What A Small Patch Of Lawn Can Do For You

A small patch of the green stuff may be just the sort of versatile ingredient your garden needs.

DESIGN WISE | If you want to get maximum mileage from your outdoor space for physical play or entertaining, the most versatile garden surface I know of is good old-fashioned lawn. Lawn is a four-letter among guerilla gardeners who see it as an ecological disaster and a colossal waste of energy, and I do agree that a large area is imprudent. But a small patch can be a godsend.

Lawn Stars

On the design side, lawn is the perfect foil, a soothing swath of a single color that can counter the busy look of flowers and shrubs. On the utility side, its merits are legion, especially if you have a durable seed mixture or top sod (appropriate for your sun exposure, of course) and a solid sand base.

The sand is critical for good drainage and surface rigidity. A number of my clients have staged weddings in their gardens over the last year and have had to press their lawns into service as extra dining rooms. Every one of them held up under the furniture legs because of a good sand mixture.

As for play space, you can kick a ball around on a rectangle of lawn as small as 20 by 30 square feet, an area that is perfectly acceptable for trampoline, badminton, casual Frisbee and Wiffle Ball sports. Serious running and tackling games require more room—or a visit to the park. —Ron Rule

Ron Rule is a well-known residential garden designer in Vancouver. He is the founder and head of the Certificate In Garden Design program at the University of B.C.