Grass Clippings

Keeping an eye out for turf diseases

Every professional Turf Manager is fully aware of the perils of their sports turf becoming diseased. The finer the playing surface, the greater the disease risk and blemish to the sward. A disease outbreak can appear over night which is why it is important to take a good look at your lawns every single day, especially in warm and moist conditions commonly found in the autumn months.

Advice on controlling casting worms in turf

Worm casts on any sports or amenity turf surface can cause severe problems for more than one reason.

Soil deposited on the turf surface will quickly clock up and stick to the moving parts of cylinder and rotary mowers and also accumulate around rollers and wheels.

Soil wrapping around rollers will interfere with the required height of cut by effectively lifting the mower above the grass meaning that the cylinder and bottom blade are artificially higher and as a result, inconsistent grass height happens.

Lawn Pesticides under threat by EU Legislation

The Plant Protection Products Regulations currently being discussed by The European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety mean stricter controls on the use of pesticides within the United Kingdom and Europe as a whole.

This will have an impact on everyone who uses control products as part of their daily life.  There has already been a close run battle on amendments to proposed pesticide legislation but all efforts are made ahead of the final vote.  If the final vote goes against us, we will see an end to well over 80 active ingredients used in Agriculture, Horticulture and Amenity Horticulture.

Lawn advice site that's a cut above the rest

Please excuse our two minutes of self indulgence but, and you can see from the graphic, our lawn advice site is going from strength to strength.

Considering the ubiquity of recreational and amenity grass, let alone the value to UK industry, there is little in the way of good, grass roots' (excuse the pun) help and advice for the British lawn owner.

Please feel free to take advantage of our technical advice pages and download the .PDF files for your personal use. If you need any help then please give us a shout.

Turfing or Seeding your Lawn - which one is best?

The process of renovating your lawn from a brown field site is the same up to the finished prepared soil surface whether you are seeding or turfing as careful seed bed or turf bed preparation is key should you wish to make life easy for yourself in the short and long term.

The decision to renovate your lawn may have arrived because it is too far gone to renovate by trying to introduce some more grasses into the sward or it maybe because the complete garden has had a make over and the law is like to carpet of the room outside.

How to prevent and control Moles in your lawn

 An adult Mole of around 80g in weight consumes about 50g of worms a day and your lawn is not going to get in it's way whilst they burrow up to 100 metres per night underneath it.  In the morning, you draw back the curtains to be met with a view of complete devastation!

They scour their network of tunnels during each feeding session, searching for food sources that have dropped or entered into the tunnels, making repairs where necessary to the network as they go about their business.

Where to buy Quality Lawn Turf

Just because 'it' is green, this does not mean that it is desirable turf.  We hear and see many horror stories where 'meadow turf' has been passed off as 'seeded lawn turf'.

There are a wide selection of turf companies supplying the home owner market and professional sports turf market.  Some of these companies are well respected in both market sectors and have been established for many years supplying lawn turf of a consistent quality and standard.

So how can you be sure that you are buying a quality piece of turf for your lawn project?

Londoners urged to use more turf

The Turf Growers Association have written to London Mayor Boris Johnson in a bid to encourage a wider use of turf to help combat climate change.

More and more garden owners across the United Kingdom have ripped out lawns, especially in the front, and added patios or hard standings to park cars or just to cut down on garden maintenance.

What is Thatch, how does it form and why is Thatch bad for my Lawn

Thatch is a layer of natural decaying and dead leaf litter and other plant materials that builds up on the top of the soil surface at the base of the grass plants. Over time, especially if it is allowed to dry out, it can become fibrous and matted like a dry old bathroom sponge.

The picture details shallow lawn thatch. How does Thatch form? Turf grasses predominately grow in a tufted habit with a few exceptions between turf grass species. Imagine a pile of letter 'V's slotted inside each other with one central upright.