Mike is opening up his garden to the public, he is a different sort
of gardener from me. My household is just too anarchic to tolerate a
true lawn. We have patches of bumpy grass that we like, but even these
I would be happy to see replaced in time with more interesting plants.


In short, I don't dislike lawns but I prefer other people to have them.

"Draven" wrote in message
. uk...
I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?


Grass is fine if you have 5 acres and grazing animals, otherwise I'd stick
to the varieties that are 2 inches in diameter and 20 foot tall :-)

(I can't recommend PINK pampas though (it was wrongly labelled) - mine looks
like rags on sticks after the first bit of autumn weather)

..

"Draven" wrote in message
. uk...
I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

Draven
My wife but I would not...have been trying to convince wifey for many many
moons to get rid of the grass....H

In article , Draven
writes
I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

It's up to you, isn't it? Some people like immaculate pure grass lawns
and are willing to spend enough time to make them like that, some people
want grass for sitting on, playing football on or whatever. I hate
mowing, and find dense planting much easier and more fun to maintain.

We've removed all the grass from the front garden and replaced it by
plants and ponds, and are really pleased with the result - lower
maintenance and much more to look at. And the piece at the back is now
less than half the size it was. It's not a big garden, but you now have
to walk around it to see everything of interest rather than taking it
all in at a glance.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article , Draven
writes
I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

It's up to you, isn't it? Some people like immaculate pure grass lawns
and are willing to spend enough time to make them like that, some people
want grass for sitting on, playing football on or whatever. I hate
mowing, and find dense planting much easier and more fun to maintain.

We've removed all the grass from the front garden and replaced it by
plants and ponds, and are really pleased with the result - lower
maintenance and much more to look at. And the piece at the back is now
less than half the size it was. It's not a big garden, but you now have
to walk around it to see everything of interest rather than taking it
all in at a glance.
--

Our front garden is the same, easy to look at and easy to maintain, and I
think that the simplicity of the front garden, was what the visitors
expected of the back, but with the shrubs, flowers, trees AND the bit of
lawn, as one person said as they walked round the side of the house and saw
the back garden "WOW!!"

:-))

Mike

In article , Kay
writes
We've removed all the grass from the front garden and replaced it by
plants and ponds, and are really pleased with the result - lower
maintenance and much more to look at. And the piece at the back is now
less than half the size it was. It's not a big garden, but you now have
to walk around it to see everything of interest rather than taking it
all in at a glance.


I did the same with my front garden which now has a very large island
bed and a c shaped drive round. |This means I don't have to mow the lawn
at the front when I would never use it, sit on it or see it from the
window.
I now have trees and shrubs and perennials etc and less tidying up and
general maintenance. I can also see the shrubs from the window when
sitting down.
Would always have some lawn at the back but then we like lawn and trees
etc. It's up to the individual gardener as Kay says. If you have a lawn
you can edge your beds with smaller plants and they can been seen unlike
no grass and all the plants in wild profusion. Chances are anyway,
you'll get grass growing amongst plants in large beds, just not all
together in a lawn
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article , Janet Tweedy
writes

Chances are anyway,
you'll get grass growing amongst plants in large beds, just not all
together in a lawn

It's a lot easier to avoid if you don't have a lawn! I have very little
grass in the end of the garden which is formal beds and gravel paths,
whereas it's a constant battle keeping the grass out of the beds
surrounding the lawn.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

On 30/10/05 10:19, in article
, "Draven"
wrote:

I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

If you're not going to use your lawn to sit on or for children to play on,
then getting rid of it is certainly an option. But do take into
consideration what sort of house you live in, too. Some older houses do
really beg for a lawn and would look rather lost without one. For example,
our is a Victorian vicarage and the lawn in front of it is a key to the
whole garden, IMO. In old-fashioned terms, the lawn was the 'heart' of the
flower garden and everything worked round it, whatever the size of house or
garden.
Just digging it up and shoving in more shrubs without looking at the overall
structure with the plants or beds you have now, would be a mistake, IMO. I
like Kay's idea of putting in ponds and perhaps focusing the planting in
that way.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

"Sacha" wrote in message
.uk...
On 30/10/05 10:19, in article
, "Draven"
wrote:

I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

If you're not going to use your lawn to sit on or for children to play on,
then getting rid of it is certainly an option. But do take into
consideration what sort of house you live in, too. Some older houses do
really beg for a lawn and would look rather lost without one. For
example,
our is a Victorian vicarage and the lawn in front of it is a key to the
whole garden, IMO. In old-fashioned terms, the lawn was the 'heart' of
the
flower garden and everything worked round it, whatever the size of house
or
garden.
Just digging it up and shoving in more shrubs without looking at the
overall
structure with the plants or beds you have now, would be a mistake, IMO.
I
like Kay's idea of putting in ponds and perhaps focusing the planting in
that way.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

Draven

I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

Draven



But your garden is what YOU want. I am not a gardener and would concrete the
lot and paint it green. There would be tubes sunk in here and there to put
appropriate, ie in season, plastic flowers in.

BUT,

as my wife is a gardener and I enjoy the results of the work she puts in, we
have lawns, flower beds, pots, a patio for deck chairs, paths etc etc etc.

However, you might not like our garden :-))

See what I mean?

Mike

"Sacha" wrote in message
.uk...
On 30/10/05 10:19, in article
, "Draven"
wrote:

I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

If you're not going to use your lawn to sit on or for children to play on,
then getting rid of it is certainly an option. But do take into
consideration what sort of house you live in, too. Some older houses do
really beg for a lawn and would look rather lost without one. For
example,
our is a Victorian vicarage and the lawn in front of it is a key to the
whole garden, IMO. In old-fashioned terms, the lawn was the 'heart' of
the
flower garden and everything worked round it, whatever the size of house
or
garden.
Just digging it up and shoving in more shrubs without looking at the
overall
structure with the plants or beds you have now, would be a mistake, IMO.
I
like Kay's idea of putting in ponds and perhaps focusing the planting in
that way.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

I would really like more space for plants and veg.
ATM I'm confined to growing veg in containers and then I look at my uneven
lawn and try to imagine rows of beetroot, onions etc. ;O)

Draven

On 30/10/05 14:20, in article
, "Draven"
wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
.uk...
On 30/10/05 10:19, in article
, "Draven"
wrote:

I'm thinking of taking up, what's rest of my lawn, and putting beautiful
plants in its place.

How many would agree or disagree to this proposal?

If you're not going to use your lawn to sit on or for children to play on,
then getting rid of it is certainly an option.
snip


I would really like more space for plants and veg.
ATM I'm confined to growing veg in containers and then I look at my uneven
lawn and try to imagine rows of beetroot, onions etc. ;O)

Old English cottage gardens grew veg in the front garden and lawns were a
luxury that took up good food space. Go for it!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

why not do it then? Here in the fen a lot of the older generations,
especially in council houses or farm cottages had this in the back.
They grew all the vegs there and only the tiny front garden had flowers.