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

Controlling Leatherjacket Larvae in your Lawns

We are all aware of "Daddy Long Legs" flying around in the late summer months, being chased by the cat and dog with children finding fun pulling the legs off the fly like insects!

They are a little later on the wing this year, but will soon be laying their eggs in your lawn.

What you may not be aware of is the devastating effect the larvae of the insects can have - literally stripping a lawn bare! Do not under estimate them!

What are they?

Leatherjackets are the Larvae of the Crane Fly or Daddy Long Legs, as they are more commonly known. The fully grown Larvae are typically up to 4 cm in length.

Lawn Aeration - a guide for beginners

In a wet autumn and through the winter months, 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.

Soil casts on the lawn

Lawn worm casts are a bit of a pain at this time of the year until late spring.  The worms eat the soil and then discard it on the lawns surface leaving it there for the dog to pick up the small mound of soil on their paws or on your shoes when you walk over the lawn.

There are just five types of worms in the UK that throw up what turf professionals call a lawn worm cast.  The worms spend the drier months burrowing deeper in the soil, eating the organic matter in the soil, extracting it's goodness. 

A family of worms are responsible for turing over an incredible amount of soil per annum, a bit like pigs in a new grass field, providing vital aeration holes, beneficial for all the vegetation growing in the soil, like a lawn for example.

Turfing or Seeding a Lawn. Which is best?

The decision to renovate your lawn may have arrived because it is too far gone to renovate by trying to introduce some more grasses into the sward or it maybe because the complete garden has had a make over and the lawn is like the carpet of the room outside.

The process of renovating your lawn from a brown field site is the same up to the finished prepared soil surface whether you are seeding or turfing as careful seed bed or turf bed preparation is key should you wish to make life easy for yourself in the short and long term. 

The Mower Poem

“Make like a poet,” urge the organisers of National Poetry Day, the “annual mass celebration of poetry and all things poetical” which will sweep the country tomorrow. Specifically, they’re suggesting that we live, speak, love, think, dream and act like poets.

But beyond this, what actually happens on National Poetry Day?

Top tips for autumn lawn care

The evening and nightime temperatures are now dropping and the nights sadly drawing in. 

The growth of the lawn will now slow a little but don't let that deter you from continuing with some vital lawn care this month.

Here are our top 10 tips to keeping your lawn great this autumn:-

Which? Evaluate CastClear

Which? Gardening Magazine Trials Team

January/February 2013 Issue

CastClear Lawn Worm Cast Suppressant

£19.99 for 500ml

THE CLAIMS

A spray to reduce the number of wormcasts on your lawn for up to 20 days.

The chemicals break down into nutrients absorbed by the grass. A 1-litre bottle contains enough worm deterrent to treat 100sq m of lawn from September to March, when  the worms are most active.

Red Thread Disease a threat to autumn lawns

Red Thread Disease in you lawn's season is now upon us. Warm and wet environmental conditions are ideal for an outbreak of this unsightly lawn disease.  

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.