Green grass of home

Did the gardeners amongst you obey the ‘No Mow May’ rule? I nearly did.  A couple of days before the end of the month, I gave in and pushed my electric mower over the grass which had by then become almost too tall to mow and I didn’t fancy having to clip all that by hand, on my knees. Even so, some of the turf underneath was turning yellow. Though nothing like the scrubby hay that was left over at the end of the driest summer imaginable last year when we all wondered if we’d ever see a green stalk again.  Of course, we did – native grasses amazingly come back to life when it rains.  

But it seems that many people are so fed up with the drama of lawn maintenance, or worry that a lawn isn’t robust enough to survive children and pets, that sales of artificial grass are booming. With more people spending more time and working from home since last year, ‘evergreen’ lawns are increasingly popular for busy families and for people looking for a trendy contribution to garden design.  

In turn, the cumulative impact of the plastic is worrying environmentalists. Around 80% of UK households have access to a private garden, adding up to around 23 million patches of land that together make up a vital wildlife habitat, including our lawns. BBC ‘Springwatch’ presenter, Chris Packham, has described artificial turf as the “horticultural Antichrist”. Artificial turf firms are feeling the heat and are developing recyclable turf and ‘air purifying’ turf. Neither will be finding their way to my garden. Meanwhile, I’m very pleased to be watching Euro 2020 football matches being played on perfect carpets of closely mown green grass and can’t wait for the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships to start tomorrow on those famous precision cut and manicured grass courts.