Living Lawn

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Living lawns are low-growing, walkable, usable green spaces just like traditional lawns, but living lawns have more than just a monoculture of one species of grass — living lawns let flowers grow. Enjoy this space and its beautiful, ecosystem-supporting flowers! People can still make full use of the space, while the many plant species provide resources for wildlife and their root systems create structure in the soil that improve infiltration. The wildflowers are beautiful during the growing season, the deeper roots help hold onto the soil and increase the lawn’s ability to soak up water, and you’ve created a feast for pollinators and birds. With all its benefits, having a living lawn also saves costs: you can still use it as a lovely space to picnic and play, but you don’t have to mow nearly as often. The RBGE living lawn was originally planted in 2021.

2021 Planted species
- Anthyllis vulneraria (kidney vetch)
- Bellis perennis (common daisy)
- Fragaria vesca (strawberry)
- Helianthemum nummularia (rock rose)
- Lotus corniculatus (birdsfoot trefoil)
- Medicago lupulina (black medic)
- Ononis repens (common restharrow)
- Prunella vulgaris (self-heal)
- Rumex acetosella (sheep sorrel / red sorrel)
- Hypochaeris radicata (cat’s ear)
- Thymus polytrichus (wild thyme)
- Veronica officinalis (common speedwell)
- Viola riviniana (common violet)
What are we learning? How are we adapting?

The horticulturists and Nature Based Solutions scientists of RBGE work closely together to bring research to life in real time. In 2025, an MSc study of the living lawn provided evidence that the living lawn is both more biodiverse, and more successful at infiltrating water, than a nearby traditional lawn. This study, and the collaboration between horticulturists and scientists to bring it about, also found that our management practices could be adjusted to further improve the space. By increasing the interval between mowing (> 4 weeks) and maintaining the lawn at a higher height (adjusted in spring 2026 to a 14 cm cut), the wildflowers that grow within the lawn will have a better chance of going to seed and spreading. The lawn is left unmown between July and August this allows some of the taller flowering species to complete their lifecycle and creates a spectacle during the peak visitor season. The meadow would hopefully, with the right management diversify overtime with recruitment of volunteer species. But how to increase the biodiversity of the lawn’s plant community right away? With our new River of Flowers.

The river and the lawn will continue to be monitored over time. NBS pollinator ecologist Nicholas Balfour conducts plant and pollinator surveys throughout the Botanics grounds and the wider city of Edinburgh, tracking the city’s contribution to pollinator communities. The living lawn and its newly established river will continue to be one of the pollinator survey locations, and infiltration tests will again be performed in 2027.