The lawn is the green and pleasant centrepiece of the British garden, whether on a large scale in a country mansion or a small scale offsetting the planting in a cottage garden. But in recent years, our approach to this garden feature has started to change. We’ve become more aware of the number of artificial fertilisers used in lawn maintenance and the importance of biodiversity.

I’ve had a long and close relationship with turf through my career, starting with my groundsmanship training in parks. Looking after bowling greens and cricket squares is highly skilled work involving a great many machines and fertilisers. The resilience of the plants involved - mainly bent and fescue grasses - is astounding, and it’s easy to see why large spaces of lawn have become so important.

But the lawn in our own growing space is not for bowling on, and with a little bit of horticultural practise they can become gardens in their own right. A heathy lawn will attract pollinators, feed birds and support and give shelter to the subterranean universe that is the soil. To have a lawn just containing one or two grass species seems ridiculous to me as a gardener. You might as well concrete your garden and paint it green.

Natural ways to work with your lawn

It was when I took over as head gardener a Westminster Abbey - which has a large acreage of lawn - that I decided to practice turf care differently. At first, this was an economic decision as fertiliser is not cheap, and I wanted to spend my budget on plants. However, it was the challenge of doing things more naturally that really interested me (and I couldn’t afford to muck up with the royal family regularly visiting)!

The first thing to look at is the physiology of grass. These plants spread by creeping stems that reach out from the plant crowns, and these stems ‘tiller’, which means ‘produce fresh crowns’.

One way to thicken a sward is to lightly scarify on a regular basis. In a small back garden, this can be as simple as a lawn rake dragged over the lawn surface. This action breaks the creeping stems and encourage new crowns of growth. And in one go, the need to thicken a lawn with nitrogen fertiliser is eradicated. This also has the added advantage of propagating lawn plants such as daisy, clover, buttercup and speedwell, by division at the same time.

Try the 'rugby cut'

The second consideration for an organic lawn is height of cut. Many people cut their grass as low as possible and this not only causes the lawn to yellow in dry periods, but stops pollinating plants from flowering, cutting off vital food sources for bees.

The answer is to try what I call ‘the rugby cut’, and never trim your lawn shorter than 2.5cm. This keeps the bees happy and ensures your lawn retains its green colour. It also means, if you don't have space for long grass areas or naturalised bulb drifts, you are still encouraging biodiversity.

Overseeding once a month also helps to constantly introduce new plants. I use hard wearing grass seed (rye), mixed with clover but these days, there are many pollinator friendly seed mixes that can really bring your lawn to life. This practise also reclaims any worn or bare patches.

Consider your soil

Another major consideration - and one that’s often overlooked - is to understand the type of soil you’re growing on. Gramineae (grass) plants, in general, prefer sandy soils and will struggle on clay, with lawns quickly become colonised by the larger wild plants. While this might not be a problem for some, most lawns are used by families with children and pets. So, to keep it in half decent shape, regularly practise spiking the lawn with a garden fork and add a sandy topsoil in the spring and autumn. Massage this in with the back of a rake to allow the grass roots to reach further down and keep the lawn in a healthy condition.

Lawns are an integral part of our history, and you cannot beat the feel of real grass between your toes on a summer’s day. Plastic will never replace it, so please embrace it.