One of the varieties of meadow lawn is Moorish. Before buying seeds, you need to figure out what it represents, what advantages and disadvantages it has. Familiarize yourself with the features of planting and care in order to understand whether this option is suitable for a summer residence.
What is a Moorish lawn
The Moorish type, unlike the ground floor and others, is easy to care for. This is a lawn with a variety of wildflowers (up to 40 pieces) and herbs. The components may include seeds of cornflowers, poppies, daisies, daisies, flax, calendula, etc. Plants of one color scale or motley are used.
There are even varieties of lawn that change color several times during the season.
Moorish lawn grass mixtures can be purchased at almost any specialized store, but be sure to watch. to include flowers suitable for your region.
Pros and Cons of a Moorish Lawn
It has the following advantages:
- decorativeness and variety of colors;
- high ability to self-healing;
- low nutritional requirements of the substrate;
- ease of care;
- lack of difficulty in repairing damaged areas.
Also, this kind of lawn has disadvantages:
- may provoke an allergic reaction;
- blooming attracts insects to the plot, including stinging;
- poor resistance to damage.
As it became clear, the Moorish lawn has more pros than cons.
However, the presence of allergies is a significant reason for refusing it.
Composition of mixtures for a Moorish lawn
Consider the most common and unpretentious flowers for the Moorish lawn.
Poppy
An annual or perennial plant blooms in the second decade of May. It stands out with sufficiently large, bright red buds. Seeds are in boxes, which provides self-seeding.
But, you need to know that not all varieties of poppy can be grown. For example, so beloved gardeners, oriental poppy, all varieties of annuals, sleeping pills and bristle-bearing. Therefore, be careful when buying lawn mixtures containing poppy seeds.
Field cornflower
There are perennial and annual varieties with the ability to self-sowing. Blindingly blue petals are striking. Very unpretentious. Flowering lasts from June to September.
Chamomile
It reaches a height of 0.9 m, flowering begins early (at the end of March-April) and continues until frost.
Echinacea
A medicinal plant, which is a perennial, for a long time remains attractive even cut off. Inflorescences from pale pink to scarlet shade look good in a mass planting. Blossom in late spring or early summer.
Echinacea pollen can trigger an allergy.
Large-flowered flax
It is an annual. Flowers come in a heavenly, red, snow-white and scarlet hue. In a circle, the buds reach 3 cm.
Nemesia
About 50 annual and perennial varieties are included in the genus. It blooms from early June to mid-October. Inflorescences are lemon, snow-white, scarlet and purple. Unpretentious in leaving, well tolerates low temperatures.
The mixture includes not only cereal seeds, but also bulbs. For example, crocus, tulips or daffodils.
When creating a lawn in the shade of trees, it is recommended to choose a snowdrop, trillium, ifeion, kandyk, lilies, white flower, arizema, anemone, aronica, etc.
The Moorish type lawn should consist not only of wildflowers, but also of a mixture of herbs. Usually it includes bluegrass seeds, timothy seeds, ryegrass, and thin woodland. The ratio of herbs to flowers is 80:20 or 95: 5. The proportions of annuals and perennials need to be adjusted in a timely manner.
In order for the lawn to have an attractive appearance all season, you need to correctly combine plants that bloom at different times.
Which flowers and herbs to choose, the owner of the plot decides, based on their taste preferences, requirements for the lawn and the region of growth.
DIY Moorish lawn step by step
The seed mixture can be purchased at the store or prepared independently. As mentioned earlier, the main thing to remember is the ratio of grass to flowers (recommended 80:20).
However, if you want to make the lawn motley, you can choose a proportion of 20:70. Where 20% are cereal grasses, 70% - 10 g of seeds are needed per 1 sq. M.
Sowing should be done in early spring. For good flowering and development of plants, it is better to create a lawn in well-lit areas. The area should not be too large.
Step by step steps to create a lawn. :
- Clear the area of weed grass. If there is too much of it, treat with glyphosate (roundup) 3-4 times. After 30 days, remove the topsoil of 8-10 cm.
- 8-10 days before sowing, dig up the soil by 25 cm. In parallel, add organic matter, peat, sand. But, it is better to do this in the fall.
- Create a slope of 3 ° to drain excess water. This can be done with proper laying of the drainage layer.
- Level and compact the soil. It is advisable to do this in clear, dry weather.
- Walk a rake to smooth out the mounds.
- Mix the seeds with sand 1 to 3 (per 100 g of grains of 0.0001 seed). You can sow the lawn evenly or make islands of flowers, after planting grass, and then flowering plants. The soil for sowing should be soft, slightly moist and even.
- Submerge the seed with a rake 5 mm into the ground, walk through the garden roller, and drip irrigation, so that a strong pressure does not erode the crops.
- So that all shoots appear at the same time and are even, cover with lutrasil.
If the lawn turned out to be rare, do not rush to sow seeds. Lawn plants sprout at different times. This interval may even be about a month.
Moorish lawn care
The first year the lawn care differs from the following: the mowing is carried out in May, July and September by 5-8 cm. Be sure to collect the mowed grass.
When the lawn becomes mature:
- The first time you need to mow the lawn in late June and early July, after insemination of spring flowers.
- 2nd - in September-October after the end of the vegetative period of all plants.
These time periods are approximate, fast-growing grass may need a haircut in August. If autumn blooms grow, then in November.
Mowing should be done to a height of 8-10 cm. If the lawn mower is not installed at this height, you should mow it with a scythe or trimmer.
After manipulation, plant debris must be collected and destroyed to prevent the development of infections and pests.
It is important to eliminate weeds on time. This must be done manually, therefore, it is not recommended to create too large a lawn.
2 weeks after sowing, competent watering is very important.
To moisten the soil by sprinkling, in several passes, so as not to destroy the sprouts that have appeared. In the future, there will be enough natural rainfall. However, during drought, when the topsoil dries, you need to periodically irrigate the lawn with warm water.
Plants on the Moorish lawn develop well without fertilizing. However, if they still grow too slowly, their foliage turns yellow, it is advisable to apply a small amount of fertilizer. The best option would be a complex mixture for a flowering lawn containing several nutrients at once. It must be taken into account that plants can be fed only in the next season after planting.
In the first year, fertilizers will only be harmful.
An important point in the care of the Moorish lawn is soil aeration (ventilation). It is necessary to improve gas exchange between subsurface air and atmospheric.
The essence of the procedure is to pierce the soil with a pitchfork, aerator or other specialized devices. Thanks to the manipulation, it is possible to avoid the appearance of bald spots, to prevent root decay, to improve the flow of oxygen, water and nutrients.
The cost of the Moorish lawn is approximately 400-800 rubles per 1 kg. A flowering lawn is suitable for those people who do not have much time to care for the plants growing on it. It will fit into any landscape design, it will delight you with flowering from the beginning of spring to late autumn. However, it is not necessary to draw up a house territory in this way if you are allergic to pollen of flowers and to insect bites. This can trigger an exacerbation of the disease.
