The natural beauty of the landscape with fragrant forbs and interspersed with annuals, perennials and bulbs blooming from spring to late autumn attracts the eyes of many summer residents. How to stylize a lawn in your own personal garden plot under a motley meadow and how easy it is to take care of it will be discussed in the article.

What is the name of the blooming lawn

Moorish culture left Spain a rich heritage: the city of Cordoba, where the Moors once ruled, has long been famous for its magnificent architecture. Most of all European travelers in the VIII – XII centuries were struck by the beautiful garden at the palace.

Did you know? Initially, the low grass size for classic English lawns was formed as a result of the constant grazing of sheep.

The abundance of fountains and ponds favorably shaded by an emerald manicured carpet with flower placers. The combination of greenery, bright wildflowers and flowering cereals was so popular with Europeans that classic grass-cut lawns began to be massively replaced by sites repeating the natural beauty in the style of a Moorish garden, similar to a flood meadow.

Moorish lawn, so named because of the nationality of the creators, kept at the peak of popularity around the world until the onset of the Middle Ages. Then the gardeners lost interest in him, turning to the clear lines of separated flowerbeds, curbs and lawns.

Now with an increasing interest in environmental issues, you can increasingly see sites in the Moorish style, sown with stunted flowers and herbs. With their help, it is easy to restore the balance of lost natural territories with poppies, cornflowers and daisies in growing cities and even in rural areas, where modernization of agriculture destroys the natural landscape.

Description of the appearance in landscape design

The lawn under consideration is characterized by a large number of wildflowers and their variations. Along with traditional cereal crops, wild flowers in the mixture of grasses can be present low bulbous: flowers of wild tulips, muscari, hyacinths.

A grassy lawn can be formed based on personal taste. A wide selection of different varieties of flowering flax, poppies, daisies, cornflowers, daisies allows you to create a carpet of flowers in one gamut. The aerobatics of landscape art is the repeated change of one color by another several times during the season.

The most common are multicolor grass mixtures, where planting material is selected so that the beginning of flowering of the Moorish lawn falls in early spring, and ends with the onset of frost. For this effect, up to 30–40 species of meadow, steppe, and forest flowers are included in the mixture, which should be sown in a chaotic order in order to imitate growth under natural conditions.

Moorish lawns usually do not occupy large areas due to their brightness and variegation. They should be placed on a small platform, which immediately visually transforms into a sunlit glade. To create a lawn, designers usually choose the gaps between the tree trunks, background areas contrasting with an ordinary lawn, the area in front of the house or the space along the borders of the territory. The Moorish lawn looks good near the water - around the fountain or at the pond, as he had originally intended.

The softness of cereals and the tenderness of wildflowers make Moorish-style lawns unsuitable for walking or walking animals, as they are easy to trample. Respectively, it is worth taking care of the mowed path inside the artificially created meadow - so you will have the opportunity to admire the placers of flowers near. To emphasize the romance of the place, the shape of the track should be smooth. To achieve a greater decorative effect, give the meadow contours that meander like the path, or combine with its contours.

Important! Grass may be damaged due to animal waste products left on the lawn. Such bald spots are similar to the result of a chemical burn.

Selection of plants and seeds

To create a beautiful lawn on your own plot, use the simplest combinations of meadow, field or steppe flowers that do not require special growing conditions and are easy to care for. Such a neighborhood can often be seen in picturesque corners of the forest, and then repeated in the arrangement of the site.

The purchase of a ready-made mixture of cereals, meadow flowers, herbs will facilitate your work, but the conditions of a particular site may not be suitable for all plants. Gardeners with many years of experience are advised to give preference to domestic varieties: these plants take root better in the local climate.

Specialized garden centers offer ready-made packages of seeds weighing 1 kg, the volume of which is designed for 50 m²: accordingly, to pack one hundred square meters, you need 5 packages. Each of them contains two separate sachets: a lawn type grass mixture and a seedlings of annual and perennial flowers (up to 59 items).

