big lawn - how to reduce size

MungoMan

my brother has a big lawn in front of his new house

takes 3 hours to cut with petrol push lawn mower

he wants to get a sit on lawn mower, still would take an hour to do

i was trying to persuade him to reduce the lawn size, but I'm not sure how

He doesn't want to take on the expense of getting more hard landscaping, he wants a low cost natural solution

I suggested biomass (dense quick growing willow trees) which he could use for fire. He wasnt happy with that, thinks it would be an eyesore at the front of his house.

Any low cost suggestions ?

The Sweeper

Has he any garden beds around the lawn? If not, he could put some in; if he does, he can widen them.

Problem with reducing the size of the lawn is that it involves putting in 'features' in place of lawn, and features can be costly and also awkward to mow around and messy to mow between. Whatever feature you put in needs to be well defined - if you just plant a bunch of trees, you'll end up with a bunch of tree trunks that are difficult to mow around and you can't strim near too them or you could ring the bark and kill the trees. Subsequently, for neatness, you'd need to dig a garden bed first, and then plant trees in the bed, and keep it weed free, and then mow around it - so you've replaced mowing the lawn with weeding and mowing around the bed.

Other options would be a stretch of patio or paving - if he can get his hands on discarded bricks (lots of them), he could lift the sod and build a brick path to a nice feature like a circular patio, but you need some brickwork skills to ensure that doesn't look rubbish.

It's like anything in this life - you don't really get something for nothing. He could try digging an enormous garden bed in the centre of the lawn and planting low, spreading shrubs in it (their groundcover abilities will keep the weeds down). He could look at shaped feature bed, e.g. oval, circular, square (cruciform if he wants but again it's more fiddly to mow around) and mass plant with something effective - classic combo would be lavender and roses. They require a bit of work on pruning but not weekly maintenance, and they could take up a big patch of lawn.

Better again, brick path to brick circular area, with a ring of garden bed around it - secret garden type space to go read a book in on a nice day...

MungoMan

The Sweeper wrote: »

Has he any garden beds around the lawn? If not, he could put some in; if he does, he can widen them.

Problem with reducing the size of the lawn is that it involves putting in 'features' in place of lawn, and features can be costly and also awkward to mow around and messy to mow between. Whatever feature you put in needs to be well defined - if you just plant a bunch of trees, you'll end up with a bunch of tree trunks that are difficult to mow around and you can't strim near too them or you could ring the bark and kill the trees. Subsequently, for neatness, you'd need to dig a garden bed first, and then plant trees in the bed, and keep it weed free, and then mow around it - so you've replaced mowing the lawn with weeding and mowing around the bed.

Other options would be a stretch of patio or paving - if he can get his hands on discarded bricks (lots of them), he could lift the sod and build a brick path to a nice feature like a circular patio, but you need some brickwork skills to ensure that doesn't look rubbish.

It's like anything in this life - you don't really get something for nothing. He could try digging an enormous garden bed in the centre of the lawn and planting low, spreading shrubs in it (their groundcover abilities will keep the weeds down). He could look at shaped feature bed, e.g. oval, circular, square (cruciform if he wants but again it's more fiddly to mow around) and mass plant with something effective - classic combo would be lavender and roses. They require a bit of work on pruning but not weekly maintenance, and they could take up a big patch of lawn.

Better again, brick path to brick circular area, with a ring of garden bed around it - secret garden type space to go read a book in on a nice day...

Good answer. All hard landscaping is out because the new house has gone a lot over budget.
I like the idea of ground cover plants, low spreading shrubs. Which shrubs achieve this ?

The objective is a low maintenance natural garden, one that does not require the burning of fossil fuels to maintain.

The Sweeper

If he were to plot out a large round or square bed in the centre of the lawn (or alternatively edge the lawn with flowerbeds, and then cut the two corners to make deep beds), so the lawn is still squarish and a single piece, only smaller) then a number of hardy, relatively low-maintenance perennials would include:

Lavender
Rosemary
Flower carpet roses (a spreading rose that does benefit from pruning, flowers prolifically but doesn't require dead-heading)
Hebes (there are a lot of different types with different flowers - they can get a little straggly when they get old)

Some of the landscape gardeners on here will give you other suggestions, because there are more interesting options out there (the ones I've suggested are a little hackneyed) but you can also just wander through the local garden centre and figure out what they have in terms of perennials. Remember, the smaller the plant the cheaper it will be, and you won't have to wait all that long for it to grow.

secman

Get the ride on, its no work at all ! I have a very big back lawn, large enough side one and a very good size front lawn. It takes about 40/45 mins to do the lot once you are doing it weekly. Its good down time just sitting there and plotting out designs on the cuts ! Chill out while cutting grass ! Way to Go !!!!!!!



