Naturally green

Alan Titchmarsh’s guide to getting a better lawn the organic way

“ Only when you crouch down and examine my turf at close quarters will you realise that it is by no means what Wimbledon’s head groundsman would call the perfect lawn”

I can remember with crystal clarity the day I decided to have an ‘organic lawn’. It was one of those clear, bright spring days, with the air fresh washed by a welcome shower. A blackbird was heaving a worm from the lawn to take back and feed its young, who were loudly clamouring for breakfast from the living mattress that is the clematis growing on the corner