You can expand the assortment of lawn flowers if you purchase and sow additionally separate sets, separated by color scheme. The choice of bright shades or calm tones is limited only by your taste.

• Use the following criteria when purchasing seeds:
• desired brightness of inflorescences;
• wave budding;
• long flowering;
• simplicity in leaving;
• resistance to mechanical stress;
• suitable climate and soil of the site.

Did you know? In the Netherlands, in order to attract bees and preserve their populations, the roofs of bus stops are planted with flowering plants and herbs.

The most common and unpretentious species that will be appropriate for combination in the lawn:

• forget-me-nots, which in combination with green grass will give the comfort of a wild corner;
• oriental poppywhose scarlet and rather large inflorescences always attract attention. Perennial blooms in the second half of May. It is very convenient in that it grows self-seeding, sowing from boxes with seeds;
• field cornflower. It can grow as an annual, and for many years, its crops resume on their own. Flowering lasts from the beginning of summer until its very end;
• cloverwhose dense carpet is quite resistant to walking;
• daisiesopening buds with the first rays of the sun. Their sweet inflorescences recall the natural landscape of the Mediterranean;
• echinacea, which has healing properties. The plant blooms beautifully in May, and the color varies from pale pink to deep red. This flower looks good in group plantings. But remember that echinacea provokes an allergy;
• Snapdragon, or antirrinum, the color of which is diverse, and flowering occurs throughout the summer;
• large-flowered flaxwhose variegated inflorescences from sky blue to white reach 3 cm in diameter and look good in cut. It must be sowed, as the plant is annual;
• matthiola bicorn with a bright aroma. This flower is unpretentious in leaving;
• nemesia, which is able to decorate the lawn with a variety of species, blooming in yellow, white, purple and red. There are over 50 species of these vibrant annuals and perennial species. Unpretentious plants will easily tolerate frosts;
• bulbous speciesthat complement the picturesque view with friendly flowering in early spring. Among the undersized species that will decorate a small area, it is worth planting bluebills, onions, crocuses, tulips, daffodils, cyclamens and hellebores. In summer, yellowed primrose leaves will hide under a lush carpet of herbs and meadow flowers.

From seeds of ornamental cereals, pay attention to hardy perennial species:

• timothy grass meadow;
• thin polevole;
• red fescue;
• aromatic bison;
• meadow bluegrass;
• breadcrumbs;
• pasture ryegrass;
• lagurus.

The experience of creating a Moorish lawn in the climatic conditions of the middle strip suggested the optimal composition in a grass mixture resistant to damage. The number of wildflowers should not exceed 20% of the total volume, the rest is the herbs common in your area.

There you can include:

• buttercup;
• nyvyanik;
• sprawling bell;
• bartender;
• sainfoin;
• meadow sage;
• clapper;
• creeping clover;
• large plantain;
• bird highlander;
• annual bluegrass.

To recreate a natural meadow on your territory, you can harvest seeds in the field. It is easy to collect with your own hands and sow chamomile, kupyr, St. John's wort, melilot, bellflower, bark beetle, adonis, veronica, chicory, hawk, goldenrod in winter.

The effect of meadow forbs will be given by the seeds of adonis, meadow calf, bedstalk, rank, tuberous snail, field purse, annual bluegrass, cinquefoil in combination with clover and fescue.

To independently create a flower mixture for sowing 1 m² of lawn, use the following seed combinations that have been tried and tested and have proven themselves well:

1. Mix 6 g of flower seeds with 40–60 g of a mixture of bluegrass and fescue. Include in the mixture several types of flowers of 1 g of seeds, namely, annual gypsophila, dumbbells, eshsoltsii, viscaria, annual cornflower of various colors and self-poppy.
2. Take 12 g of seeds of flowering plants and add 40-50 g of bluegrass and fescue. In this case, the set of colors will be slightly different. Include 4 g cornflower in a combination, 1 g of annual gypsophila and viscaria, 2 g of eshsoltsia, medium breeze and self-poppy.
3. Use 6 g of the prepared mixture of seeds of annuals “Wild flowers”, the rest will be 40-60 g of red clover or fescue.
4. Can combine 10 pcs. sowing material of small bulb flowers with 6 g of small annuals to your taste, add 10 g of white and red clover, sainfoin, alfalfa and mix with 30 g of the Ordinary Lawn mix.

