Grass Clippings - Home of the British Lawn

Controlling coarse weed grasses in a lawn

We often get asked by lawn owners the best remedy of controlling weed grasses in lawns. Just because it is green, it does not mean that it is a grass or grasses you want in your green sward.

A lawn should have nothing in it except good healthy desirable turf grasses but this is often not the case. Weed grasses will react violently to changes in climatic conditions such as drought or fertilisation or selective weed control or a change in soil moisture.

Clumps of weed grasses of which there could be many are very unsightly, and more often than not, the weed grasses will colonise into large clumps across a lawn.

How and when to water your lawns in the summer

When and how much water should you give your lawn in the summer months? The Met Office are predicting a heat wave this week - I think it has already arrived with temperature for London set to reach 31 degrees centigrade today and a steamy 16 degrees tonight.

We are now on a Level 2 - a Yellow heat wave alert and state of readiness. This level is triggered as soon as the risk is 60% or above for threshold temperatures being reached in one or more regions on at least two consecutive days and the intervening night. This is an important stage for social and healthcare services who will be working to ensure readiness and swift action to reduce harm from a potential heat wave. The Met Office advice is that heat waves can be dangerous, especially for the very young, very old or those with chronic diseases. If you want more information about hot weather and your health please visit www.nhs.uk. If you are concerned about your health or somebody you care for, please contact NHS Direct on 0845 4647 or their web site. or your local Pharmacist. Visit the Met Office web site for more details as the heat wave progresses this week.

Now back to your lawns and their needs.

Grass Clippings on Gardeners' Question Panel

Lawn Care advice is always in hot demand and this week is no exception for The Grass Clippings Team as they step onto the professional stand and take part in the Notcutts Garden Centres 'Sage Privilege Members Club' Gardeners' Question Time events in their Centres this week.

Sage Priviledge Club Members may receive a 10% discount off everything on every available shopping day at one of the Notcutts 19 Garden Centres, the Company have arranged an exciting calendar of events, with invitations to demonstrations, and talks, members only discount days, quarterly newsletters with seasonal top tips from gardening experts and privileged access to Santa at Christmas, avoiding the queues - now I am up for the Santa bit for sure!

The green, green grass of Wimbledon

There is nothing quite like the vision of the tennis courts at Wimbledon to get the Journalists writing about how fantastic they look and just how difficult it is for lawn owners to get their lawns looking the same. If only the same Journalists spent a few more weeks of the year writing about the same subject matter, amateur lawn owners might start to fathom out the secrets to the perfect lawn.

The BBC's Home Editor Mark Easton is no exception with his BBC Blog today highlighting the decline of the British Lawn.

BBC Gardeners' World announce worst garden problem

There are many jobs to do in the garden on an ongoing basis. Every garden is unique and has different requirements throughout the gardening year. We hope that every garden would have a lawn in it, a fact that the Gardening Media seem to over look, especially the BBC.

The Team at BBC Gardeners' World have for three months we've been asking you what you like and don't like about life in the garden. They received thousands of nominations and now the results of the Gardeners' World Awards 2009 are in.

The worst gardening problem according to the BBC Gardener's World viewers and readers is garden weeds, with Bindweed featuring as the most hated weed in the garden.

I think the biggest problem with weed control in the garden apart from the poor media received by pesticides is that gardeners do not understand the way some of the weed killers or active ingredients contained within them actually work to kill the plant - a matter of good education. If a product is a 'total' it will kill nearly all green vegetation, if it is 'selective' it will kill specific weeds and not others. Reading the product label is so important!

TV Gardener David Domoney shocks Judges at BBC Gardeners' World Live

With the absence of lawns once again at another UK Garden Show, the news story about a friend of mine caught my eye, with some relevance of course to lawns and their care.

David Domoney used a host of reused and recycled materials including a thong for his Bayer Baby Bio garden at this year's Gardeners' World Live reports Horticulture Week Magazine.

Windsor lawns receive some TLC

The Team at The Lawn Company have been performing a schedule of treatments to the lawns at Windsor Castle in Berkshire. These treatments have included a selective weed killer and a slow release soluble fertiliser. The contract pesticide applications have complimented the work of the Grounds and Gardens Department Staff who perform a fantastic job in maintaining the gardens for The Royal Household at this world famous Royal Residence.

Dry Patch areas in your lawn

You may notice a darkening halo on parts of the lawn, visible from the upstairs window. This is a good indicator that the soil underneath is starting to or has dried out. This little known phenomenon is not only related to drought conditions but even if you are watering the lawn on a regular basis all throughout the year, some areas will still never become wet naturally to a depth, thus promoting grass growth in these areas. The surface of these areas will become dry and crusty and thatchy and be void of grass that cannot grow without water.

A Wetting Agent is used to alleviate localised ‘Dry Patch’ areas on a lawn or grass area. These areas have appeared because the soil-acting bacteria have made the soil hydrophobic (repelling water) and until you can get these areas wet again, nothing will grow. A bit like trying to wet an old bathroom sponge, almost impossible.

Controlling Yellow Suckling Clover in your lawn

Weeds in your lawn are a nightmare. One particular weed that is prevalent at this time of year is Lesser Trefoil or Yellow Suckling Clover. It looks like a small leafed clover type weed that creeps close to the ground covering large areas from a single root. Left uncontrolled, it will quickly spread across the surface of a lawn. It is one of the more difficult weed to control in a lawn.

Trifolium dubium is a procumbent summer annual found in UK lawns and also open ground. It is common throughout Britain and is recorded up to 1,600 ft. Two distinct forms occur, one found in open habitats on cinders and spoil, the other on grassland sites, waysides, wasteland and on lawns. In lawns it survives mowing by developing a low growth habit, missing the mower blades. On grazed sites this is less successful and it is not a common weed in pasture.

The Grass is always Greener on the other side.....

And over here too! It is a fact - grass is green! The benefits in lawns and sports turf are often overlooked. Most homes have lawn areas and the beauty of a uniform, green carpet surrounding the house sets the stage for other landscaping. Many people enjoy participating in outdoor sporting activities and others enjoy watching such events. Turf adds to the enjoyment and safety of the players and contributes to the entire scene for the spectator. But, there are many more benefits which are not as obvious but which are very important to our health, to our environment and to the economy.