Big lawn - advice please

[pollyglot]

Hi all, I'd be very grateful for some ideas on how to make a big grassed area more easy-care.
Attached is a not-very-good plan of the garden, unfortunately not to scale. It's an acre, (4000 sq m) house (2000 sq ft) set in the middle, with garage (c. 800 sq ft) behind. The whole property is planted in very productive fruit trees, which have to be mowed around. Every boundary has a very big hedge of lillypilly and some native trees which act as a great windbreak, but which have to be kept under control. It's on a gentle slope from back to front, and we get pooling of water and marshiness during the winter around the front hedge. I've planted a mass of Phormium tenax around and under the front hedge to help with the soggy winter soil problem, and which helps a bit with the mowing, but with health issues, it's all becoming a bit overwhelming. I have a lovely man to mow now, but with petrol costs and all, it's very expensive. I don't really want to cut out high-producing fruit trees to make the mowing easier and therefore cheaper, but the reality is that a lot of the fruit goes to waste anyway, despite freezing, giving away en masse and putting in the compost. I spray under the trees and mulch so that there's less effort to mow, but it's still a lot of work to mow in circles under them. I have access to masses of tree mulch from the hedge pruning, and have considered spraying the grass in strips, and replacing with mulch and bark chips - which are very expensive - and planting native (evergreen) trees which attract the native birds with their beautiful song. I'm a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of so much work, but at least once it's done it will save a lot of time and money in mowing. Turning the lawn into meadow is not really a prospect here, with our sub-tropical climate and phenomenal growth rate. Can anyone come up with an alternative idea other than getting rid of some of the burden of endless pruning/mowing/spraying/chainsawing and salve my conscience about getting rid of perfectly good, productive citrus? I don't want to move house! Many thanks for any ideas.

Could you just mow paths through the garden and let it grow a bit wild or try and create a bit of a wildflower meadow?

As PP said, I would just mow paths.

You could then have a full mow done (say) twice a year.

Can you get someone to graze a couple of ponies there? Or get someone to mow in return for a share of the fruit?

We have a similar size plot (admittedly not sub tropical) but would never consider mowing. Most of it is fenced off from the immediate garden bit around the house (which we do mow and that's more than enough!) and we share a few sheep with a neighbour who has a similar plot.

Thank you so much for your replies. I'll give it a go with the trees that are in a row...not so easy with the random plantings! Trouble is, we have to mow even in winter, and things just keep on growing at a ridiculous pace. I appreciate your time-thank you.

We have about 1/4 of an acre left as a wild meadow in summer, cut paths through it for dogs/children/grannies and it cuts a bit off mowing time.

also training a child on the ride on so they can earn £ for mowing the lawn, it only needs doing 3/4 weeks at an hour a go so it’s not too labour intensive.

A robotic lawnmower is a good option. We have one in our garden. My husband installs them

We have a garden the same size and have the same conversations about how to make it easier! Our local farmer cuts the hedges for a small fee and we have a ride-on mower with a mulching attachment which makes the mowing as easy as it can be. We also leave a large area wild so that only gets cut once a year.
What about some grazing animals?

We have a huge lawn 1/3 of an acre with mature trees in it, and have a robot mower for this. It is so, so time saving.

OP I'd change the triangle of 'garden' between the path and house to a herb garden, and put a robot mower in for the rest. It will come with wire for the edges so you put the wire round things like the veg beds to keep it away, but the trees it will just bump off of.

Bincycle dispersal bed, not sure what this is but you can also put the wire round that if there are no hard boundaries for it to bump off of.

@AlisonDonut they are definitely a time saver! you can get them without wires now. They are easier to maintain so no cable breaks etc. The wireless ones are installed using a map and areas can be mapped out so it doesn't affect them/cut them. We haven't cut our lawn in over a year and half and always receive compliments.

It would be useful to give us an indication of the climate you’re in. I imagine if you’re growing citrus trees, then a wildflower meadow would be a no-no because of the fire risk of dry grass

I know and when the time comes, we will upgrade ours (whispering in case he is nearby).

We do still have a mower but that is only really used by me to mow up veggie prunings and dead plants to make it compost faster, or when the laurel hedges are cut back and to throw the cut bits under the hedge with the side mulcher, or to mow up the leaves for making leaf mould. It's more a composting tool than a mower.

Thanks for your ideas and help, folks. The subtropical Far North of New Zealand where everything grows at a frightening rate. I think I'll do the mowing strips as you suggest, and plant native trees in large quantities. Here's a sample of my produce - orange juice i squeezed today and curried kumara (sweet potato) soup with coconut, ginger and lime.

We’ve only got 1/4 acre of lawn and have a ride on mower with a mulching deck but, having seen how good a job a robotic lawnmower did on an acre of lawn in a garden near us, that’s a definite replacement option when our mower deck needs to be replaced.