Grass lawns have a familiar and particular scent when they are mown. Freshly mown grass is considered by many to be one of the scents of summer.
The scent of tapestry lawns can be quite different depending on the plants used in their creation.
Our ancestors made lawns of chamomile and thyme to release delicate floral scent, but more especially the heady fragrance of bruised leaves when they were walked upon. 'Treading the Chamomile' is even referred to by Shakespeare (King Henry IV, Part 1). Stepping through a T-lawn can release complex fragrances entirely unrelated to grasses due to the inclusion of foliage and flower-scented plants.
Mowing in particular releases scent via volatile organic compounds (e.g. essential oils) from the cut and bruised leaves. T-lawns that include chamomile, creeping thyme, ground ivy, yarrow, lady's bedstraw, Indian mint, or pennyroyal can produce a distinctly heady scent quite different from mown grasses.
The scent of a T-lawn will inevitably be dependent on the included plants, but I have had colleagues specifically ask to be informed of when the T-lawn was to be mown, so they could be downwind and ready to inhale.
FEATURES OF T-LAWNS
Aesthetics
Maintenance
Pollinators
Drainage
Seasonality
Invertebrate Diversity
Scent
Plant Diversity
