Cost of lawn

I think the cost will depend on the type of lawn that you intend to sow, and the conditions that will prevail (heavy duty hard wear that would support children playing on it all day; mainly to look at and walk on occasionally; direct sun; shade; partial sun etc).I would recommend a visit to EcoService Garden Centre near Castel di Lama - just off the Ascoli Mare superstrada - they are not only a well stocked garden centre including different types of grass seed; but also specialize in the construction and maintainance of sports pitches. They will certainly advise on the best type of seed.Hope this helps

Unless you are a lawn nut and are going for the bowling green look, if you just let stuff grow and mow it you will very quickly have a decent lawn at no cost.I have turned several dock-filled areas into grass by this simple expedient.  Things grow so fast during the growing season in Italy that what looks like bare earth very quickly greens up.  Almost the only thing that survivies regular mowing is grass, and if there is other green stuff in there as well, so much the better in my book.

I agree with Anne, there seems little point in trying to create a"bowling green" lawn in a rural Italian property. And the prisine grass will soon be compromised by all the seeds that blow in from surrounding fields, not to mention the cost of irrigation. far better to strim the area and go for a more homespun less costly look.(well thats our excuse!)A

I tend to agree with the comments made by Anne and Angie, unless you are prepared to spend many hours looking after the perfect lawn... it will be a very difficult task in rural Italy.

Thank you all for the comments. I love the idea of 'let it grow'.Our UK 'lawn' attests to the likelihood we will always let the side down with respect to 'prato inglese'.  I am strongly in favour of horizontal (i.e. hammock-based) gardening where possible.We'd envisgaed 'pasture' over lawn. The land is mostly in full sun at 600m with expected moderate use as play/ sunbathing area.The flip side is that the ground is just light brown hardened dust over tufa at present. There are steep slopes at the edges and we want something growing ASAP to minimise the risk of erosion. We are planning on broom or similar on the slopes themselves.

Try low maintenance ground covers which will help with the slopes. Pig Face or Ice Plant (Messembryanthemum) will provide a colourful cover when it flowers in summer. You can find many beautiful colours. Blue convolvulus or Morning Glory (Convolvulus mauritanicus) is a rapid-growing trailer; however, you should keep it under control as it may become a problem. All ivies make excellent trailing ground covers but needs to be clipped into shape. Have a look at what grows well around you. It is your best bet.

Well my garden is about the same size and it cost me €700 to get a lawn sown. That included the gardner tilling the earth, seed (Prato Forte) and I suppose throwing it onto the soil. It started to come up quite nicely this spring but is now a bed of straw due to the drought which neighbours say is the worst for 200 years. I'm sure it's not but indeed it hasn't rained here over 9 weeks.

Sorry to hear about your predicament, but your lawn will recover as soon as it gets some rain. I think that these have been pretty exceptional conditions as our area in Northern Tuscany is also called "Toscana Verde"...