Utility Lawns

A bowling green perfect lawn probably isn't what you want when you have active kids who like to play in the garden. You need a lawn that can take some trampling and is easy to care for. A utility lawn. 

So, what do you need to look out for if you need a new lawn and you want it to be hard wearing? Perennial ryegrass is key. You can get perennial ryegrass as turf which is more expensive than grass seed but more likely to produce a successful lawn with less effort. If you don't want to buy turf, most standard lawn seed bags contain perennial ryegrass.

Other hard wearing lawn winners are creeping red fescue and poa pratensis (smooth stalked meadow grass). Creeping red fescue is perhaps the easiest type of fescue to germinate from seed, and maintain, it's strong, and like perennial ryegrass appears in a lot of standard seed mixes. Poa pratensis is also tough, while being a gorgeous colour and soft to the touch. The main drawback of using poa pratensis is that it can be thirsty over the summer months, but keep it watered and the benefits of using it will be innumerable.