Changing weather patterns will make the perfect British lawn 'a thing of the past' Instead gardeners should raise the height of their lawnmower blades in the summertime to ensure a healthy patch of grass. The retired University of Reading lecturer said: "My own view is that climate change won't affect gardens dramatically but the weather will. Nobody can tell one year to the next what we will have. In terms of grass I would say to a large extent the less effort you put into it the better. People should accept a slightly higher cut of grass, more daisies and buttercups. In general, intensive inputs into grass management are futile. If you are after the perfect lawn you have to cut it closely, at least once a week, burning fossil fuels, using more fuel. There are some people for whom the perfect bowling green lawn is the only thing they can live with so they will have to pay the price for it. Very short grass will go brown in just a short spell of dry weather so you have to irrigate, remove moss and weeds which all uses up more resources. Most people who now aim for the bowling green look are probably over the age of 75. Most younger people are willing to hack at it a bit when it bothers them then leave it at that. Professor Julia Slingo, the chief scientist at the Met Office, also believes gardeners will need to adapt to the change. She said: "We should all be worried about climate change, we are taking the planet into unchartered territories through our own activities. We are taking our planet into a climate that we haven't seen for a very, very long time, going back to before there were gardens in the UK. For us in the UK we will be buffered from most of the climate change because we live downstream from the Atlantic Ocean, that is why we have lovely gardens now. (The weather) will continue to be very variable and as gardeners we need to adapt to that.