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

Controlling Red Thread Disease on your Lawn

Red Thread Disease can appear on lawns in the early to late summer, especially seen on lawns of low fertility, especially Nitrogen. If the summer months are humid and moist there will be an incredible outbreak of this disease on UK lawns.

Identification

This disease is now thought to be a combination or complex of two fungal species:

a) L.fuciformis – Red Thread – where the red needles are present
b) L.fuciformis – Pink Patch – where the pink mycelium is present.

Identification

This disease is now thought to be a combination or complex of two fungal species:

a) L.fuciformis – Red Thread – where the red needles are present
b) L.fuciformis – Pink Patch – where the pink mycelium is present.

Wetting Agent Tablets - First Aid for Lawn Dry Patches

Lawn Quencher is a 75 gram Wetting Agent Tablet that you pop into your chosen hose diluter / feeder and attach to the hose pipe and spray onto the localised dry patches or entire lawn.

Lawn Quencher is the solution to localised dry patches on your lawn. These problem will not get wet by way of applying water or natural rainfall alone as the soil underneath has become hydrophobic - repelling water.

June Lawn Care Tips

May has been a really dry month with only 0.8mm of rain in the month in the South East at least. April was down a bit on rainfall with only 37.60 mm in the month.

We are officially in a drought and the lawns are really suffering now with the high natural daily water loss /deficit that only a good days of regular rainfall will resolve.

Look for the Lawn Dry Patch Dark Halo

Dry Patch is a little known problem of turf in amateur lawn circles but one that has an incredible impact in ensuring consistent colour, growth, nutrient status, run of the ball and most of all visual impact and continuity of grass cover.

We have seen a lot of lawn and turf areas turning brown or mottled following a couple of dry weeks back end of May, but this problem has nothing to do with lack of rain or potential drought. 

Some rain is forecast today, but the relentless wind and sunshine is really drying out the lawns quickly.

Dry patches that are hard to re-wet are the primary causes of lawn failure.  If a lawn is renovated, it is always these long lasting dry areas that are the root cause of any seed failing to germinate and establish in these well marked and visual areas. 

Some rain is forecast today, but the relentless wind and sunshine is really drying out the lawns quickly.

Dry patches that are hard to re-wet are the primary causes of lawn failure.  If a lawn is renovated, it is always these long lasting dry areas that are the root cause of any seed failing to germinate and establish in these well marked and visual areas. 

How and When to water your Lawns

When and how much water should you give your lawn during the prevailing hot weather when the thermometer is tipping almost 27.7 degrees?

We are receiving a lot of calls about the very same subject, mostly about newly renovated lawns with seed or turf.

Should you water your lawns or not when it is this hot?  Turf grasses are tough old things and so long as you have healthy and desirable turf grasses in your lawns then they should be capable of coping with the extremes of drought. 

 

We are receiving a lot of calls about the very same subject, mostly about newly renovated lawns with seed or turf.

Should you water your lawns or not when it is this hot?  Turf grasses are tough old things and so long as you have healthy and desirable turf grasses in your lawns then they should be capable of coping with the extremes of drought. 

 

How to Control Weed Grasses in your 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.

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.

Controlling Japanese Knotweed in your Garden

When you are involved with weed control, you will always get asked about a wide range of weeds that can appear in a garden, even though your specialist knowledge is really lawn weeds.

Being the helpful sort, we like to keep you up to date with all weed related matters and this technical post is about controlling Japanese Knotweed and provides some up to date news about this invasive weed.

The majority of homeowners instantly panic about JNW.  It is truly not hard to kill if you use a professional and licensed treatment company and don't be lured into expensive eradication concepts and programmes.  The initial treatment will mostly control it and the second treatment can pick up on any regrowth the next year or after six months after the first treatment.  The more you have, the more complicated eradication may become but small clumps are easily and quickly dealt with.

When you are involved with weed control, you will always get asked about a wide range of weeds that can appear in a garden, even though your specialist knowledge is really lawn weeds.

Being the helpful sort, we like to keep you up to date with all weed related matters and this technical post is about controlling Japanese Knotweed and provides some up to date news about this invasive weed.

The majority of homeowners instantly panic about JNW.  It is truly not hard to kill if you use a professional and licensed treatment company and don't be lured into expensive eradication concepts and programmes.  The initial treatment will mostly control it and the second treatment can pick up on any regrowth the next year or after six months after the first treatment.  The more you have, the more complicated eradication may become but small clumps are easily and quickly dealt with.

Lawn Care Tips for beating the Drought

With only 16.2mm of rainfall received in April to date, we are very much in a drought and the 15.6mm of rain over the past weekend was really useful but with warm sunny and windy weather a lot of the rain benefit is quickly reducing.

The natural evaporation rate per hour today is 6mm currently so trying to water a lawn to get some vital green colour back is a bit of a losing battle as you would need to apply 6mm of water each daylight hour to keep abreast of the natural water loss from the lawns surface and turf grass plants.  It is easy to see that you will be in a water deficit in no time!

