Lawn

Would you say a 10fx25f lawn is a good size ?

Trying to work out if it is. Any pic's of lawns a similier size ?

The problem i have is that i moved into a house years ago with a 80f long garden. ALL lawn. Looked and felt massive. Slowley ive converted it into a proper garden and not just a green back yard. My final plan is to create a square lawn in the middle, surrounding by a box hedge and a path, it will be 10 feet wide by 25 feet long but was concerned that it will be too small and the mrs will go nuts

Any pic's or advice appreciated.

G

 

If Mrs. Grinch likes to spend time sitting in the garden on a sunny day I think you might find yourself in trouble with that size. 25ft isn't to bad but 10ft is not that much bigger than a tall man if you think about it. Can you not make it 25ft x 25ft.

Other than that, bite the bullet and ask her what's the minimum size she'll make do with. Glad it's you and not me!

 

The trouble is Sheal, she doesnt garden, doesnt really have an interest. Supportive yes, but her only concern are the kids. Nothing else matters. Luckily, i have two girls who are not too destructive and there's also not much call for ball games to be played. They also have their own play area (that one day will be my compost and baby plant area).
To be honest it wouldnt really bother her if i did nothing in the garden bar cut a very large lawn. Oh she appreciates it when its at its best and she likes the new patio but she doesnt get the finner points, the practicle points the design points that can often be frustrating.

I could make it 11 x 25 but even adding this extra foot may make the finished product look not quiet right. Check out my Grincky Garden thread to see

 

If you have somewhere large enough to sit out with friends (i.e. somewhere other than the lawn) then you don't need any lawn at all. At the most extreme you could create a "jungle garden" with narrow winding paths that would have significant intrigue. Or put the whole thing down to veg and have no ornamentals, but have lovely fresh veg all year round.

If you are going to have a patch of lawn, then you need something around it so that it, and what is around it, "sets each other off" so to speak.

You need a lot of Box plants ('coz they need to be planted close together - 20cm for bare-root to 25cm if you buy largish pot grown plants), so have one eye on the cost of that.

 

Is the area already marked out? If not lay some canes/hose/something similar as close to the dimensions as you can and try to visualise the area as lawn.

The beautiful thing about lawn that size is for minimum effort you can have an immaculate lawn. You could even go down the hydroponic golf green route and create your own 18th (and 19th) hole

 

Hi Kristen,
Thanks for your input. I think every garden needs a lawn. People who are not into gardening or never really think about it look at me in shock when i say i want to reduce the size of my lawn though. These people (and that includes my nearest and dearest) have a mind set that you must have a big lawn, surrounded by narrow borders. To me that is boring and dull, practicle with kids no doubt but very little thought has gone into it. To me, you might aswell have a concrete back yard.
On the other hand, i believe a lawn in any garden can off set and enhance other features around it. At the moment, its just a longish green thing that doesnt enhance anything. My kids play the occasional ball game on it but nothing major, so i want to make more of it. Sometimes less means more i think. I agree 100% that Buxus will set this area off nicely and would mirror the Buxus around my new patio.

So you think a 11f x 25f centre lawn would be ok ? Still enough room i think to have a paddling pool in and would also look great in the winter.

G

 

I agree with all you have said, but I have acres to play with - so can offset a smart lawn with planting. If I had an urban "long-thin strip" garden, then I would want to maximise the "impact" of my planting, and I think I would dispense with lawn altogether (apart from seating area, but I would have that "hard" so that it was all-weather). Almost everyone with an urban garden has some lawn ... I would want to make my garden different (maybe that's what you are going to do with the Box surround, it sounds good, but I can't visualise the proportions, and I've got no personal experience to offer I'm afraid)

Maybe try a Google search for Garden Designs and see if you see something that catches your eye. All my garden ideas are based on things I have seen elsewhere - I've been known to take a 50M tape measure to publicly open gardens to note their dimensions etc !!! - for example, I have copied the King's Walk from East Ruston Old Vicarage. I was curious to know what aspect ration they had of Width to Length, and in the process I discovered that they had made the far end a metre narrower - which exaggerated the perspective (very effectively) and a) was something I would never have thought of, and b) I would have had neither the courage to do it nor the skill to know "how much" exaggeration would work. We only went to that garden "on the off chance" because I was doing a photograph-search on Google for a planting the size of a tennis court to replace a knackered tennis court that was here when we moved in. I nicked a few other ideas from East Ruston too ...

 

Have a look at my plan. See what you think.

G
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/mr-grinchs-garden.39672/page-5#post-533239