Lawns for Yerevan

Published on 2025-09-22

The state and maintenance methods of most lawns in Yerevan today face the problem of inefficiency. Most of the areas formally considered lawns are spontaneously overgrown plots with bare patches. Such "self-seeding" does not perform key ecological functions: it does not retain dust, does not support biodiversity, and absorbs moisture poorly. At the same time, city services spend resources on its regular but unsystematic mowing.

This guide offers a modern, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible solution — the transition to creating natural (meadow) lawns. This approach not only dramatically reduces maintenance costs but also transforms neglected plots into aesthetically attractive, living ecosystems that make the city cleaner, healthier, and more comfortable for all its residents.

Quick summary for decision-making

The transition from traditional urban lawns to natural (meadow) ones is a strategic decision that brings direct economic and ecological benefits.

• Savings: a reduction in maintenance costs (mowing, watering, fertilizers) reaches 70-80% from the second year of operation.
• Ecology: the lawn becomes part of the urban ecosystem, supporting pollinators, improving soil structure and its ability to absorb water, and also effectively combating urban dust.
• Resilience: a natural lawn is much more resistant to drought, diseases, and pests, which reduces the risks and costs of its restoration.
• Aesthetics: a living, changing landscape is created throughout the season, increasing the attractiveness of the urban environment.

This guide provides all the necessary information for planning and implementing this modern approach to landscaping.

Problems of traditional urban lawns

Before talking about modern alternatives, it is important to understand the shortcomings of the types of lawns that currently prevail in cities. The two most common options are spontaneously overgrown areas and classic monoculture lawns.

Self-seeded lawn

This is the most common type of landscaping in cities — plots of land overgrown with whatever has managed to survive in difficult conditions. The basis of such a lawn consists of several species of aggressive plants resistant to trampling and pollution, for example, couch grass, plantain, dandelion, or wormwood. Their care is usually limited to periodic mowing.

From an ecosystem point of view, such a lawn is "green asphalt" that does not support biodiversity and does not provide food for pollinating insects such as bees, bumblebees, and butterflies. The soil beneath it is usually compacted, eroded, and absorbs water poorly. For people, it is aesthetically unattractive and often looks like a neglected, unkempt area with bare patches that become a source of urban dust. In addition, some plants often found in self-seeded areas, such as wormwood, are strong allergens.

For city services, despite its apparent "naturalness," such a lawn requires constant labor for mowing to maintain at least a minimally acceptable appearance. At the same time, it carries no ecological or aesthetic value, being essentially an expense item without any real return.

Monoculture lawn

This is the "ideal" lawn of one or two types of cereal grasses, which can often be seen in ceremonial areas. Despite its neat appearance, it is one of the most problematic and expensive types of landscaping. For the ecosystem, such a lawn is a real biological desert, useless for insects and birds. Its maintenance requires a huge amount of resources: constant watering, application of soil-polluting fertilizers, as well as pesticides and herbicides. This makes it extremely unstable to drought and disease.

For people, it is not only aesthetically monotonous but also potentially harmful due to contact with the chemicals used. From the point of view of city services, this is the most expensive type of lawn to properly maintain. It requires frequent mowing (every 1-2 weeks), aeration, watering, and disease control. Any disruption in this complex care cycle quickly leads to a complete loss of appearance and the need for expensive restoration.

Mixed or natural lawns: a modern alternative

A mixed lawn is a multi-species plant community that mimics a natural meadow. It includes various types of grasses, perennial and annual flowering plants, and is an effective solution to the problems created by traditional lawns.

What is it called? Terminology options

There are several names for such lawns, reflecting different emphases. The most general is meadow lawn, as it imitates a natural community of perennial grasses and flowers. If the composition has many bright annuals, such as poppies and cornflowers, it is called a Moorish lawn. The terms natural lawn or wildflower meadow emphasize the use of local plants adapted to the climate, and the names bio-positive or ecological lawn focus on its key role in the urban ecosystem.

Where is it practiced and why is it effective?

The practice of creating mixed lawns is widespread in the countries of Northern and Western Europe (Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands), and this approach is supported by both legislative incentives and proven effectiveness.

