Half an acre of neglected lawn

[Tooearlyforsquats]

We’re hoping to buy our dream house which currently looks like Miss Havisham just left it.

We’re going to have to concentrate money and professional resources on the house itself, plus removing sycamores, conifers and other wildly overgrown shrubs.

How do I resuscitate the lawn? Currently shaggy L shaped meadow. Current house we have two medium sized lawns front and back that a man comes and does for £25 ... I expect it would be a hundred a time if I paid for the new house’s lawn.

Should I just buy a ride on and be done with it?? In ireland so needs done every two weeks April- late Oct. aiming for relaxed, nature friendly, children running about kind of vibe, not lawn bowls!

I cant see how a lawn is bad for the environment. It's only grass, like a field. Kept short by a mower not a cow. Still plenty space for diversity if you're easy going about it

It's only grass, like a field. A field isn't very good for the environment. Not if it's a modern field, supported by artificial fertilisers. The reason for trying to preserve and regenerate traditional hay meadows is not just that the flowers look pretty, it's because the diversity of soil invertebrates is much higher, the meadow supports more in the way of butterflies, bees, small mammals.

A regularly maintained lawn, especially with applications of "weed and feed" or similar, is a low diversity construct occupying space that could be used better if the environment is your main consideration.

On the other hand, mown regularly, but resisting the urge to kill "the weeds", to feed it to green it up, or to water copiously during the summer you're moving towards a rabbit-grazed sward. If it's been heavily fertilised in the past, you'll take a long time to get there, but it will be an improvement.

Yes that's what i mean. No particular treatments, apart from mowing, just let it do it own thing.
I have a good size "lawn" out the back. There is a surprising amount of diversity in it. Different types of grasses and mosses, daisies, clover etc, brambles, nettles,dock,ivy, primroses and fungi depending on season, even wild orchids. We keep it fairly short near the house for the kids to play and it looks nicer than bowling green lawns imo.

I’m definitely not against daisies and clover! And I don’t use any weed n feed stuff currently.

In my experience only grass survives regular mowing, so just mow the bits you want lawn. You can empty your bath water on it if you reall6 want but we just mow.