Pushing up daisies – lawn maintenance history

The furore over no-mow May and whether we should leave ‘weeds’ to grow in our lawns is a modern phenomenon. But old gardening books underline how people have always had contrasting views as to what makes a perfect lawn.

In the past couple of years I have let my own lawn grow much wilder. It has taken time to adjust but I enjoy the ‘weeds’ that now crop up in it: cheerful daisies and an island of larger ox-eye daisies; ragwort for the cinnabar moth; buttercups; dandelions; clover; and heal-all. And don’t forget speedwell – hundreds of tiny blue flower stars glimmering in the lawn fleetingly.

An oasis of oxeye daisies in the lawn. Image: Martin Stott

If my prose is turning a tad lyrical there it’s probably because I have been reading Frenchman Alphonse Karr’s A tour of my garden (translated into English in 1856). In it he contrasts his lawn, which cost him 12 shillings in seed to lay, with a carpet in his study that he bought at the same time. The carpet cost 12 pounds and ten shillings and is now fading, threadbare and torn. His lawn by contrast:

“With what profuseness of beauty it changes and renews itself! In spring it is of a pale green, strewed over with small white daisies and a few violets. Shortly after, the green becomes deeper, and the daisies are replaced by glossy buttercups. To the buttercups succeed red and white trefoil. In the autumn my carpet assumes a yellower tinge… sprinkled with colchicums, which spring from the earth like violet-coloured lilies… How rich then I am!”

Maybe the French were more relaxed about flowers in their lawns. English gardening books are more rigid about lawn maintenance. They are much more demanding. Little wonder lawns were rare here until the 19^th century – a sign of conspicuous wealth.

Victorian gardening books say little about lawn maintenance, but follow what instructions they do give and you’ll spend hours keeping a small patch of grass. Image: Martin Stott

English discipline

The Epitome of Gardening, by Chelsea Botanic Garden curator Thomas Moore, written in 1881, warns how in laying a lawn “the ground must also be thoroughly cleared of the roots of all course perennial weeds.”

Moore recommends an interesting mix of grass seed. It includes cynosurus cristatus (crested dog’s-tail), drought-tolerant festuca duriuscula, feathery festuca ovina, durable lolium perenne tenue, trisetum flavescens (yellow oat-grass), some shade-tolerant meadow grasses and trifoloium repens – Dutch clover. Though wildflowers may not be tolerated in this lawn, it is clearly not going to look like a bowling green with that seed mix. Moore warns this must be promptly weeded, mown weekly during the growing season, rolled occasionally and swept for worm casts.

Robert Thompson in The Gardener’s Assistant (a classic text first published in 1859 for those managing large estates), recommends a similar lawn maintenance regime. The lawnmower had been invented by then and he recommends using a mowing machine drawn by a horse on extensive grounds. But he still prefers the scythe “where there are many trees, flowerbeds, or grass terraces” (no strimmers then of course).

He adds: “Small machines worked by two or three men are not on the whole considered much more economical than the scythe in good hands. The mowing of lawns is a tolerably easy process to those who can do it well, but to those who cannot it is hard labour.”

Even as late as 1907 T.W.Sanders in The Flower Garden recommended using a scythe for the first cut of the season. He at least lets readers off sweeping up worm casts but still considers weedy lawns “a great eyesore”.

Clover, heal-all (prunella vulgaris), dandelions and buttercups in my lawn. Image: Martin Stott

Lawn maintenance in towns

Scything has the benefit of being quiet. The noise of strimmers and leaf blowers around our office is nerve-clashing. Though, I imagine stately home owners would have endured a different frustration – the chatter of a line of gardeners scything their way across the front lawn at dawn, taking advantage of the dew to make a clean, sharp cut.

Lesser mortals turned to Beeton’s All About Gardening. I have an 1871 and a 1909 version. The instructions differ little. “During spring, and the early summer months, all garden turf and lawns will require very great attention… the general appearance of the whole garden depends much upon the state of the turf,” it warns at the outset.

“The broom and roll must be kept in constant use,” it adds. If the grass is coarse, it recommends a dressing of sand. If “it has a tendency to scald and burn up, it will receive great benefit from a sprinkling of good guano or soot just before a shower of rain.” This could get messy!

Moss needs to be scraped with a heavy iron-toothed rake. (Books differ in their views on moss, which some authors considered acceptable in shady areas. And, similarly, with clover, too.)

Beeton’s continues: “Before regular mowing commences it will be well to go over all the grass, carefully removing rank and unsightly weeds, daisies, dandelions, the little buttercup, &c, &c.” The recommendation for dandelions was to cut off the crown and place salt on the wound. (Thompson suggests salt too – or “pouring a small quantity of sulphuric acid upon it”.)

From Beeton’s All About Gardening – tools for removing daisies from your lawn. Images: Martin Stott

Pushing up daisies

Beeton’s approach to daisies appears particularly draconian.

“Daisies should never be allowed to flower: a good daisy-rake, with a little trouble, will remove all flowers as they come out; but the only plan to clear a lawn effectually of these disagreeable weeds is to take them out with the daisy-fork wherever they are found.”

The 1871 edition of Beeton’s ends with a tale of encouragement.

“We know a rectory garden in the east of Norfolk, where there is a piece of turf of about a quarter of an acre, which a year or two ago was one mass of weeds and daisies, and which now is as fine and beautiful as any turf can be. This change was entirely brought about by the children of the village school, who had each a yard or two measured out to them on half-holidays, which they cleared, some with daisy-forks and others with two-pronged table-forks, receiving some little present as their reward. A few showers of rain and a heavy roll soon obliterated the holes they made.”

Chemical weed warfare

The First World War had two major impacts on lawn maintenance. Over 880,000 British soldiers died in it – 6% of the adult male population. There were not the men and women available to manage gardens in such a labour-intensive way. It also led to the expansion of chemical production – used for explosives, fertilisers, medicines and poison gases.

The first herbicide had been developed in France in 1896 – Sinox. But after the Second World War “magical” weedkillers began to appear on the market. These could destroy those devilish daisies and other ‘weeds’ without harming the grass. The war on weeds had stepped up a gear. Suddenly we could have pristine lawns – oblivious to the harm these chemicals might be doing to the environment and ourselves.

So our idea of a perfect lawn is changing with our understanding of the effects of chemicals. I have grown to like my new lawn – and the fact that it is always green. I like even more not having to mow it every week. And don’t ever ask me to set to with a daisy fork!