Grass Clippings - Lawn Advice From a Team of Lawn and Turf Experts

Aeration - Why & How

In a wet winter similar to the one we have just experienced, failure to carry out a programme of lawn aeration can lead to an entirely different problem. This is when surface sealing can often occur, due to the compacting effect of trampling feet and heavy maintenance machinery.

Under these conditions, water is prevented from percolating; it will remain on the surface, restricting gaseous exchange and lead to moss or the build up of fibrous growth. If steps are not taken to relieve the compaction, a fibrous matt develops, restricting the amount of air, moisture and nutrients available to the grasses and creating ideal conditions for diseases to thrive.

Happy Easter from the Grass Clippings Team

Easter Holidays are upon us and the big get away has commenced!

The weather has taken a turn for the better with temperatures a lot warmer hovering around 15 degrees for the weekend with a warm feel about it too.

If you are planning to be at home, Easter is traditionally a big DIY weekend at home with the Garden Centres and DIY Stores expecting hughe volumes of customers to get their tills ringing.

The Science of looking after a Lawn

The Team at Grass Clippings are pleased to boast that lawn owners have at their disposal on this Lawn Blog over 1,670 lawn related technical pages covering the wide technical subject of lawns and their care. This Lawn Blog is living up to it's name -'Grass Clippings - Home of the British Lawn.'

Our lawn advice blog site is almost at the grand total of over 3,500,000 technical posts having been read by Visitors seeking sound advice on their green swards.  Use the search facility top right to enter lawn keywords.

Whether you are after a little bit of advice on summer lawn care, or lawn pests, or some advice on controlling moss, scarifying your lawn or the source of a reputable turf supplier, you will find all the answers here on this lawn advice site.

Too early to Scarify your Lawn?

We are noticing a lot of traffic generated on this lawn advice blog site about scarifying your lawn.  Is it too early to perform this important mechnical task?

The quick answer is do not attempt to scarify the lawn until you have given the lawn its first or ideally second mow of the season and you have applied Soluble Iron to control the Winter Moss.

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.

How to Scarify a Lawn

Scarification or Scarifying is an essential part of cultured turf or lawn management. It is carried out with hand tools such as a Spring Bok Hand Rake or, for larger areas, purpose built machinery called a Scarifier. The aim of scarifying is to produce a healthy vertical type growth of desirable grasses, to improve the turf surface and appearance. Very light scarification (like with a drag brush or rake on a cylinder mower) is used simply to raise the leaves of the grass in the sward before mowing, to leave a smarter looking finish.

Gardening Club Talks on Lawn Care

Our Managing Editor, Mike Seaton, is a Fellow Member of The Institute of Groundsmanship and has had an extensive career in the turf and lawn industry.

If your local Gardenng Club is seeking a speaker on the subjects of lawn and their care, then Mike is your man!  The 2022 Gardening Club Speaker season has commenced and Mike has been visiting Clubs in and around Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire providing expert lawn care advice to their Members. Contact Mike here

'Being a lawn specialist is a bit like being a Doctor at a party. The lawn is after all the carpet of the room outside and the lawn is often the largest part of the garden and the most neglected by many.'  

Mike has been included in the Royal Horticultural Society Speaker and Judge online listings to give talks about lawns or judge lawns and turf at gardening shows.

Lawn Advice at your fingertips

The Team at Grass Clippings are pleased to boast that lawn owners have at their disposal on this Lawn Blog over 1,600 lawn related technical pages covering the wide technical subject of lawns and their care. This Lawn Blog is living up to it's name -'Grass Clippings - Home of the British Lawn.'

Our lawn advice blog site has had the articles read over 3,000,000 times by Visitors seeking sound advice on their green swards.

Whether you are after a little bit of advice on summer lawn care, or lawn pests, or some advice on controlling moss, scarifying your lawn or the source of a reputable turf supplier, you will find all the answers here on this lawn advice site.

Control Lawn Moss

Moss control and then Moss removal in lawns is a practice normally performed in the spring and autumn. 

The weather is still against us but if it cheers up and warms up then you could commence with some winter moss control.

If the grass plants activity has thinned or weakened over the past 12 months, 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 whilst the soil is still warm. Moss is traditionally controlled and killed using Soluble Iron.

How to measure your lawn

Knowing the precise area of your lawn will allow you to determine how much lawn fertiliser and other lawn treatment products to purchase, making sure that if you apply the correct amount of lawn treatment product in the first place, you can be pretty sure of the end result.

