Grass Clippings - Home of the British Lawn

Which? evaluate lawn treatment products

Which? focus on consumer issues and ensuring you have the information to make the right choices - whether that's by reviewing products or providing independent advice you can trust. Their testing team tackled the many amateur lawn treatment products.

Lawn advice - getting it right first time

An individual with extensive skill and or knowledge in a particular field is said to be an expert. An expert might be of interest or value to journalist needing information, comment or an interview for a news story or feature as this gets the journalist right to the spot they need to be for their story, saving them a lot of leg work, time and money. The internet has made a researcher’s job so much easier over the last two decades.

There are a lot of people in all professions who claim to be an 'expert' and the lawn care and lawn treatment industry is no exception to this rule.

Pest & Disease Diagnosis by Text and Email

Visitors to Grass Clippings Lawn Advice Blog will alread be familiar of the assistance they get from our Technical Team to their lawn problems. It is common for us to receive pictures from readers via email seeking diagnosis and advice to their lawn problems, including lawn disease and lawn pests.

Now one of the major amateur horticultural suppliers Westland Horticulture, has launched a text and email-based pest and disease diagnosis.

Anyone for Croquet?

They often say that a turf managers day can be varied.

Usually it is the battling with the weather, trying to get the playing surface ready in time for the players. Whether it is preparing a football pitch or in this case a croquet lawn, working around a helicopter poses a bit of a challenge - with the added benefit that there was no need to drag brush the dew off that particular day as the helicopter did what usually takes an hour in a few minutes!

Spring your lawn into healthy growth

If you are a good lawn owner, you would appreciate that your lawn needs fertiliser every three months minimum. You will switch from a spring and summer fertiliser to an autumn and winter lawn fertiliser at the appropriate time of the year in a bid to keep the millions of turf grass plants that make up the lawn healthy and disease free, developing the roots and vigour, colour and density.

One misconception is not to apply an autumn and winter fertiliser during the months of October through to late February. Autumn and Winter fertiliser have minimal Nitrogen, some Phosphorus and lots of Potassium in them. The most important nutrient over the winter and early spring months is Potassium for the reasons stated a little later. Phosphorus is mostly in ample supply in the soil as it is a very insoluble nutrient and rarely leached out of the soil. This is why a typical autumn and winter lawn fertiliser may show a zero Phosphorus status like 15-0-22.

First Aid tonic for lawns in January

January is a hard month for lawns and turf especially after a prolonged period of snow and frost. It is always nice to see a green lawn over the winter but trying to achieve that result without the use of lawn fertiliser is a little hard to do.

Help is at hand in the shape of Sulphate of Iron, Iron Sulphate as it is also called, an active ingredient of Lawn Sand. Iron Sulphate will provide some much needed colour to your turf in the almost dormant grass growing months and the effect of application will provide a much need boost to 'lift' the lawn and it's colour when help is needed most.

'Just going to mow the lawn' - on the roof

Roof gardens, once a common sight in London, are enjoying a renaissance, together with the growing popularity of living green roofs. Mayor Ken Livingstone's Living Roofs campaign aims to encourage Londoners to make green roofs, roof gardens and terraces as popular as in other major European cities.

The biggest problem with planting a garden with or without a lawn is the overall weight of the project.

Lawn Treatment Franchise for £6,000

A New Year, a new challenge and an opportunity to get a slice of the growing lawn treatment industry for only £6,000.

Buying a lawn treatment franchise can traditionally be anything between £16,000 and £25,000.

The Team at The Lawn Company have managed to come up with a simple but effective concept for only £6,000 which includes the customer management and treatment software, initial equipment to make successful lawn treatments, personal protective equipment to help you comply with pesticide legislation, some stock of fertiliser and chemicals to get you going, and 5,000 marketing leaflets for you to distribute locally to spark consumer interest in your new service.

Is it too early to scarify your lawn?

We are noticing a lot of traffic generated on the site about scarifying your lawn. The quick answer is do not attempt to scarify the lawn until you have given the lawn its first mow of the season. At such time, your lawn must be able to put on some natural recovery growth so performing this important mechanical lawn task too early in the year is complete madness and not very good for your lawn either. Anyway, it is still winter and more snow and frost is forecast so although you might be keen to get to grips early with the lawn - hold off until the temperature sparks off a growth spurt.

Attempt on the World Landspeed Record for a Lawnmower

Once in a lifetime, the opportunity comes along to make your mark on the world we all share. It may be by inventing some fantastic new cure for some hideous disease, or solving world conflicts. In the case of Project Runningblade, the chance to advance science has come in the form of breaking a world record. On July 4th, 2006, Bob Cleveland from the USA threw down the gauntlet to the world by becoming the first human being to travel at more than 80 mph on a lawn mower: no mean achievement. Since then, no-one has dared to try and beat his record - until now. Team Runningblade, headed by Stephen Vokins, aims to bring this world record to Great Britain, and by a margin of more than 25%!

During my many lawn visits, I have viewed many a lawn owner trying to break the land speed record on a ride on mower to be honest!