Opinions please - will this work?

Hi all

I'm in the process of completely reworking my garden. A long overdue job because it is currently an eye sore.

I plan to introduce the remains of the lawn to my friend Round-Up, and then dig it over and reseed it. I reckon I'll do that about the end of September.

In order to avoid wearing big bare patches in the new lawn, I want to put down a stepping stone style path right across the lawn, but I want the whole garden to look alive, so I don't want to use stones or paving. So here comes my idea, I'm not expert so please don't be afraid to tell me if it is silly.

I was going to make some 1ft square wooden frames, about two inches deep, and secure some heavy duty plastic coated mesh to them. Sort of like strong mesh windows if you like. then I thought I'd carefully excavate away the top two inches of soil in 1ft square patches where I want my stepping stones, for my mesh "windows" to sit in, so that the mesh is flush with the surface of the surrounding soil. These 1ft squares won't be seeded with grass seed. Then I thought I'd plant Thyme or Heather or some other such really tough low growing perennial in the square, and then sit my mesh windows over the top.

The logic behind my thinking is this. The Thyme patches will put up with being walked on, provided they are not completely trampled in. The Thyme will grow up through the mesh, so any damage to the time will not upset that bottom inch or so's growth so it will quickly recover. Also, when we mow the lawn, if we accidentally mow the Thyme, the fact that is is slightly sunk and protected by its mesh roof will mean that the mower won't completely chop it down, so it will hopefully recover quickly. Between being trampled and mowed it will look and smell nice, and the bumblebees will appreciate it when it is flowering in spring and early summer.

Does this sound like a good idea or am I crazy? I'm quite thick skinned so feel free to tell it like it is

 

It would work and could look intresting however whilst thyme will tollerate the odd trim, regular mowing will probably kill it and definately prevent flowering.

Best to keep the mower off the thyme squares.

 

Hi clueless1. Sounds like a nice idea and I reckon it could work (maybe camomile?). However, I'm no expert, but I'm SURE someone can give you a definitive answer on this. Cheers...freddy.

 

That's the plan. I won't aim the mover at the Thyme square, but the idea of sinking their patch by two inches and giving them a hard wearing protective mesh roof two inches about their soil will hopefully mean that if they do have a run in with the mower, it will leave at least two inches of growth on the Thyme.

The trouble is you see I let the wife do the mowing, and her approach to mowing is to just blast everything. I think she enjoys the sense of power she gets when she sees bits of plant flying out in all directions from under the flymo

 

"... thyme square ..."

A little piece of New York, eh?!

Do you really need to Roundup the lawn?

I would mow it to within a mm of its life, spread some topsoil over the surface, get that even / level, and reseed.

If you do the Roundup trick you have then got to prepare the whole thing properly as a seedbed, deal with getting it properly compacted, without over doing it, and live with all the weeds that will come up next year (same thing with dressing-and-seeding, but you will have the old grass coming through too to lend a hand).

Is your current lawn really more than 50% weed?

 

What a different idea. It sounds like it will be lovely. You'll have to post some pics of it when you've done it