Climate change and the resilience of the domestic lawn

Lawns are a long-established component of domestic gardens but could now become a vehicle by which climate change becomes ‘real’ for many urban and suburbanised people. Within this context, field trials were set up on lawns in Cambridge University Botanic Garden with replicate plots having combinations of induced warming to +3 °C and drought conditions together with varying fertiliser and grass clippings managements. Lawn resilience was assessed using a chroma meter to measure browning and greening. All replicate plots recovered to pre-drought green colour after a 3-month induced summer drought. The use of fertiliser in spring lead to greater susceptibility to browning during drought and slower recovery but post-drought fertiliser application tended to aid recovery. Returning grass clippings to the surface led to an increased resistance to browning during drought, aided faster recovery and lowered levels of nitrate leaching. We conclude that under the conditions tested, the lawn plots showed a high degree of physical resilience which could be enhanced by management approaches.