DIY: Wild Lawn - Gardenista
Photography by Erin Boyle. My brother-in-law’s mother, Molly, has a house in Oregon on a cliff overlooking the ocean (if ever there was a place you do not want to wrestle a mower…). My brother in law s family beach house is part of a compound of connected cottages constructed to replace a previous house that nearly tumbled into... ...the sea because of erosion in the 1990s In the decade or since since the new beach house was built Molly has been nurturing its wild lawn Brookes’ first piece of advice: “Just see what comes.” The truth is the advice was partly an admission that he wasn’t willing to take on the task of designing a garden by the sea. Salt air, constant wind, and the added complication that beach homes aren’t often a primary residence can make designing a beach house garden something of a challenge (just ask Justine). So Molly decided to create her own low-maintenance lawn, using native seeds collected from seed savers in the area. Maintaining a uniform height is a challenge in a meadow. In late summer the meadow is filled with grasses, clover, and yarrow. Stretching out in the yard in front of the beach house, the meadow might not be the best spot to play croquet, but its soft grasses are still pleasant to walk on in bare feet. But just look at that sweet flowering lawn.