Doing away with the grass

[Poppy Mole]

I have a very small area of lawn (mostly dandelions & other weeds!) in my front garden which I would like to do away with. I am very reluctant to pave it so would therefore prefer some very fast growing very short (2ft.max) shrubby type plants - any suggestions please.

[Poppy Mole]

[shirlton]

You can get different types of Pieris and also Spirea.Keep them clipped to your liking

[raisedbedted]

Box and Hebe trimmed as small hills, Japanesey style.  Or plant the whole area in Borage and marvel at the insects all summer long.

[caroline7758]

Most of my small front garden is covered with St John's wort (Hypericum)- evergreen with nice yellow flowers in summer.

[saddad]

Germander... very forgiving... nice pink flowers later in the season.. can virtually be "mown"...  :)

[caroline7758]

Never heard of that one-must look it up.

[pigeonseed]

thyme is good, also prostrate rosemary - they're both cheap to buy and they grow fairly fast. Thyme seems to grow well from seed as well.

Thyme gives a low green lawn , and you'd get bees as well when it flowers

[saddad]

Never heard of that one-must look it up.

It's what OH uses to edge her pottager beds with... you've seen it on our Open Days...
www.littleoverlaneallotments.org.uk
If you leave it you get pink flowers, you can totally stool it if it gets too lax/large... easily propagated
Love the prostrate Rosemary idea but it is too tender here, or the soil is just too damp  :-\

[GrannieAnnie]

I commend you on doing away with grass  :D and hope it catches on better than in our area where folks (my hubby included) cling to such an environmentally unfriendly habit. Each year I carve away a little more lawn and make it grow something useful. But he is watching, he is watching...

[Kendy]

How about veg - just like in the war years  ;)

[tomatoada]

Hebe and box are on offer at Lydl this Thursday near me S.Brum..  I don't know if they have the same offers country wide.

[1066]

thanks for the info Tomatoada, I'll look out for those as we need to re-stock the garden soon and I love hebes - useful, aren't rampant and a bit of all year round interest
We're also getting rid of our grass this winter.To be honest its a pathetic attempt at grass, I hate mowing (kills my back off) and frankly the garden is just too small for a decent lawn. Just got to decide on the type of chippings/pebbles/slate etc.....

[Poppy Mole]

Right, holidays finished for this year, now I will get down to sorting the front garden.
Two questions:-
1. If I get smallish (i.e. cheaper) shrubby things should I cover the soilwith bark chips to sppress the weeds?
2. Should I use Roundup to kill off the scabby grass & weeds before digging it up?

[1066]

hi
personally I wouldn't bother with round-up, its an each to their own thing. Plus you wouldn't be able to plant for a while / straight away (others on here will be able to tell you more)
I also wouldn't bother with weed supressant stuff as the shrubs will soon grow and fill in the gaps - but again probably a personal choice
Good luck with your project  :D

[Tulipa]

Hi Poppy Mole,

Round-up works better earlier in the year when plants are actively growing.  It is much slower at this time of year and doesn't always work.

I would use bark though, anything to help keep the weeds down is good in my view and it does help, especially while the shrubs are small, as it depends what you use as to how quick they grow and fill the space.

I like the idea of Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender etc sounds like you could have quite a good herb area out there - purple sage, variegated sage and several different thymes.  If you go for the shrubby perennial herbs.  They would all attract the wildlife, - bees especially, and you can go and snip them to use.  They would all look good planted though membrane with gravel on top too for low maintenance.

Good luck. :)

T.

[Poppy Mole]

Thanks everyone - didn't roundup & have started digging & now it is raining.
Been to the garden centres & bought various shrubs which were on offer, so I won't feel quite so bad if they die on me!