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

EU ban Provado Lawn Grub Killer from December 2013

The European Commission will restrict the use of pesticides linked to bee deaths by researchers, despite a split among EU states on the issue.

There is great concern across Europe about the collapse of bee populations.

The new EU restrictions will apply from December this year for three neonicotinoid pesticides - clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam - which are used to treat bee-attractive crops such as rape seed.

Celebrate the Great British Lawn and St George

St George is famed for slaying a dragon in popular imaginations but most people know very little about his past and his somewhat obscure links to England. 

An Englishman's home is his castle and the carpet of the room outside is the lawn so that's the tenuis link to St George!

Wet grass causes shotgun injury

A young father is learning to walk again after accidentally shooting himself through the foot with a shotgun.

Landscape gardener Jamie Cameron, 29, was carrying the large weapon on a hunting trip in Muddiford in Devon when he slipped on wet grass.

His father Eddie works as a police officer at the local station and anxiously awaited more details after the emergency call was patched through to his station.

Turf and Stone Manager required at Stonehenge

It's managed to survive without one for five millenia, but the owners of Stonehenge are now on the lookout for a general manager to run famous World Heritage Site.

The successful candidate, whose 'office' will be the giant pre-historic stone circle in Wiltshire, will be required to oversee the 5,000-year-old monument's 'exciting new future'.

Dye to see lawn treatments

When lawn owners make liquid or chemical applications to their lawn, they are faced with a big dilemma - how can they mark where they have sprayed already?

Professional Turf Managers have been using Spray Pattern Indicator Dyes for decades but these have never been widely available before to the amateur lawn owner.

Lawn products to help your lawn

The grass vigour and growth has really changed over the past week after a bit of warmer weather and less wind chill.  Our office lawn has coloured up quite naturally on it's own and it has now received it's first mowing session to trim the grass plants and tidy it up.  Looks great already!

The best things you can do to a winter bound lawn is, only when the grass starts to naturally colour up with some warmer temperatures, is to make an application of a spring lawn fertiliser and some Soluble Iron.  This is what will be happening to our office lawn this week.  Whoopee.

Lawn Fertiliser - the facts

You may remember your Grandad mixing his own fertiliser consisting of Sulphate of Ammonia, Dried Blood and Fish and Bone Meal - sounds ghastly and it probably was. 

It is still possible to purchase straight Sulphate of Ammonia as a lawn fertiliser and good old-fashioned Growmore. These age old Nitrogen sources are likely to scorch your lawn, especially Sulphate of Ammonia as it has a Nitrogen content of 21% straight Nitrogen - a generating real flush of growth and then the benefit quickly reduces and is gone.

There are three primary turf grass nutrients - On a typical lawn fertiliser label, you will see an analysis written like this - 22-5-10. This equates to Nitrogen 22, Phosphorus 5 and K for Potassium 10. Nitrogen expressed as a N on the label analysis, N 22 in our case.

Killing Lawn Weeds

If you have a lot of weeds that have over wintered in your lawn, now is almost the time to think about controlling the weeds in your lawn.

You normally get two periods of weed activity in a normal year. The broadleaf weeds such as Cat's Ear, Plantains, Daisies, Dandelions to name a view of them will easily over winter in the turf. These need to be killed early on before the second turf weed season starts when you get the Red, White Clovers, Yellow Suckling Clovers and Trefoils appearing in around May and June time.

Why do selective herbicides kill weeds and not the grass? The internal biologial make up of weeds and grasses is different. The weeds, like trees and shrubs have Cambium Cells.

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.

Bents Garden & Home become Stockists of CastClear

Located on the outskirts of Cheshire, Bents Home and Garden is more than just a garden centre.  Passion, experience and an understanding of exclusive living have earned our family-run business a reputation for quality, experience and innovation.

Their innovation has led them to become CastClear stockists in a bid to help their thousands of customers get rid of their lawn worm casts. 

Lift your lawn out of the Winter doldrums

After the snow, wind and rain of the past month, the lawns in the South East of the UK are slowly waking up, albeit it looking a bit sorry for themselves and struggling to maintain some colour but still surviving the winter!

If more snow and sleet arrives the lawns will take a further knock back until it warms up. If the air temperature outside is minus 1, then there could be a wind chill of minus 5 and such temperature are not helpful for lawns and gardens generally.

CastClear a top seller at Longacres

CastClear, the solution to worms casts in lawns has been stocked by Longacres Garden Centre in Bagshot, Surrey for well over a year now. 

CastClear is a NEW organic and unique combination of nutrient materials that have been clearly shown to reduce worm-cast levels on lawns large and small. 

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.

CastClear makes it across the border into Scotland

New Hopetoun Gardens Garden Centre is situated to the west of Edinburgh, Dougal Philip the owner, first set-up his garden centre over 30 years ago. New Hopetoun Gardens has grown well over the years. lawn specialist,castclear

Now, with a well-stocked gift shop, their popular Orangery tearoom, and a fantastic reputation as one of Edinburgh’s best-stocked garden centres, New Hopetoun Garden Centre continue to focus on variety, choice and quality.

They have recently taken stock of the new lawn worm cast solution called CastClear.  CastClear is a NEW organic and unique combination of nutrient materials that have been clearly shown to reduce worm-cast levels on lawns large and small. castclear.com 

Grassing up lawn seed names

Grasses come from the plant family Gramineae.  There are over 10,000 species of grasses although only some of these have commercial use in the development of lawns and professional sports turf.

All grasses come from the Class of plants called Monocotyledons – that is they only produce one seed leaf from a seed.  Their internal structures, root structure, stem and leaf structures are different to weeds, shrubs and trees.

CastClear available at Henry Street Garden Centre

The Team at Henry Street Garden Centre absolutely love everything to do with gardens, plants, pets and the outdoor lifestyle, and they're renowned for their horticultural expertise. Roses are their specialist subject, and people come to buy them from all over southern England and beyond. They have been growing roses for nearly 100 years and have over 350 varieties!  Their enthusiasm and dedication have earnt them an unrivalled reputation throughout the region for their friendly, helpful service and willingness to share their knowledge with customers.