Grass Clippings

Lawn Shop open over Easter Holidays

Looking at the weather forecast for this Easter Holiday, the only gardening you might be doing is online or from the comfort of your armchair. A bit like last Easter in fact.

My Father, a very keen gardener, when growing your own vegetables was the norm let alone the rage used to spend the winter months poured over the seed catalogues, planning his vegetable plot for the coming year. He took pride in showing visitors to our family home 'the estate' and wellies were quickly donned and there followed a half hour visit to the rear of the garden or glasshouse to view the market garden. He was pretty successful at it to the point of giving probably 25% of the vegetable away to friends as the garden to freezer concept was at bursting point and he hated waste.

Easter Lawn Care

Just as we thought that the weather was getting better, looks like we are in for a traditional British Easter holiday with a return of the cold weather and sleet and snow.

Just in case you manage to get out into the garden this weekend, spare a thought for your poor old lawn.

The harshest winter for 31 years has turned the green green grass of home a little brown and tired looking and your lawn would have taken a battering like so many lawns in the United Kingdom.

Lawn Treatment Estimates available 24/7

We all live busy lives and often the garden and lawn come at the bottom of the pile when it comes to time allocation. Any money spent on a lawn is a good investment so long as it follows the flow chart of lawn care science and the timing is correct relative to the lawn's natural growth cycle.

Hamptons International promoting lawn care services

The saying 'Every man's home is his castle' is of great interest to all who read this lawn blog as castles have many lawns too and maybe a moat as well for good measure.

Selling a castle is as equally important as selling a three bed semi-detached house. The sale price of a castle will undoubtedly have more zeros attached to it but the owners will both want a speedy sale and try and present the property in a well maintained condition eager to catch a sale and first impressions are so important as soon as the prospective buyer enters the driveway or gate.

One organisation with an international reputation for buying, selling and letting properties are Hamptons International, where you can engage them to buy, sell or rent a modest period cottage or large country estate.

Chafer Beetle Larvae damage in lawns

We have had a really cold winter but now nature is waking up and that includes the larvae of Chafer Beetles. The grass is now dropping new white shoots into the soil and these provide a rich food source for the larvae, hungry from their winter dormancy.

The picture shows the damage that Badgers and large birds can do to a lawn area. The adults of the common Garden Chafer Beetle would have laid their eggs in the mid to late summer of last year and now these eggs have hatched. Chafer Beetle live in the soil for up to three years so you can easily have three generations in the soil at any one time making control measures difficult.

Chelsea Flower Show to feature fake grass in show garden

The Royal Horticultural Society has announced that for the first time it will permit the use of artificial grass at the Chelsea Flower Show this year. Last year Plasticine, this year fake grass.... what ever next?

Tony Smith's Easigrass Garden, the Urban Plantaholics Kitchen Garden, will incorporate artificial turf as an architectural feature so as not to contravene show rules on the use of plant material.

RHS head of shows development Bob Sweet confirmed that it is a first for artificial turf to be featured in a Chelsea garden despite the strict rules.

How to renovate a lawn

I am often asked by client and friends alike how to renovate a lawn. Normally this question comes about after I have been around their garden and they get a bit scared that I might look at their lawn! A brief meeting with a set of friends yesterday evening was typical of such a request. After all, they are keen enough to tackle the task themselves but are lacking the know how on what to do when and also at what time of year too.

To keep it simple, there are a few rules to follow - more of a flow chart of tasks. This process can be performed at any time during the lawn growing season but allow at least an additional 6 weeks to complete the growing process at the back end of the year before the autumn frosts and leaves fall from the trees as the frosts will slow the germination process and the leaves will smother the new grasses!

Tips on controlling moss in lawns

Moss control and then Moss removal in lawns is a practice normally performed in the spring lawn care months. If the grass plants activity has thinned or weakened over the past 12 months, especially after the harsh winter, now is the time to start Moss control and eradication and some mechanical operations just ahead of over seeding the lawn to turn the tide on the moss and re populate with existing or new grasses.

Cars to run on Grass Clippings

Now you might be a little confused by this news article title as you will note that Grass Clippings is the name of this well visited lawn advice blog - over 1,000 readers per day and rising. There are over 250 technical lawn articles to aid the lawn owner, amateur and professional alike in their quest for a better lawn.

NPTC Pesticide Training accreditation

The National Proficiency Tests Council - NPTC is the largest nationally recognised awarding body within the landbased sector with a history going back to the Young Farmer's Club Movement in the 1930s when the achievement of skill was encouraged through competitions at club, region and county level.

The aim of The NPTC is to promote competence and professionalism in the workforce of the land-based and related industries by the encouragement of continuous learning and the recognition of skill.

Q Lawns overhauls its marketing to focus on domestic turf market

Turf supplier Q Lawns has unveiled a raft of new marketing material in a bid to tap into the domestic lawn market reports Jack Sidders of Horticulture Week.

New brochures, a new-look website, a revised pricing policy and a brand new logo form the basis of a new marketing strategy the company hopes will raise awareness among the general public.

Applying lawn fertiliser

We have all seen it - stripy lawns where a lawn fertiliser has been incorrectly applied. A bit like the picture of the lawn shown here. It is important to learn how to fertilise a lawn so that you encourage even and consistent growth and colour and plant health. The problem arises when you have the job of trying to match in the light and dark bands of grass without over application of a lawn fertiliser.

Revolutionary lawn patching kit - grows grass anywhere

Getting the results you want when seeding your lawn can be a challenge, especially in tough areas such as harsh sun, dense shade and trampled lawns. That’s why Miracle-Gro created Patch Magic.

This award-winning product has a revolutionary combination of grass seed, Miracle-Gro Plant Food and coir that actually expands to surround and protect the seed.

Your local Garden Centre and DIY warehouse shelves are full of lawn repair kits and along comes a product that might actually work. Revolutionary Miracle-Gro Patch Magic Grass Seed, Feed & Coir grows grass seed anywhere – guaranteed. Triple action coir, superior quality seed and Miracle-Gro Plant Food produces 50% thicker grass with half the watering.

Preparing a lawn for spring

We have just come through the coldest winter for 30 years the Meteorological Office has announced today! Spring is officially one month late this year. The majority of the country is still currently having frosts at night and this frost is now getting into the ground, making it hard to a depth. It will take a few warm days to get the frost out of the ground but looking on the bright side at least in the South East it has stopped raining! There is still some snow in the North and Scotland.

You should never walk on a frosty lawn otherwise your footprints will snap off the tops of the frozen grass blades leaving brown grass blade tips once the frost has cleared from the lawn like footprints in the sand on the beach.