*No-mow lawns are all the fashion in Europe, so Meg Collins gives it a try here, with great results.

Back in March, I decided to give up mowing the tiny lawn in front of my house and turn it into a no-mow lawn.

Apparently, in Europe it is becoming all the fashion and lots of different side effects are happening by establishing a no-mow lawn.

First, is the environmental aspect of not using a lawnmower (in my case I cannot start it anyway), so saving on the cost of buying a lawnmower, keeping it, and, of course, the fuel, usually petrol, as well as the fertilisers and weed killers.

I got my trusty spray pack and sprayed the lawn and waited three months until everything was dead. Then I carefully forked out all the dead roots and stems and raked the ground over to a smooth surface. I placed about 20 paving stones at 750mm apart, so that once the ground cover could establish and I could walk on the pavers instead of all over the plants.

In early September, I planted mondo grass, heartease, ground thyme, a pretty pink bobbly ground cover and oregano all around the edges of the lawn. I had to cover all these plants with netting, as our tame weka, kept pulling up the mondo grass, to get to the worms underneath.

In late September, I spread around two packets of Egmont wildflower collections.

These packets have over 30 different flower species, but I added a few more from my own seed collection: alyssum, zinnias and marigolds.

In three weeks, little seedlings started popping up, as well as some weeds.

My morning job is to gently pull out the weeds, although in some cases, I am not sure if they are in fact flowers.

I also gave the whole place a good water if it had not rained.

Now, in early December, the plants are thriving, the ground thyme is spreading well, and if you walk on it, delivers a lovely aroma.

The alyssum seems to be the dominant plant so far, but every day I spot new flowers popping up.

The bees are buzzing everywhere, the birds like fossicking about and I am sure underground, the worms and other invertebrates are thriving. If the plants get too tall, I will just chop them down and leave them to rot.

I’m looking forward to the next two months when most of the flowers will be in full bloom.