Landscapers offer a list of useful tips for correctly placing flowering plants in compliance with the principles of the Moorish style:

1. Curly, cushion-like and creeping perennials place in the foreground of the lawn.
2. Plants should have room for subsequent growth, so it will ideally plant them in a checkerboard pattern.
3. A large number of compositions on a small lawn is not permissible.
4. Choose plants that have similar agricultural technology and environmental requirements, taking into account the terrain.
5. The selection of plants should provide long-term flowering of successive species.
6. Plant plants of approximately the same size. On average, the height of the Moorish lawn can reach 40–50 cm.
7. A low version of the lawn in the Moorish style will turn out if you use mint, lemon balm, anise and thyme.
8. You can decorate the lawn with an unusual strip of irregular shape if you use one type of aromatic tall plant, sowing an already formed lawn with lemon balm, mint, sweet spikelet, thyme or allisum.
9. You can achieve the creation of a visual volume if you take care to include in the sowing mixture aromatic herbs and honey flowers with a lot of pollen, attracting motley butterflies and bees.
10. Observe the correct ratio of grass seeds to flowers, preferring cereals. The optimal amount is 80:20 and 95: 5.
11. Correct the number of annual and perennial plants on time. Sow annuals as needed and remove excessively overgrown perennials.

Important! In areas with constant dampness, a snake highlander, meadow geranium, crayfish necks and a leotard easily take root.

Site preparation

To break the lawn in the Moorish style, you need an open area with good lighting. There are no special requirements to the soil, factors of abundance of sand, scarcity of land and arid conditions do not allow weeds to grow, but they are excellent for planting wildflowers and powerful growth of forbs. The marshland can also be cultivated, the main thing is to choose the right hygroscopic and shade-tolerant plants. After you have decided on a place for lawn formation, prepare the site for sowing.

For this:

1. During the period of active growth of weeds, cultivate the land with a systemic herbicide, for example, “Glyphosate” or “Roundup”. If the soil becomes very infected, repeat the procedure a month later. Weeding by hand is better in the fall.
2. Remove 8-10 cm of the top layer of the earth.
3. Dig a site 15–20 cm deep.
4. Fertilizers should not be applied, but if the grass does not grow or turns yellow, apply nitrogen-containing fertilizing.
5. If the soil is fertile, it is best to add peat and sand a week or two before the planned sowing.
6. Dig the earth again onto the bayonet of the shovel (35–40 cm in depth) and provide a 3 ° slope for rainwater drainage.
7. Before planting, the ground must be leveled with a garden rake, compacted and rolled. For the last procedure, you can use any cylindrical container, filling it with water for weight.
8. The mounds that appeared after rolling should be removed with a lawn rake.

Did you know? Rice farms use ducks instead of pesticides and herbicides. Birds eat insects and pinch weeds without touching rice.

Sowing Features

Sowing is carried out in prepared soil after 2 weeks from the moment of fertilizing or sand. The best time for a separate application of cereal seeds is autumn, ready-made sets are sown in spring. When laying an autumn lawn, sowing seeds of flowers is necessary from April to June. Focus on the climatic features of your area.

There are two ways to form a lawn:

1. Mix the contents of the bags with cereals and flowers from the finished packaging or collected material to seed the area at the same time and evenly. You can add sand at the rate of 1: 3 to the seeds and mix. This method will ensure ease of sowing and uniformity of the lawn coating.
2. First you need to sow the seeds of cereals, later sow flowers, including bulbs. Priority is given to large specimens, and small species should be placed next to group plantings of ten or more bulbs in one hole. So you will achieve the appearance of attractive bright flower islands on a green carpet. Place flowering plants with mini flower beds, randomly or around the perimeter of the site. The advantage of this method is that with the help of late planting of flowers and bulbs, it is possible to mask bald spots of unevenly sprouted grass or empty places after the death of annuals.

