Volume 13, Issue 3, 2014, Pages 433–442
Abstract
In
Britain, managed grass lawns provide the most traditional and
widespread of garden and landscape practices in use today. Grass lawns
are coming under increasing challenge as they tend to support a low
level of biodiversity and can require substantial additional inputs to
maintain. Here we apply a novel approach to the traditional monocultural
lawnscape by replacing grasses entirely with clonal perennial forbs. We
monitored changes in plant coverage and species composition over a two
year period and here we report the results of a study comparing plant
origin (native, non-native and mixed) and mowing regime. This allows us
to assess the viability of this construct as an alternative to
traditional grass lawns. Grass-free lawns provided a similar level of
plant cover to grass lawns. Both the mowing regime and the combination
of species used affected this outcome, with native plant species seen to
have the highest survival rates, and mowing at 4 cm to produce the
greatest amount of ground coverage and plant species diversity within
grass-free lawns. Grass-free lawns required over 50 percent less mowing
than a traditionally managed grass lawn. Observations suggest that plant
forms that exhibited: (a) a relatively fast growth rate, (b) a
relatively large individual leaf area, and (c) an average leaf height
substantially above the cut to be applied, were unsuitable for use in
grass-free lawns. With an equivalent level of ground coverage to grass
lawns, increased plant diversity and a reduced need for mowing, the
grass-free lawn can be seen as a species diverse, lower input and
potentially highly ornamental alternative to the traditional lawn
format.
Keywords
- Garden;
- Grass-free;
- Lawn;
- Mowing;
- Ornamental horticulture
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