to not mow my front lawn? Ever?

[FredWorms]

I just don't get this suburban thing about lawn-mowing. I do mine now and again, maybe 2 cuts a year, but I like it long. It harbours frogs and toads and all manner of creatures and I like the look of it too. I have flowers in pots and although my front garden isn't immaculate it's clearly not completely neglected either. It looks tatty, but not in that "old sofa and 3 rusty bikes" sort of way.

A couple of days ago a neighbour had a bit of a grumble about people not cutting their grass, clearly aimed at me, and I've heard other neighbours complain in the past. Why? How does it affect them? Is it because it makes the neighbourhood look run down? (quiet close in a small seaside town).

I genuinely don't get this. I was brought up on a farm, is there something I should know?

A wild flower meadow is not easy to maintain, and my soil's too rich.

I just don't think it would work for me.

A wild flower meadow needs poor soil. Keep removing the grass cuttings when you cut it at the end of summer and maybe get some Yellow Rattle, which will take lots of nutrients out the soil.

To get long grass to look neater, mow a thin strip around the edge of the lawn. Neat edges always make a garden look neater. You could mow a path though it if it's a big area.

Tbh I like a balance. If things are too neat I feel unsettled, but I'm a naturally unorganised person. I also like wildlife, so the lawn is kept short, but the rest of the garden is like a jungle. Luckily it is a mature garden, so it's a lovely colourful jungle although MIL would disagree. My front garden is paved, so I just knock the weeds out of the cracks with a shovel from time to time.

I've lived next door to some people with shocking gardens and very scruffy houses. I just ignored it. The only time anything like that bothered me was when I lived next door to a house with a garden full of rubbish and they had rats, I wasn't too keen on the pesky little buggers running into my garden.

"I think overgrown grass and wild stuff is nice in a meadow. But I do think it makes a house look unkempt and scruffy."

It does. If I was looking for a house I wouldn't even consider viewing one with an unkempt front garden because I would assume the house hadn't been maintained properly either.

"The "seeds blowing in the wind" argument is stark raving bonkers."

That statement is bonkers and inaccurate. Our previous next door neighbour was very elderly and couldn't look after his garden. Our garden was full of dandelions and weeds. Our current neighbours have green fingers and the garden is beautiful and adds so much to the neighbourhood, and we now have far fewer weeds in our garden.

My favourite garden look is organised chaos. I don't care for the really neat "municipal garden" look, preferring a cottage garden style flower bed, but I think the only way to pull that look off to be pleasing to the (my) eye is to offset it with neatly trimmed lawns or meandering footpaths.

A scruffy garden can also be off putting to your immediate neighbours if they want to sell their houses because it will put some buyers off because it isn't really about the garden but what is says about you as a neighbour as well.

If you hate gardening so much there are other options where you can have wildflowers and patches of meadowy grass without making your garden look run down and unkempt.

I love gardening, I do feel as though people are not really understanding me here. I like the look of long grass. I think it looks nicer than shorn grass, and I like all the stuff that lives in it.

Have you seen Edward Scissorhands? You might enjoy its perspective on suburban conformity. Edward is just who you need for your garden too!

Ok well you're right about meadows doing better on poor soil. Otherwise they need not be hard work, one cut a year. But, you could plant a few flowers amongst your grass to make it look more deliberate and artistic. Think arable weeds; poppies, cornflowers, ox-eye daisy, pheasant's eye.

There's a front garden near us that is just poppies. For a few weeks it looks absolutely spectacular.

If you cut once a year, after the seeds of the wild flowers have ripened and dropped out, and remove the clippings, your garden should turn into a meadow without help. The next year might be just grass. The next year is likely to be just one type of wildflower, but then the eco-system will balance itself out over subsequent years until it looks great.