Never mowing front lawn again?

[donquixotedelamancha]

I don't know the first thing about gardening, so feel free to explain like you are talking to a small child.

We have a long front lawn, two trees and a pampas grass dotted in it and a rockery with 3 leylandii and some other plants next to the house. It's north facing so the house end is very shaded and mostly moss (despite 3 years of a lawn company supposedly fixing it). Even the other end is patchy. Neighbours put much more effort into their lawns and also very mossy- soil doesn't drain well. Not going to install drainage at the front.

I have this idea of turning the front into a wildflower meadow and leaving it unmowed. I don't want to go back to bare earth and the soil is poor enough that I think flowers might take without that but, again, I know nothing. So...

• Any obvious disadvantages?
• What to plant/sow?
• When/how?
• Any other suggestions?

Many thanks in advance for any assistance.

Bump.

Wildflower meadow looks lovely when there are flowers in bloom.
The other 10 months of the year it looks like you can't be arsed to mow your lawn!

Even meadows get mowed, just after flowering. Will end up looking tatty, much as I like this idea, it doesn't work long-term.

We live in an area where people either gravel or install plastic grass.

Do you have any sunlight at all? as some species may not thrive?

Try researching shadey plants or look in to wildflower turf for a ready made option, some companies do 'shade tolerant turf'

just adding, yes wildflower will need mowing minimum once a year and need maintaining to stop grasses taking over as inevitably this is what will happen

Most meadow type wildflowers like sunny locations. And yes, it would look pretty crap in the winter, as a PP has pointed out.
Why not work with the conditions you’ve got? If it’s north facing, shady and damp, create an attractive rockery with a variety of different ferns and hostas, which will be very happy to grow there. Or create a pond, fringed with shade loving water plants.

We have a wildflower "area" (about small garden sized). It is on a patch on really rubbish ground that nothing else would grow on. It looks lovely, in May. And maybe one bit of June. Rest of the time (while waiting to seed) it looks like crap. And still needs mowing at the end of August.

I'd gravel, maybe keep shrubs and pampas grass, and maybe stick in some prairie-style flowers or some smaller ornamental grasses etc that need v little attention but look pretty - and can then pick and choose as to whether need to be shade tolerant or not.

It will end up looking tatty. Weeds will grow among the wild flowers and you’ll have to dig them out (and if you don’t dig them out they’ll take over). Also wild flowers tend to like soil that gets disturbed (which is why poppies grow in fields that get ploughed regularly). Your wild flower meadow will look great the first year but will rapidly lose its appeal as the flowers die out in subsequent years because the soil hasn’t been disturbed. IMO you want your front garden to have year round appeal so evergreens are the best low maintenance choice.

Yes yes to hostas and ferns. You can always fling some foxgloves and brunnera in there too. Like this.

On the plus side, the fact that the existing grass is struggling probably means that you can shortcut some of the usual steps to kill off/hold back the grass to make sure it doesn't swamp the meadow plants but, as others have said, the meadow plants are also likely to struggle.

Could you work with what you've got to create a Japanese style garden with rockery, conifers and precision-raked gravel?

Another vote for rockery and ferns or gravel with plenty of planting in it. Even a well maintained lawn is a bit of a boring monoculture at the end of the day and if grass doesn't grow we'll get rid of it.

If you have a diesel car plant conifers on the driveway at exhaust height to trap particulates.

If you want colour you could put in bedding plants each season, either planted in a bed or in large pots (big pots are easier to keep on top of the watering).

Thank you to all, for the replies. To clarify some points:

• I'm aware I will still need to mow (title a little hyperbolic). I was thinking of keeping it mown (but not too short) a few times over winter to avoid looking too rough.

• The garden is 3.5m by 11m. I am mulling the rockery idea at the shaded end, but I'm reluctant to put gravel on it all.

• I've decided the pamphas is going, it's causing drain problems. Which means a big long unbroken lawn at the mo.

• One of my prime reasons for considering wildflowers is lazyness environmental. I think I'm willing to put up with it looking a bit rough (I'd mow the border to neaten) for that reason. But I'm reconsidering based on the feedback here.

My immediate thoughts are:

• Will any wildflowers grow well in that shady bit? There are mixes of woodland flowers which are supposedly for high shade.
• Would plugs stand a better chance of taking in the shaded bit?
• Will I get away with just scarifying and sowing, instead of digging up? Once the moss is out there will be quite a bit of bare earth.

does anyone have grass left on their lawn? Ours has dried up so much that it crunches when you walk on it -

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=281 camomile lawn

Gravel can be great on an area that size, so long as it is broken up, visually. It is also free draining so good in all conditions.

Plugs - especially of things like cowslips - will take better in the shade, I suspect.

And yes, I still have some lawn that is green, on the shady side of my garden. The grass on the sunny side is yellow and crunchy.

Oh, yes. When I suggested gravel I didn’t mean yards and yards of it with nothing else, car park style. I was visualising a Japanese gravel garden with the customary acers, hostas and so on (and incorporating the rockery and the conifers already there) surrounded by beautifully raked stones. I’ll look for a picture.

Primroses, pulmonera, foxgloves, sweet Woodruff (lots more I'm sure).. personally I'd intersperse them with some evergreen ferns rather than have a "meadow" iyswim as I think it would work better with the shade and look better year round. Kind of woodland-y. NB I am not in any way an expert.

My I love my privet hedge as it helps to cut out traffic noise and gives my privacy but I had really hot out of hand it's now about 10 ft high in places. Any advice on going about cutting back? Or do I just go for it with electric cutters? I'm renting but landlord not bothered about garden maintenance and I'm not an experienced gardener.

Sorry that was meant to be a new topic!