Red Thyme Lawn

Grass lawns look neat, but they're expensive to keep that way. Johnstown's estates have roughly 22 football pitches' worth of public lawn, and residents collectively spend over €50,000 a year cutting and maintaining it. Grass also supports very little wildlife compared to longer grasses, flowers, and mixed planting — contributing to local biodiversity loss.

Grass wasn't even the original choice for lawns — historically, wealthy estates were kept low and green with thyme, chamomile, and clover, cut by scythe or grazed by cattle. Modern grass lawns only became standard once mowers and turf were mass-produced.

• Low maintenance — No mowing. Drought-tolerant once established. Thrives in poor soil without fertiliser.

• Good to look at — Vivid pink-red flowers in summer, and a herbal scent when walked on.

• Pollinator-friendly — Attracts bees and butterflies.

• Durable — Copes with light foot traffic, resists pests and disease.

• Low-impact — No herbicides needed (it crowds out weeds), no mowing means less fuel and emissions. It's edible too, and used in cooking.

• Allergy-friendly — No grass pollen.

In spring 2025, a volunteer replaced a 20ft x 1ft strip of front lawn with 20 thyme plugs (Thymus serpyllum 'Red Carpet'), spaced one per square foot, at €3 each — €60 for the strip. Turf was stripped and the soil improved with compost before planting.

Covering a full front garden this way would cost around €600 in plugs — so the longer-term plan is to grow on a stock of thyme here that can be divided and replanted for free, rather than buying enough to cover every garden from scratch.

By the end of Year 1, the thyme had spread to fill the strip and was holding weeds back well, though it grew more slowly in shaded spots. In Year 2, grass has been creeping back in through the thyme in places — the fix is to lift the thyme in autumn, weed the soil properly, and replant, rather than trying to pull grass out strand by strand. 

Verdict so far: promising in full sun, needs a bit of upkeep to keep grass out, and a real money-saver once established. Not yet a finished solution — more seasons needed before we'd recommend it estate-wide. 

Want to see it?

The trial strip is a real front garden in Johnstown — get in touch if you'd like to see it in person or are interested in trying thyme in your own garden.

Year 2 

Year 1