Legislation rarely prescribes the composition of a lawn mixture directly, but it creates conditions under which the transition to meadow lawns becomes the most logical solution. For example, since 2017, France has had a law prohibiting the use of synthetic pesticides in public spaces, which has encouraged services to look for alternative care methods. At the European Union level, there are biodiversity conservation strategies that set goals for cities to restore ecosystems and reduce "biological deserts," and meadow lawns are a key tool for achieving them.

An analysis of effectiveness confirms the correctness of this approach. Municipalities that have implemented this technology record a reduction in lawn maintenance costs by 50-90% by reducing the number of mowings from 10-15 to 1-2 per year and completely eliminating fertilizers and herbicides. Studies show an increase in the number of pollinating insect species by 3-5 times in the second year, as well as an improvement in the soil's ability to absorb storm water by 30-40%, which reduces the load on the sewage system. Thus, this is not just a fashion trend, but a proven, economically and environmentally sound practice.

What plants are used?

The composition of the mixture is the key to success. It usually includes three main groups, but must always be adapted to local conditions:

1. Grasses (50-80% of the mixture): they create the basis, the turf. Non-aggressive, slow-growing species are used: red fescue, common bent, timothy grass. They all grow well in Armenia.
2. Perennial flowering plants and herbs: this is the core of the meadow lawn. Examples: clover (white and red), yarrow, chicory, veronica, chamomile, bluebells, meadow sage. These plants are widespread in the region and are an excellent choice.
3. Annual flowers: give a quick effect in the first year. Examples: cornflower, common poppy, calendula (marigold), flax. Given the difficult climatic conditions of Yerevan, periodic overseeding of annuals may be required if their representation in the lawn decreases over time.

A key success factor is adapting the composition of the mixture to specific lighting conditions. For open sunny areas, the sun-loving meadow flowers and grasses listed above are suitable. However, for shady places, for example, under the crowns of trees in parks and courtyards, a completely different mixture is needed. It will consist of shade-tolerant plants: special types of fescue, wood meadow-grass, as well as herbs such as lungwort, anemone, bugleweed, or wood geranium. Such a lawn will look different — it will be less bright, with an emphasis on the texture of the leaves and delicate, inconspicuous flowers, creating the atmosphere of a forest glade.

To create the most sustainable lawn in the conditions of Yerevan, it is recommended to enrich the basic mixtures with local drought-resistant wild herbs, such as thyme, oregano, eryngium, and yellow hornpoppy. This will not only increase the survival rate of the lawn but also give it a unique local flavor, making it part of the region's natural heritage.

Benefits for the city, ecosystem, and people

• Supporting biodiversity and creating a sustainable ecosystem: flowering plants attract bees, bumblebees, and other pollinators, which has a direct practical effect. They are necessary for fruit trees (apricots, apples) and shrubs in parks and courtyards. In addition, the meadow becomes a home for beneficial insects (ladybugs, predatory beetles) that control the number of pests, such as aphids. This reduces the need for expensive and harmful chemical treatments of all urban plantings.
• Improving soil condition: the root systems of different plants penetrate to different depths, loosening and structuring the soil. This increases its aeration and moisture capacity — the ability to accumulate and retain moisture. As a result, such a lawn can be watered less often, and the effect of watering or rain lasts longer. Improved water absorption also helps to combat erosion and reduces the load on the storm sewer during heavy rainfall.
• Combating dust and urban dirt: the dense and continuous cover of a mixed lawn completely covers the soil, unlike self-seeded lawns with their bare patches. This effectively solves the problem of urban dust. The air becomes cleaner, and for city services, this means direct savings on cleaning and washing streets.
• Saving resources: after the lawn takes root (in the 2-3rd year), it requires significantly fewer resources. This is a direct saving for city services on watering, fertilizers, and fuel for lawnmowers.
• Aesthetic diversity: such a lawn changes throughout the season: some flowers are replaced by others. This creates a dynamic and more natural landscape that has a positive effect on the psycho-emotional state of people.
• Increasing the resilience of the lawn itself: a multi-species plant community is much more resistant to drought, diseases, and pests. If one species suffers, others take its place, and the lawn does not lose its appearance and functions.