When sowing plants for a Moorish lawn, certain rules should be followed:

1. Sowing should be done on a day when there is no humidity and precipitation.
2. The soil will need to be watered with enough water, but there should not be an excess of moisture.
3. Sow the prepared mixture by hand or using a rake, plunging the seeds into the ground by 3-5 mm. Plant the bulbs a little deeper, and then gently roll the planting.
4. In arid weather conditions, provide drip irrigation for future seedlings. The use of a hose is not recommended, as the seeds are washed off by the pressure of water.
5. Cover the sown area with non-woven material - it will provide friendly germination.
6. The first shoot usually appears after 7-14 days. In the case of rare shoots and uneven seedlings, do not rush to finish it - the principle of the Moorish lawn is forbs, the germination period of which varies and stretches for a month.
7. If everything is done correctly, by the middle of summer you will get a perfect Moorish lawn.

Important! In the first year, not all flowers bloom, but only annuals, because perennial species will need time to develop the root system and a set of vegetative mass. Flowering from them should be expected only for the next season.

Moorish lawn care

Despite the prevailing opinion among summer residents about the many problems when growing lawn grass, Moorish lawn is low maintenance. Its components grow wild in nature and do not require care. Nevertheless, it is necessary to maintain its natural beauty - from time to time he will need irrigation, weed control, soil oxygenation and timely mowing.

Watering and feeding

Provide constant watering during the first 14 days after sowing. When the seedlings hatch, watch for constant soil moisture. Irrigate by drip or sprinkle irrigation so as not to damage fragile sprouts. As soon as the plants begin to grow, maintain humidity, watering can be carried out at this time through a small spray.

Many flowering plants, and those that are accustomed to marshy and forested areas, bloom gratefully with regular flow of water. As they grow older, they should be watered less often: a dense meadow will form on dry soil, while the increased humidity in the lower layer of meadow grasses should be taken into account.Carefully approach the issue of top dressing - weeds breed on rich soils. In addition, in the first year after sowing, fertilizing the lawn is categorically not recommended. Regular fertilizer application in spring and autumn, which is necessary for lawn grass, can be harmful in the future by stopping the growth of meadow flowers. To stimulate their germination, you should stop feeding, then wildflowers easily overcome the barrier of weakened grass.

Important! Place annuals on the edges of the lawn to make it easier to cut faded plants.

The slow growth of the lawn and the change of green grass to yellowness indicate the need for unscheduled application of a minimum amount of fertilizer. The best option is ready-made complexes of trace elements for a flowering lawn. But they should not be used during bulb flowering, because nitrogen stimulates the development of leaves, inhibiting flowering.

Apply nitrogen top dressing after the death of the bulb in the leaves. Bulbous flowers need fertilizers with a high potassium content, which stimulates flowering, increases the volume of bulbs and at the same time dulls the growth of herbs, which reduces the frequency of cutting.

Weed removal

A Moorish-style lawn does not involve the use of herbicides, as chemistry will kill meadow plants along with weeds. Even spotting will do disproportionate harm. Remove weeds manually. If you place a lawn with wildflowers in the form of a narrow strip near the fence or along the perimeter of the boundaries of the site, doing this will become much more convenient.

Aeration

Aeration is an important step in the care of lawn grass. Ventilation is necessary for the Moorish lawn to improve the gas exchange of atmospheric air and subsoil. The oxygen saturation of the roots improves their quality, facilitates proliferation, eliminating bald patches, and saves the plant from death due to plexus of rotten roots and lack of air.

