It rained in the night here @Topbird and the night before. I'm not that far from you, hasn't it rained where you are? I do agree though that it's worrying, we need a lot more rain.
I agree with @bédé about lawns. They do set off the flowerbeds and I like the colour. I don't mind if it isn't all grass so long as it's green but I like it mown and the beds edged. It isn't a dead area, there are worms and insects living under it - which the birds appreciate. I don't use herbicides.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
I also like to have areas with short green vegetation. Mine involve just enough grass to need mowing. What I think would be really interesting would be to survey a square foot or square yard patch and see how many different species of plant I could find. Might give it a go in the spring / early summer.
I'm with you @Busy-Lizzie , I like a short-ish green lawn with tidy edges but I'm not bothered if it contains different sorts of grass (including annual meadowgrass which flowers and seeds lower than the mower blades) and clover, violets, speedwells, daisies etc. I don't like big rosette weeds like dandelions and plantains so I dig those out. The grass turns yellow/brown in more summers than it doesn't, which is a chance I take. There's one part that I might someday turn over to gravel with planting, but probably not this year.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
But there's a difference between a short green patch of grass that grows happily without too much in the way of fertiliser/herbicides etc ... and something that has to be mollycoddled, sprayed and watered almost 24/7 because someone is growing it in conditions that are otherwise unsuitable for it.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My "lawn" is showing Daisies ( a welcome sight when it is so dull and cloudy ). 1 or 2 dandelions also in flower. The clover will be next. The grass is still green as there has been enough rain here. Each to their own but for me, life is too short to worry about a pristine emerald sward. I can look over at the Cemetary for that
A friend has what is known as a salad bowl rather than a lawn. Not something you would want to eat but over the years the grass has almost disappeared replaced by every wild flower and weed imaginable. When everyone's lawn is dried and brown it mostly stays green, no work required infact it rarely needs a mow. Win win.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
I know we're not that far south of you but it really does make a difference! We've had a few short (ie less than 10 minutes) light showers over the last couple of days but nothing that's done anything beyond wetting the top inch of soil. Any soil under bushes, trees etc is really dry. Hardly a drop of rain in the 4 weeks before that.
January was also unseasonably dry - but not as bad as February.
Fortunately November and December were both wet months - but we could do with (literally) weeks of wet stuff.
I always mulch the borders at this time of year and I'm thinking I'd be best off giving them a good watering first. Much more efficient watering in winter - the soil already has a bit of moisture in it deep down so you don't need as much water to do a lot of good and, what you do introduce, doesn't just evaporate away under a drying sun. Putting mulch onto dry soil would be very silly in this area of extremely low rainfall.
I also like a nice green lawn, neatly edged, setting off the borders. Mine, however, is very definitely grass with additives - the additives being yarrow, clover, daisies, orchids, vetch, geraniums etc etc. The only thing I wage war on is dandelions and I deal with those with tools not chemicals. Last year my lawn wasn't brown or even yellow - it was more of a whitey-grey. The only green bits were the edges next to the borders which I watered when things were looking very stressed.
I do use glyphosate but only on the very large shingle driveways and patio when the weeds are too out of hand to be dealt with by hoeing - probably about once a year.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
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I agree with @bédé about lawns. They do set off the flowerbeds and I like the colour. I don't mind if it isn't all grass so long as it's green but I like it mown and the beds edged. It isn't a dead area, there are worms and insects living under it - which the birds appreciate. I don't use herbicides.
What I think would be really interesting would be to survey a square foot or square yard patch and see how many different species of plant I could find. Might give it a go in the spring / early summer.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Each to their own but for me, life is too short to worry about a pristine emerald sward. I can look over at the Cemetary for that
I know we're not that far south of you but it really does make a difference! We've had a few short (ie less than 10 minutes) light showers over the last couple of days but nothing that's done anything beyond wetting the top inch of soil. Any soil under bushes, trees etc is really dry. Hardly a drop of rain in the 4 weeks before that.
January was also unseasonably dry - but not as bad as February.
Fortunately November and December were both wet months - but we could do with (literally) weeks of wet stuff.
I always mulch the borders at this time of year and I'm thinking I'd be best off giving them a good watering first. Much more efficient watering in winter - the soil already has a bit of moisture in it deep down so you don't need as much water to do a lot of good and, what you do introduce, doesn't just evaporate away under a drying sun. Putting mulch onto dry soil would be very silly in this area of extremely low rainfall.
I also like a nice green lawn, neatly edged, setting off the borders. Mine, however, is very definitely grass with additives - the additives being yarrow, clover, daisies, orchids, vetch, geraniums etc etc. The only thing I wage war on is dandelions and I deal with those with tools not chemicals. Last year my lawn wasn't brown or even yellow - it was more of a whitey-grey. The only green bits were the edges next to the borders which I watered when things were looking very stressed.
I do use glyphosate but only on the very large shingle driveways and patio when the weeds are too out of hand to be dealt with by hoeing - probably about once a year.