3 October 1964 To be the master of a perfect lawn is an ideal that few of us attain for more than brief periodsEnglish lawns are world famous; they are also big business. The money spent each year on their upkeep is enough to pave quite a few of them with gold. Admittedly, a fine lawn in immaculate condition is something to be proud of, but the effort and expense needed to keep it so is greater than most gardeners will admit, and to be the master of a perfect lawn is an ideal that few of us attain for more than brief periods. I know only one that is faultless, and it is set in a garden of such stone-studded ugliness that when I pass it I try to see only the green sward with its perfectly parallel mowing lines, looking just like strips of the finest carpet laid by an expert. If it were not for that rich green open space the whole garden would be unbearable, and never once have I seen anybody sitting out and enjoying it. A lawn has become so much part of the accepted pattern for a garden in this country that we try to make one even in tiny spaces where it is obviously not a practical proposition. Nothing spoils a garden so completely as a worn, weedy, parched or generally tatty lawn, and whether neglect or to much hard wear is to blame makes no odds. We are, I suppose, incurably romantic and optimistic; we find it hard to admit that our dream of a verdant lawn is often impossible to realise and that we would do far better to forget it and rely on some sort of paving instead. The initial cost of paving is certainly greater than buying turf or sowing a lawn, but once it has been well and truly laid it will demand no more in care and upkeep for many, many years. Continue reading…
Source : theguardian.com
Read more…The cult of the garden lawn – archive, 3 October 1964
