Moorish lawn is a beautiful lawn that pleases the eye with many colors and a wide variety of species, gathered together in one area. If you have a country house with at least a small strip of land located in an open and sunny place, you can quite easily turn it into a fabulous vacation spot for your family. How to do this, about the seed composition of the Mauritanian lawn and its pros and cons, read later in this article.
A trip to history
Such landscape design has been known for a long time - since the 7th century, when the tribes of the Moors, having migrated from North Africa, began to settle in Spanish lands. The new rulers formed states and built luxurious palaces for themselves, and around them they laid out gardens and large park areas, which often combined the culture of several peoples at once.
Over time, Moorish rulers also learned about Slavic traditions through the Crimea, and then Constantinople. In addition to beautiful and fragrant roses and tulips, lawns began to appear there with such a composition of herbs andflowers that looked a bit like wild nature. It was them who began to be called Moorish lawns.
Choice of plants
In order to create such a lawn, you need to purchase a special set of seeds, which usually includes various wildflowers, herbs and cereals. Surely each of you would like the Moorish lawn, the photo of which is presented in this article, to please with its colorful colors from spring to late autumn. This can be easily achieved by properly combining plants with different flowering times.
Planting material for this type of lawn with a ready-made composition can be purchased at specialized stores. However, another option is also allowed - to buy bags of grass and flower seeds yourself, mix them and sow them in your area. Flowering plants such as:
- Orange and yellow medicinal calendula. It blooms from June to October.
- Nemesia will please the eye as much as the previous plant. It can be yellow, red, white and purple.
- White, blue and pink bells. They bloom from early summer until about mid-autumn.
- Bright red poppy. This large flower will be the highlight of your lawn and will attract the attention of everyone present. In addition, its box is full of seeds, which ensures self-sowing of this plant. However, poppy has its minus: its flowering period is short - only two weeks, starting from the second halfMay.
- Purple Echinacea, which is famous for its medicinal properties. It has large beautiful flowers in several shades: from pale pink to bright crimson.
- Meadow daisy that blooms in April and makes the lawn smart until October. It is believed that the lawn without it will not have such an attractive appearance.
- Field cornflower of a bright blue hue. It will bloom throughout the summer season.
Moorish lawn mix often includes bulbous plants such as crocuses, daffodils and tulips. They will fully provide a riot of colors on your lawn. However, the basis of the lawn is still grass. Most often, preference is given to thin bent grass, pasture ryegrass and meadow mint and timothy grass. It should be noted that the final selection of colors always depends on the preferences of the owner, but do not forget about the pros and cons of the Mauritanian lawn.
Benefits
Like other elements of landscape design, such a lawn has both advantages and disadvantages that you need to know about in advance. Its advantages include:
- Gorgeous look. Such a flowering lawn can become a real decoration of a plot with a country house.
- Great selection of seeds. This allows you to plant your favorite wildflowers and enjoy them from spring to mid-autumn.
- Easy maintenance. The maintenance of such a lawn does not require a lot of time, unlike a classic lawn, because it is not necessary to mow the grass orwater and fertilize the soil frequently.
- Pleasant fragrance. It can change just as much with the season as the appearance of the lawn.
- Sustainability. For city dwellers and animals, it can become a real oasis among dust and smog.
- Does not require special skills. Any of the beginner gardeners can organize it on their site.
Flaws
The disadvantages of Moorish lawn include the following factors:
- Allergic reactions. They may occur in some people who are sensitive to high levels of pollen in the air.
- Additional watering. It may be required in the event that the composition of grasses for the lawn was incorrectly selected. The fact is that some plants need more moisture than others. This can lead to poor flowering and even death. Therefore, it is best to choose mixtures with herbs that do not require additional moisture, such as sage, cornflower and others.
- You can't walk on it barefoot. Among the mixture of herbs, there are very tough species that can severely prick the feet. In addition, another threat may lurk in such a lawn - when there are a lot of honey plants, you need to be prepared for the appearance of a large number of bees on your site.
Choosing a place for a lawn
Because the lawn looks very colorful, don't make it too big. The most spectacular will look neat open clearing, completely floodedbright sunlight. However, even areas with slightly shaded areas, such as along fences and between trees, as well as particularly poor and completely unsuitable land for growing crops, may be suitable for this purpose.
Soil preparation
Before you start planting grasses, you need to check the pH level, as well as the presence of nutrients in the soil. The increased nitrogen content in it usually leads to the appearance and rapid growth of other unwanted plants. These include weeds that will subsequently dominate the lawn. In order to reduce the fertility of the substrate, mustard or rapeseed can be grown here before sowing Mauritanian lawn seeds, which absorb nitrogen very well. After that, all the green mass is removed from the site and deep plowing is carried out so that the fertile layer moves down.
To achieve the best possible results, you must completely get rid of unnecessary plants. Experts categorically do not recommend the use of herbicides to eliminate weeds. The fact is that these chemicals contain glyphosate, an active substance whose safety is highly questionable. The most effective method of weed control is to remove the top layer from the soil. To do this, it is cultivated to a depth of at least 20-30 cm. On the site prepared in this way, weeds will still appear after some time, but now they can be easily eliminated by loosening the soil just a few centimeters deep.
Seeding the lawn
Planting Moorish lawn is very easy, but the method of sowing directly depends on the size of the plot. Usually seeds have a sowing rate of about 2 to 5 g per square meter. That is why, on large areas, it is recommended to use professional seeders that will help you achieve the best results and save time. If the area allocated for the lawn is relatively small, then the seeds can be scattered manually.
During sowing, it is advised to add sand to the mixture of herbs. With the manual method, the correct technique is very important - it is necessary to throw the seeds in sweeping movements, capturing at least two meters. It is best to sow "crosswise", when half the seeds are consumed, going from one corner of the site to another, and then similarly from the one closest to it, while always passing through its center. After finishing work, you need to carefully walk on the ground with a skating rink, and if possible, then water the future Mauritanian lawn abundantly.
For areas larger than 100 m², the best option for planting grass is a professional seeder. For uniform sowing, a large plot is divided into several small ones.
Mowing
With the right selection of plants that are best suited to the environment where they are planted, the lawn will not have to be watered or fertilized. In this case, care consists only in mowing, which should be done several times a year. Their timing affects the appearance of the lawn.
For example, if you want the lawn to bethe most beautiful in the spring, it is mowed for the first time at the end of June, after the plants have already faded. In this case, the flowers and grass on the Moorish lawn are mowed to a height of at least 10 cm. If you want the lawn to bloom all summer, you need to have time to mow it somewhere before mid-June. The lawn will delight you again in July, and in September it will be a real flowering carpet.
Reviews
Moorish turf has a rather mixed response. Some homeowners speak admiringly of their lawns, commenting on the pleasant aroma emanating from various plants, as well as the wonderful view of their transformed backyards.
However, there are other reviews that say that this type of lawn is not always beautiful. During the hot summer, the greenery often burns out, and after mowing, flowering plants no longer bloom and only grass remains on the lawn. In addition, a large number of various insects and especially bees constantly swarm on the site, which sometimes fly right into the house.