Applying lawn treatment products to your lawn is a fairly calibrated process.  Getting the correct amount of product or concentrate onto the lawn per each single square metre multiplied by the total area will give you great results.  Not knowing the size of your lawn will lead to problems, waste money and cost valuable time and effort.

Why does my lawn get Moss in it?

It is common for lawns, especially those suffering as a result of a Winter shade line or north facing to get a Moss invasion visible in the late Winter through to the Spring months.

The moss type that is in your lawn will be mostly Cushion Moss; often referred to as Winter Moss, easily controlled by an application of Lawn Sand which has Sulphate of Iron as a key ingredient.

February Lawn Care Tips

We would be lying if we said that February was a big lawn care month!

With storms forecast with some rain and cold thrown in for good measure, your turf grasses will be crying out for some TLC.

1. Here are a few jobs to get on with this month:

It's Lawn Mushroom Season

You may have lately noticed lots of mushrooms on your lawn and in your local woodland and parkland.  Sign of a healthy soil.  It is that time of year when soil conditions are ideal for theses fruiting bodies to appear in abundance.

Does your lawn have circles in it?  Sometimes, these may be a dark green circle or grass or sometimes with a dead bit of grass in the middle or simply a ring of mushrooms only.  They are all called Fairy Rings.

The fungi responsible for fairy rings in lawns is Marasmius oreades.  Marasmius oreades grows extensively throughout North America and Europe in the summer and fall, or year-round in warmer climates. It loves grassy areas such as lawns, meadows, and even dunes in coastal areas.

You may have lately noticed lots of mushrooms on your lawn and in your local woodland and parkland.  Sign of a healthy soil.  It is that time of year when soil conditions are ideal for theses fruiting bodies to appear in abundance.

Does your lawn have circles in it?  Sometimes, these may be a dark green circle or grass or sometimes with a dead bit of grass in the middle or simply a ring of mushrooms only.  They are all called Fairy Rings.

The fungi responsible for fairy rings in lawns is Marasmius oreades.  Marasmius oreades grows extensively throughout North America and Europe in the summer and fall, or year-round in warmer climates. It loves grassy areas such as lawns, meadows, and even dunes in coastal areas.

You may have lately noticed lots of mushrooms on your lawn and in your local woodland and parkland.  Sign of a healthy soil.  It is that time of year when soil conditions are ideal for theses fruiting bodies to appear in abundance.

Does your lawn have circles in it?  Sometimes, these may be a dark green circle or grass or sometimes with a dead bit of grass in the middle or simply a ring of mushrooms only.  They are all called Fairy Rings.

The fungi responsible for fairy rings in lawns is Marasmius oreades.  Marasmius oreades grows extensively throughout North America and Europe in the summer and fall, or year-round in warmer climates. It loves grassy areas such as lawns, meadows, and even dunes in coastal areas.

Controlling an Attack of Rust Disease on your Lawn

We are now in the late summer months and will soon be in autumn and that time of year when you go outside and shrug your shoulders at the dropping night time temperatures.

Not suggesting that the summer is over as the weather might be unseasonably warmer this weekend after a lot of rain. 

The last time I thought about treating Rust was on my old Mini Metro that was rather prone to it on the front panels - well it was almost a 100 rust bucket to be honest!  Glad to see that car construction has moved on a bit since the early 80's.

Now we bet you were not aware of the fact that your lawn can suffer from an outbreak of Rust?

Not suggesting that the summer is over as the weather might be unseasonably warmer this weekend after a lot of rain. 

The last time I thought about treating Rust was on my old Mini Metro that was rather prone to it on the front panels - well it was almost a 100 rust bucket to be honest!  Glad to see that car construction has moved on a bit since the early 80's.

Lawn Products for Autumn Renovations

It has been a very hard year for lawns with the extremely dry, hot summer. The garden and lawn could do with some addditional rainfall as we are officially in Autumn to recover from the drought.

Autumn is the time to consider renovating your lawn before the soil temperatures get lower and the leaves off the trees drop.  If you have poor grass density and bare areas, why not considering renovating your lawn to get it in great shape for next spring time?

The Team at The Lawn Shop have all the lawn care products to help you create a lawn to be proud of.  Why not take a look around?

Spray Dye for Garden Sprayers

It is now time to get out in the garden and catch up with your lawn and garden weed control.

How much easier it would be to make garden chemical treatments if you can see where you have an have not sprayed by colouring the spray solution with a spray indicator dye called Indigo Garden Spray Dye.

Your treatment experience will be a bit like painting by numbers when your were five in play group.