Secman

Fatswaldo

I'm with Secman. I had the same problem, three hours with a walk behind - killer job and a pain in the ass. Ride on with big cutting deck does it in under an hour. ipod and an hour to yourself on a sunny evening is great. :cool:

Qwerty?

I agree with previous two posters. I have over an acre of lawn, and takes under well under an hour to cut with collecting, and less than 45 mins when mulching.

Velvet shank

One possibility which may be worthy of consideration involves creating a wildflower meadow or lawn in part of the area. It would still have to be mowed, but only once or twice a year once the conditions have become suitable for such a habitat.

Creating a wildflower lawn generally involves reducing the fertility level of the lawn area so as to weaken the dominance of fast-growing grass species and thereby allow other less dominant grasses and wildflowers to compete for resources. This can be done by removing all grass clippings over a certain period of time and by refraining from artificially fertilising the area in any way.

It can be surprising how quickly the rate of grass growth falls and other spcies start to gain a foothold. I had a grassed area - albeit much smaller than the one under discussion here - that was difficult to keep tidy, so went down the wildflower lawn route. It now requires little effort to maintain and positively teems with invertebrates in the summer compared to the relatively sterile traditionally-managed grassed areas.

magicbastarder

given that he wants a low cost solution, i'd say a ride on wouldn't be a good one - why is willow seen as an eyesore?
why not get a load of bare root birch next winter and at least reduce the footprint of the lawn?

secman

Magic, read OP post again he says his brother WANTS a ride on.......... his brother is trying to stop him !

Secman

The Sweeper

Ride ons are indeed expensive, but they should last if cared for properly. If not cared for properly, they are expensive to maintain and fix. (Cared for properly - don't do things like forget to lift the cutting deck when driving across the gravel driveway, for instance, and learn how to fix a tyre puncture etc.)

Depends how much space you have though. If you want manicured lawn, you'll still have to do edges and such like by hand - it's harder to get the ride-on close to edges than it is with a push mower. (Unless you have ride-on driving skillz, which you may well acquire with practice.)

The OH has a relative here on 70 acres and he cuts sections of his grass with a ride-on - he cuts a couple of metres either side of his driveway, the lawns around the house and the lawns around his stables with a ride-on - takes him six hours.

lalorm

Think about landscaping to give more interest and reduce your lawncare time

secman

QUOTE : "he wants to get a sit on lawn mower, still would take an hour to do

i was trying to persuade him to reduce the lawn size, but I'm not sure how"

The guy who owns the garden doesn't have a problem with the garden his brother does !!!!!!!!!!!

The owner wanst to get a ride on mower...........problem solved



Secman

MungoMan

secman wrote: »

QUOTE : "he wants to get a sit on lawn mower, still would take an hour to do

i was trying to persuade him to reduce the lawn size, but I'm not sure how"

The guy who owns the garden doesn't have a problem with the garden his brother does !!!!!!!!!!!

The owner wanst to get a ride on mower...........problem solved



Secman

I was just trying to give him some good reasons to reduce his carbon footprint. Mowing over 2000 square meters of lawn every week is bad for the environment ! Noise polution, burning fossil fuels, takes time too.

He has agreed to start a wildflower garden, and plant a few fruit trees, and maybe some dense willow for biomass

oflynno

why not use a big section of it for wild flowers/meadow type of grass.

you can buy cheap wildflower seeds in aldi or lidl or other garden centres,throw them out and see what grows

for more fun buy a big bag of wild bird seed or sunflower seeds and leave the place go mad.it is actually great easy fun.

i had loads of veggie seeds left over last year and i mixed them all up and threw them on a clean earth bed
loads germinated and i had a random veggie garden for a few months with new stuff popping up all the time