With only 16.2mm of rainfall received in April to date, we are very much in a drought and the 15.6mm of rain over the past weekend was really useful but with warm sunny and windy weather a lot of the rain benefit is quickly reducing.

The natural evaporation rate per hour today is 6mm currently so trying to water a lawn to get some vital green colour back is a bit of a losing battle as you would need to apply 6mm of water each daylight hour to keep abreast of the natural water loss from the lawns surface and turf grass plants.  It is easy to see that you will be in a water deficit in no time!

With only 16.2mm of rainfall received in April to date, we are very much in a drought and the 15.6mm of rain over the past weekend was really useful but with warm sunny and windy weather a lot of the rain benefit is quickly reducing.

The natural evaporation rate per hour today is 6mm currently so trying to water a lawn to get some vital green colour back is a bit of a losing battle as you would need to apply 6mm of water each daylight hour to keep abreast of the natural water loss from the lawns surface and turf grass plants.  It is easy to see that you will be in a water deficit in no time!

Making Garden Treatments Easy

The sun is shining, we are being told to stay at home as a result of the current COVID-19 restrictions so what better timing to get the weeds in your garden under control?

Indigo Garden Spray Dye is a unique product when added to your garden treatment product in your garden sprayer.

Can assist in spraying any garden treatment product when applied to driveways, patios and lawns. It may stain soft sandstone so be careful!

Indigo Garden Spray Dye will allow you to see where you have or have not sprayed, where you should have not sprayed, when your sprayer is clean and if you have contaminated yourself.

It comes as a 80 gram liquid, sufficient to treat up to 80 litres of spray solution but you may require a little more for it to show up on your lawn.  Circa £13.00 inc P&P.

Available from:
The Lawn Shop
Amazon

Solving Lawn Worm Casts with CastClear

CastClear is the solution to lawn worm casts.

It's a lawn soil cast suppressant and a deterrent. It's proven in control on both lawns and sports turf.

Which? Gardening Trials Team trialled it and gave it the thumbs up.

It is unique in using a surfactant system that moves the nutrient into the upper soil structure and fixes it there providing good persistence of deterrent effect until breaking down to natural nutrients absorbed by plant roots.

The Lawn Shop is Open during COVID Restrictions

The Team at the Lawn Shop have had a busy few weeks since the official COVID -19 restrictions have been in place.

Thankfully, we did have plentiful stock of lawn treatment products ahead of the usual spring-time purchasing rush and the Easter Holidays.

Our Couriers have done a sterling job at getting orders out to lawn owners promptly, especially with the fine weather of the past few weeks.

The Solution to Lawn Dry Patches

Lawn Quencher is a product that's been development for home lawn owners by The Lawn Company Team.

It is the solution to lawn hydration.

With only 0.6mm of rain in 26 days to date since 19th March, we are heading towards on the driest Aprils on record. Sales of Lawn Quencher Wetting Agent Tablets are booming as the natural daily water loss from lawns is very high, up to 6mm in any one single warm & sunny daylight hour.

Take a look at your lawn and you will see localised dry patches, maybe as a result of last years drought and the currently dry conditions. Dry Patches on your lawn do not occur only during or after a drought.

Spring Lawn Care Tips

We kissed the backside of the rather wet Winter and the wettest February on record for sure and then got ourselves into a COVID-19 lockdown just as the weather improved and the sun came out!

With only 0.6mm of rain in 26 days to date since 19th March, we are heading towards on the driest April on record. The natural daily water loss from lawns is very high, up to 6mm in any one single warm & sunny daylight hour.

If you have not yet mown your lawn, now is the time to get the mower out of the shed and give the lawns their first mow of the season.  Just take the top off the turf grasses, so no more than 25% of the total growth.  Little and often is the key as after all we have had what we call a late spring in the garden.

Once mown, take a long hard look at the surface vegetation, which will include all or some of the following - desirable, turf grasses, weed grasses, weeds, moss and worm casts.

Get Your Garden Weeds Under Control

A couple of friends recently came up with the same comment following their attempts at weed control in their gardens.  They had both applied a branded total weed killer on their gravel and pathways and remarked after a few days following application that "The weeds have not gone yet."

When I asked of them "When did you apply the control product?" they said only a few days ago to which I replied "You are expecting too much, please be patient."  Their observations on the speed of the mode of action of single active ingredient or a blend of active ingredients is rather common so a little bit of advice may be required in choice of product for the time of year follows.

A couple of friends recently came up with the same comment following their attempts at weed control in their gardens.  They had both applied a branded total weed killer on their gravel and pathways and remarked after a few days following application that "The weeds have not gone yet."

When I asked of them "When did you apply the control product?" they said only a few days ago to which I replied "You are expecting too much, please be patient."  Their observations on the speed of the mode of action of single active ingredient or a blend of active ingredients is rather common so a little bit of advice may be required in choice of product for the time of year follows.

Aeration - A Beginners Guide

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.