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
--

"Michael Bell" wrote in message
. uk...
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?


I have no personal experience, but I saw a gardening programme a few years
ago which stated that camomile is not sufficiently hard wearing for use as a
lawn, at least one which has a significant amount of use. They made a raised
seat and planted that with camomile so you get the smell when you sit on it.

Steve

In message
"shazzbat" wrote:


"Michael Bell" wrote in message
. uk...
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?


I have no personal experience, but I saw a gardening programme a few years
ago which stated that camomile is not sufficiently hard wearing for use as a
lawn, at least one which has a significant amount of use. They made a raised
seat and planted that with camomile so you get the smell when you sit on it.

Steve

That's not going to be a problem. I have no intention of walking on it
any more than I need to tend the flowers around it.

Michael Bell




--

On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:58:17 GMT
Michael Bell wrote:

In message
"shazzbat" wrote:


"Michael Bell" wrote in message
. uk...
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?


I have no personal experience, but I saw a gardening programme a few years
ago which stated that camomile is not sufficiently hard wearing for use as a
lawn, at least one which has a significant amount of use. They made a raised
seat and planted that with camomile so you get the smell when you sit on it.

Steve

That's not going to be a problem. I have no intention of walking on it
any more than I need to tend the flowers around it.


How about creeping thyme? That smells lovely.

I've heard yarrow suggested. Parts of my lawn are filled with the stuff,
it's not easy to get rid of but it does look very green if not cut too short.

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to ecom
by removing the well known companies
Questions about wine? Visit http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

In message
Emery Davis wrote:

On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:58:17 GMT
Michael Bell wrote:

In message
"shazzbat" wrote:


"Michael Bell" wrote in message
. uk...
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?


I have no personal experience, but I saw a gardening programme a few years
ago which stated that camomile is not sufficiently hard wearing for
use as a
lawn, at least one which has a significant amount of use. They made a
raised
seat and planted that with camomile so you get the smell when you sit
on it.

Steve

That's not going to be a problem. I have no intention of walking on it
any more than I need to tend the flowers around it.


How about creeping thyme? That smells lovely.

I've heard yarrow suggested. Parts of my lawn are filled with the stuff,
it's not easy to get rid of but it does look very green if not cut too short.

-E

Yarrow? I've never even heard of it. Please tell me more.

Michael Bell


--

Michael Bell writes

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.

Flower beds don't have to have bare earth, and they're a lot easier to
maintain if they don't. A dense planting of small perennials (not
herbaceous plants which die down in winter) keeps the weeds down, and if
you choose plants which are interesting for their leaves, bark or
berries, you can get a garden which is interesting all the year round.

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.

You could try a wild flower lawn - choose low growing things like
daisies and clover and self heal and birds-foot trefoil

You need to work out why the current lawn isn't doing very well - poor
drainage, shade, trees taking moisture away? The same conditions will
affect anything you plant there, so you need to adapt your planting to
the conditions you have.
--
Kay

On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:57:43 GMT
Michael Bell wrote:


[]
Yarrow? I've never even heard of it. Please tell me more.


Not sure how to respond. g A common weed, you probably do
know it if not by name. Latin is Achillea millefolium. Many medicinal
uses traditionally, a google will turn up scads of references.

As far as in lawns goes, I can witness that it competes very well with
grass and tends to stay quite green during drought. I don't use
chemical weed killer on my lawn, so I can't say whether that is
effective against it, but it is otherwise difficult to shift.

Again, I googled "yarrow lawn" and came up with a picture in the
first hit:

http://www.smgrowers.com/gardens/yarrow.asp

HTH

-E

--
Emery Davis
You can reply to ecom
by removing the well known companies
Questions about wine? Visit http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com