Aeration is carried out in the spring, when vegetation begins in cereals, and in autumn after mowing the faded cover. To do this, a shallow but frequent puncture is made in the soil with a pitchfork or a fan rake.

At the same time as autumn aeration, sand can be added. If the growth of powerful cereals has reduced the number of wildflowers on the lawn, there is a need for replanting them, add the seeds of the missing plants to the sand. Ensure the supply of oxygen to the earth should be annually, but the additional introduction of sand and seeds is not necessary.

Mowing

The possibility of infrequent haircuts is one of the reasons for the return of the popularity of the lawn in the Moorish style. An area of ​​50–100 m² allows plants that have gained strength to exist autonomously and will require only one intervention in the fall, after the bulb leaves have completely dried out and the annual flowers have time to bloom and shed seeds.

Important! If you cut the grass with decorative lines and sections of different heights, you can achieve a lace pattern. To create a curly lawn based on the Moorish mowing should be done much more often.

But in the first season of existence, an ecosystem that has not yet been established requires the implementation of clear mowing rules:

1. Carry out the first haircut when cereal forms have sprouted and wildflowers have not appeared so that the grass does not drown out the growth of flowers. Mowing is carried out approximately in May, 1-2 months after sowing, when the grass reaches a height of 11-12 cm.
2. The height of the plants after the first mowing should be at least 5 cm; in the subsequent procedure, leave stems 8-12 cm in size.
3. You can hold out until July, so that the annual flowers have time to bloom, while taking into account the presence of bulbs on the site. Until their leaves fade, do not rush with mowing.
4. In September or October, you need to cut the grass again if there are no plants that bloom in the fall. In this case, transfer the work to the end of October or the beginning of November.
5. In the future, you yourself will determine the best time for mowing, because the lawn should preserve the appearance of a natural lawn, which will not be damaged by a slightly groomed look. If timing is difficult, mow the area once a year in late autumn to maintain a natural balance of colors from the wild.
6. It is not always easy to set the mower so as to leave the desired height. If there is no such function, use a trimmer or scythe to trim.
7. Be sure to remove the mowed grass from the lawn, but leave the plant waste there for a few days so that the seeds can get into the ground.

Advantages and disadvantages of a flower lawn

The grass lawn with wildflowers, unlike the classical one, does not require financial investments, therefore it is increasingly used to decorate empty lawns in garden plots. The boring restraint of the English lawns loses to the natural beauty of the Moorish.

• They have a number of other advantages, among which:
• simplicity in leaving with a minimum of agrotechnical procedures;
• preservation of a spectacular appearance when mowing once a year;
• the creation of color combinations to your taste from herbal and floral mixtures;
• a large number of field plants suitable for use;
• flowering time, strong aroma of flowers;
• rapid transformation of depleted sites into colorful glades without increasing soil fertility;
• slow weed growth;
• the possibility of arranging plots of any shape, size and quality;
• increased decorative lines due to high haircuts;
• undemanding to the composition of the soil;
• ability to quickly self-repair.

• Negative qualities in lawns of this kind are also present:
• imperfect appearance in the first year due to non-flowering perennials and the weakness of cereal sprouts;
• the need for annual planting of perennials for uniform flowering;
• ready-mixes not always suitable for the local climate from foreign manufacturers;
• low resistance to damage, unsuitability for active games, walking and walking animals;
• the danger of pollen provoking allergies in people prone to it;
• an abundance of insects, including bees, wasps and bumblebees, attracted by flowers;
• untidiness with untimely weed control on fertile soils.

Important! To reduce allergic manifestations, exclude daisies, echinacea, fragrant tobacco and marigolds from plants planned for sowing.

If you decide to realize the idea of ​​a colorful lawn near the house, the Moorish lawn will bring lightness and naturalness to the overall perception of the site. The absence of strict requirements on the composition of plants allows you to create a masterpiece of bright colors according to your own imagination. If you follow the basic recommendations on agricultural technology, to achieve amazingly beautiful results will be easy.