Maintenance features

Care is radically different from traditional care. It is not "more" or "less" care, but "different" care, based on knowledge of ecology, not on brute force.

• Mowing: this is a key element of care that mimics the natural processes that occur in nature (for example, grazing by animals). Mowing is done 1-2 times A YEAR. It evens out the chances of all plants, preventing the dominance of a few aggressive species (mainly grasses) and allowing a wider range of herbs to bloom and reproduce. The first mowing is done in the middle of summer, after most of the plants have bloomed and set seed. The second is in late autumn, to prepare the lawn for winter. It is extremely important to remove all mown grass, and not leave it on the lawn.
• Watering: intensive watering is needed only in the first year during rooting. In the future, the need for water decreases sharply, but it is important to take into account the peculiarities of the local climate. The average annual rainfall in Yerevan is about 300 mm, while the summer is very hot and dry. Natural rains will not be enough to maintain the lawn. To keep the plants alive in the hottest months, rare but deep watering will be required. Nevertheless, this is a radical reduction in water consumption compared to the daily surface watering required for a monoculture lawn.
• Fertilizers: fertilizers are not needed and are even harmful. They stimulate the growth of grasses, which begin to displace flowering species. Such a lawn grows well on poor soils.
• Weeding: manual weeding may be needed in the first 1-2 years to remove aggressive unwanted species. In the future, a stable community itself suppresses most weeds.
• Features of use: it is important to understand that this is not a lawn for active games or constant walking. This is an element of the landscape for contemplation and quiet rest. Paths and picnic areas should be mowed separately.

How to get a natural lawn

Success depends directly on proper preparation at the start. Sowing over an existing self-seeded lawn will not give a good result, so it is necessary to completely remove the old turf and dig up the earth, removing the roots of perennial weeds.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the technology of ready-made rolled lawns. For creating a natural wildflower meadow, this method is risky. Imported lawns, as a rule, contain plants grown in other climatic conditions and not adapted to the hot and dry summer of Yerevan. As a result, such a lawn quickly degrades and loses its species composition. Given the absence of local nurseries producing rolled lawns from adapted drought-resistant grasses, the most reliable and sustainable solution remains sowing seeds directly on site.

To create a lawn, it is easiest and most reliable to use ready-made, balanced seed mixtures that are commercially available. It is also possible to compose them yourself, but this requires special knowledge.

A key feature is the seeding rate, which is significantly lower than for conventional lawns — about 3-5 grams per square meter (for comparison, a conventional lawn has 30-50 g). This is done so that delicate flowering plants have enough light and space to develop, and so that they are not choked out by fast-growing grasses.

To evenly distribute such a small amount of seeds, they are mixed with sand (in a ratio of about 1:10), sown, and lightly worked into the soil with a rake. After that, it is recommended to cover the area with non-woven agrotextile — it will protect the seeds from birds and drying out, accelerating germination.

Possible difficulties and ways to solve them

• Negative perception by residents. One of the main difficulties is that at the initial stage, a natural lawn can be perceived by residents as "unkempt" or "abandoned." This problem is solved by proactive information support: installing signs explaining the essence of the project ("Here we are creating a flowering meadow for bees and butterflies"), publications in local media and social networks, as well as holding public discussions.
• Initial costs. It is important to correctly estimate the initial investment. Creating a high-quality monoculture lawn, as a rule, requires large costs at the start due to the need to import expensive fertile soil and a high seeding rate (or the use of a rolled lawn). A natural lawn is less demanding, it does not need black soil, and the seed rate is 10 times lower. Thus, its creation is most often cheaper. To justify these costs, it is useful to compare them with the colossal annual savings on maintenance.
• Seed availability. A practical task may be to find ready-made mixtures that are ideally suited to a specific climate, for example, for the hot and dry summer of Yerevan. The solution here is to search for specialized suppliers and cooperate with local nurseries or botanical gardens to develop adapted mixtures based on local, drought-resistant plant species.

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