Lawn or Non-Lawn?

A magnificent, healthy, emerald-green, weed-free lawn is the dream of every garden owner. Yet, while relatively inexpensive to establish, it demands substantial maintenance resources, both in labor and financial investment.

If you carry out all the necessary maintenance procedures (scarification, aeration, mowing at least once a week, as well as fertilization, disease treatment and prevention, and manual or chemical weed control), it will require approximately 100 man-hours per 100 square meters of lawn per season.

Let us calculate: based on a gardener's eight-hour workday, it will take approximately 12 working days per 100 square meters. This is in addition to purchasing equipment and consumables (fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides).

There is another side to maintaining a lawn: the use of a large volume of chemical products, which are not the most beneficial for human health. Since a lawn is an artificially created environment with nothing in common with nature, it requires artificial life support.

Frequent mowing requires constant fertilization; maintaining the purity of the grass cover requires herbicide treatments to eliminate weeds; a monoculture of a single species and the need for regular watering promote the development of diseases and pests, which in turn necessitates treatment with fungicides and insecticides.

What is the conclusion? Give up on lawns? Of course not! A lawn should be designed to simplify its maintenance. It should be an independent garden element of a simple shape, situated in a warm, sunny spot, uninterrupted by any other garden zones, and free of any objects placed upon it (such as trees, benches, etc.). Its area should be sufficient to meet the owners' needs for recreation and sports. In essence, it should be a neat, beautiful green lawn. A lawn should not be perceived as a mere backdrop for planting conifers, deciduous trees, and shrubs. Let us be frank: a lawn suffers and deteriorates in the shade of trees and shrubs, while all lawn maintenance procedures shorten the lifespan of those very plants.

What is the solution? Create sustainable plantings of shrubs and perennials that will thrive in the given conditions without requiring endless maintenance.