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

Being cruel to be kind to Tennis Courts at Wimbledon

This is the scene at AELTC Wimbledon just weeks after Andy Murray clinched the Wimbledon men's singles title on the famous grass of Centre Court reports The Daily Mail Reporter Rosie Taylor.

The grass has disappeared as groundsmen at the SW19 club strip the courts to resow them the minute the tournament is over. 

The team, led by head groundsman Neil Stubley, are tasked with the arduous job of keeping the lawns at the All England Club in perfect condition.  It's a question of being cruel to be kind in their quest for that perfect Tennis Court surface in 2014.

What's the point of Lawns?

Quentin Letts takes a witty but thought-provoking look at some great British institutions on BBC Radio Four 'What's the point of.....' 

Today is was The Tate. Next Wednesday, it is the British Lawn.

Quentin Letts is The Daily Mail's Parliamentary Sketch Writer, Media Contributor, Broadcaster and Entertaining Guest Speaker.

Grass Clippings Managing Editor, Mike Seaton, boasting over 32 years of turf and lawn knowledge, met up with Quentin recently to discuss the British lawn and at the same take a hard look at Quentin's lawns.  The programme is scheduled to be aired on Wednesday 7th August at 09:00 and 21:30. Listen online.

Red Thread Disease attacks Britain's lawns

Red Thread Disease in you lawn season is now upon us.  Warm, humid and moist environmental conditions are ideal for an outbreak of this unsightly lawn disease.  That's all your lawn needs after three weeks of hot dry weather!

It is fairly easy to prevent an outbreak of this lawn disease.  The majority of lawns were fertilised in the spring months and now the benefit of that feed is wearing off.  Add into the equation that some of the nutrients in the turf grass plants end up in the mower box as grass clippings and you can soon build up a picture as to why the grass may become weak and susceptible to an attack of Red Thread Disease. 

Save money on Lawn Fertiliser

We think we have now had the summer. It was always going to be too good to be true.

Britons hoping for a long hot summer, complete with weekends spent lazing in the sun and enjoying barbeques are about to have those dreams washed away, as storms approach the UK for the weekend.

The Met Office warned that tonight many parts of the UK can expect to see heavy showers - and the unsettled weather is predicted to stay this way for the rest of the weekend, with scattered showers and cloud sweeping most of the country by Saturday.

Summer Weed Control Tasks

Your lawn or turf may be looking a little brown after the 15 days or so warm dry weather but the weeds are thriving.  If you end up with a bit of spare time, tackle your weed control requirements and tidy your site up on non crop areas.

Glyphosate in it's many commercial trade names and formulations is the ideal pesticide active ingredient to apply now and kill the vegetation right down to the roots.  Glyphosate is applied as a blanket or spot spray to non crop areas like building lines, fence lines, car parks and gravel areas as well as garden centre planteria.  It stops the plant from producing their green pigment called Chlorophyll and the grasses for example will turn a pinky red colour before the plant dies.  Woody weeds can take a little bit longer time wise to die fully.

New turf dilemma

Sometimes we like to feature questions from readers seeking advice on their lawn dilemmas.  Here is a question we received today from one of our many daily readers on this lawn advice blog.

Question

I have recently re-levelled our back garden (250sqm) using a 3.5 tonne digger and a rotavator. I then subsequently went on holiday allowing time for settling.  As a "favour" my Father in Law cracked on with laying turf to the whole lawn in my absence. Whilst beautifully level I am concerned that the lack of preparation to the soil before laying the turf has led to a significant amount of bleaching in the grass. I am now frequently irrigating and wonder whether a mechanical combi scarifier/aerator would be appropriate. I will wait until the passing of the current hot spell before using it. Your advice would be appreciated. Many thanks, M.

Water supply problems at Affinity Water

With the current hot weather, Affinity Water has experienced a large increase in demand for water from its 3.5 million customers of up to 27% at peak times in some areas.

This has resulted in some of their customers experiencing lower water pressures than normal at certain times during the day.

Helping your lawn beat the drought

You do not need to be a rocket scientist to notice that the weather has been a little dry of late - lots of brown almost drought ridden grasses and fairways.

Grass mown at a regular interval will always be so much browner than the roadside verge. The Local Authority love a drought as it means that they do not have to mow the verges or lawns as much thus reducing their quota of cuts per annum, saving them money overall.

The worst thing you can actually do to a lawn is to water it daily especially when the natural water deficiet will be so great from the natural evapro-transpiration process of the millions of turf grasses that make up your lawn. Each dry, sunny and windy day the actual benefit of artificial watering will be lost to the atmosphere.

Britain's Best Lawn opens up the media floodgates

For eight years Paskett PR have been organising the Briggs & Stratton annual Britain’s Best Lawn competition in conjunction with the magazine Garden News.  

Each time they generate a significant volume of media coverage, usually centred around the home of the winner.

For two years running their panel of judges, headed by gardening journalist and author of  ‘Lawns: Grow & Maintain Healthy Grass’ (Collins) Martin Fish, selected winning lawns in the same Cumbrian village of Portinscale alongside Derwent Water in the Lake District.  In year two this resulted in considerable regional media coverage in newspapers, on television and radio.

Henton & Chattell moves into the long grass with Billy Goat

Britain’s largest distributor of powered garden machinery for the domestic and amenity markets is about to move into the long grass with a range of powerful commercial cutting and clean-up equipment.

Henton & Chattell, the Nottingham-based company with a UK-wide distributor network, has taken on the sole UK distribution rights for the American-made Billy Goat range of land clearing, powerful blowers and other equipment.

BBC Top Gear 'The Stig' mows his lawns - very quickly

If really you want to cut your grass in a hurry, Honda engineers have created just the job – the 130mph lawn mower.

It has been specially adapted from a conventional lawn tractor by the firm’s top British race technicians who have turned it into a super-charged blade-runner.

And with performance that will propel it from rest to 60mph in under four seconds it will be a match for many supercars and outpace most family runarounds – if you’re brave enough to sit on it.

Wetting Agents and Dry Patches on Lawns

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.

Now we know a lot of lawn and turf areas are now turing brown as a result of the fine July sunshine but this problem has nothing to do with lack of rain or potential drought.

You may notice a darkening halo on parts of the lawn, visible from the upstairs window. This is a good indicator that the soil underneath is starting to or has dried out. 

Lawns burning to a crisp

A fortnight of sunshine has taken its toll on the British landscape, with alarming results.

Some of London’s landmarks are among areas that have suffered most. The image is of Blackheath Common taken by photographer Jim Bennett from The Daily Mail.

At Hampton Court Palace, the once lush grounds and adjoining golf course have turned brown and now look more like southern Spain.

When and how 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 30 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.

Royal Gardener critical after ride on lawn mower enters Sandringham lake

A worker is in a critical condition in hospital after being pulled from a lake on the Queen's Sandringham estate.

Emergency services were called to the Norfolk retreat at about 1.30pm yesterday after reports that an estate worker, in his 30s, had fallen into the Lower Lake while operating a ride-on lawn mower.

It is understood the Queen was at Sandringham on a private visit less than an hour later.