Could Be the Year to Get Rid of the Lawn

My father was - along with a lot of other things! - a professional gardener, and he had an absolute hatred of lawns, however small. Grass was, he said, greedy and expensive unless something useful was eating it.

By 'something useful', he meant 'something edible' - and I recall that both of my parents could be quite reticent about the 'useful things' that they and their neighbours had kept in the back gardens of Wednesbury Road, Walsall during the war. Like communally owned, privately slaughtered (and probably illegal!) pigs and sheep...

Anyway! Coming back to lawns and grass, my father was quite right. Grass really is very greedy, very expensive, and very wasteful unless something useful is eating it.

No sheep? Get rid of the grass and grow something you can eat yourself. You'll need to dig it up, of course - and you'll need to do it soon. And afterwards you'll need to put back the nutrients that grass is so greedy of - but considering the price of veg today you'll find it worthwhile to make the effort and pay for the fertiliser and the seeds.

By the way - if you don't have a lawn, don't worry - my father was just as fanatical about window boxes and - when they appeared - 'Grow Bags' that can be propped against a wall, or set out on a balcony. And he was keen on growing vegetables and herbs along with the flowers in borders. He thought that vegetables could be just as ornamental as flowers - and I think he was right.

If you've never grown anything - give it a go! You can get lots of advice on-line - and lots of things will grow anywhere without too much encouragement. A few years ago, I walked past a small museum behind Spitalfields market. Something was growing out of the cracks in the pavement, and clinging to the front of the house. It had very pretty red flowers. Took me a minute to recognise it. It was runner beans. Dad would have loved that.

Emily - http://www.therapypartnership.com/