A lawn is typically the largest element in most gardens. Sometimes it can feel like a waste of space or when it’s too large, it can make the garden look boring and dull. However, you can switch things up by changing the shape and design of the lawn.
Items you will need include: sand, rope, pegs, hammer, paint or chalk, tape measure, spade, wheelbarrow and edging tool. Below are steps explaining what you need to do to shape your lawn.
- Consider the use of the lawn and the surrounding landscape: Before you decide on what shape to give your lawn, besides what you consider to be aesthetically pleasing, consider what it would be mainly used for and the landscape around it. A lawn that will be used mainly for recreation should have shapes that give it large and open chunks of space. Circular and rectangular shapes are good for this. As for landscape, tracing the design of your lawn to match the shadow patterns of your house is a good idea as lawns require about six hours of sunlight a day to grow well. You want to shape your lawn in such a way that it gets enough exposure to sunlight. The general landscape of your garden also affects the shape and design of your lawn.
- After you have decided on a shape for the lawn, the next thing to do is to trace out the shape. If you have gone with a circular shape, first thing to do is to determine where the centre of the circle will be. Drive a peg into the centre, tie one end of the rope to it and tie the other end to a second peg. This other peg should be attached to the rope at the length that corresponds to the radius of the circle. Move the rope in a circle till you get to the starting point with the peg making and marking out the circle at the same time. Once this is done, you can put chalk or paint over the circular line created by the peg to make it clearer. For a rectangle and angles, use two ropes to establish the needed corners and use a tape measure to measure the needed lengths. You can drive pegs into the ground at different points along the length and mark out later with your rope and chalk.
- Remove outer lawn: Once you have traced out the shape for your lawn, you need to remove everything that is outside the shape. You can use a spade or a half moon edging tool for the removal. When removing the turf in these areas, be careful not to remove all the soil underneath, you should take only about 2.5 cm of soil.
With these simple steps, you now have a new shape for your lawn. But what happens to the space where you cut out the turf? You can make it a flower bed or fill it with pebbles. You can get very creative with the space and do amazing things with it. As for the turf removed, instead of disposing of it, you can pile the grass up and keep it till it decomposes, thereby providing you with loam that can be used in your garden.
