Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: Grubbypaws on May 02, 2018, 13:53

Title: Is it possible to have a lawn in an organic garden?
Post by: Grubbypaws on May 02, 2018, 13:53

I haven't used pesticides in my garden for several years and have a wonderful array of wild life visit, feed and breed but my lawn is a disaster  :(  I have a few blades of grass and the rest is simply moss and a lot of dandelions.

The 'lawn' is on the NW side of the house and gets no sunshine at all during the winter months.

Is there any way that I can kill the dandelions and moss without the use of pesticides? My husband has tried gigging the dandelions out but thee are just too many.

I look forward to hearing from anyone who has succeeded where I have failed  :)

Title: Re: Is it possible to have a lawn in an organic garden?
Post by: mumofstig on May 02, 2018, 16:47

I just ignore the dandelion leaves and just make sure the lawn grass gets cut before the flowers set seed  :D

I stopped being fussy about it years ago  :D

Title: Re: Is it possible to have a lawn in an organic garden?
Post by: Grubbypaws on May 02, 2018, 17:33

Yes I think that has been the problem. This is the first time that we have been home in Spring for some 8 years so the dandelions have been free to happily set seed for a good many years.

Do you bother to do anything with the moss or just accept that at least it is green?

Title: Re: Is it possible to have a lawn in an organic garden?
Post by: robinahood on May 02, 2018, 18:08

It might be a case of changing your mindset a bit, something like white clover would be lovely, and stays green in a drought, also the insects love it if you allow it to get big enough to flower. Or encourage the moss, and say it's a Japanese garden! You could add ferns etc. if there's a bed there.

Title: Re: Is it possible to have a lawn in an organic garden?
Post by: JayG on May 03, 2018, 09:54

Quote from: Grubbypaws on May 02, 2018, 17:33

Do you bother to do anything with the moss or just accept that at least it is green?

Usual cause of moss is poor drainage coupled with an aspect which doesn't help the lawn dry out (i.e. yours by the sound of it.) Having said that, my lawn is south facing, well drained, but very mossy - my theory is that the soil is so low in nutrients that the moss finds it easy to out-compete with the grass.

Manual moss removal (very hard work without a powered scarifier), aerating the soil if necessary (also hard work), regular feeding if the soil is poor (expensive).

Guess what? - I've learned to love my nice, mossy, springy 'lawn'!  :lol: