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

Time to fertilise your lawn!

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.

One important problem of not keeping your lawn topped up with available nutrients is that the lawn disease, Red Thread will quickly appear.  You have been warned and there is plenty of it around currently.

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.

One important problem of not keeping your lawn topped up with available nutrients is that the lawn disease, Red Thread will quickly appear.  You have been warned and there is plenty of it around currently.

One important problem of not keeping your lawn topped up with available nutrients is that the lawn disease, Red Thread will quickly appear.  You have been warned and there is plenty of it around currently.

Controlling lawn weeds

If you have a lot of weeds that have over wintered in your lawn, now is 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.

If you have a lot of weeds that have over wintered in your lawn, now is 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.

If you have a lot of weeds that have over wintered in your lawn, now is 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.

How to calibrate your lawn fertiliser spreader

Applying fertiliser is a daunting thought for some lawn owners but you can sleep at night, and not worry that you will wake and find rust orange burnt patches, by making sure that you have calibrated your fertiliser spreader before tackling the task.

It is not sufficient to simply 'bucket and chuck it', a reference I heard today from a maintenance gardener!

Don't be put off by the word 'calibration', it may sound scientific, but actually it is as easy as pie if you follow our simple guide. 

Applying fertiliser is a daunting thought for some lawn owners but you can sleep at night, and not worry that you will wake and find rust orange burnt patches, by making sure that you have calibrated your fertiliser spreader before tackling the task.

It is not sufficient to simply 'bucket and chuck it', a reference I heard today from a maintenance gardener!

Don't be put off by the word 'calibration', it may sound scientific, but actually it is as easy as pie if you follow our simple guide. 

A historic milestone in lawn advice

We have reached a historic milestone in the life of Grass Clippings, the internet's most comprehensive and most viewed online lawn advice blog. 

We have written 1066 lawn related articles to help lawn owners in their quest for a better lawn to be proud of.  If each article is a technical page post then these have been read 2,637,897 times to date.  That's 2,474 times a page.

Now back to 1066. The year began with the death of a king, and ended with a shout and a trembling new monarch. The political scheming and hotly fought battles of the months in between made it a year that has never been forgotten.

Lawn Shop open this weekend!

The weather is a bit up and down and not over favourable to head off out into the garden to see how it has survived the winter doldrums.

We have seen a few mowers being warmed up on our travels but these are in the minority.  The majority of lawns are still looking a bit tatty with winter debris over them but our Managing Editor has given his lawns a bit of a sprng time trim to tidy them up so there is hope for the rest of us now!

BBC Gardeners World Magazine features CastClear

March 01 heralds the start of spring and the garden media are quick to capatilise on the start of the gardening year with bumper editions of their respective editions providing kick start tips for the readership's garden.

The latest March issue of BBC Gardeners World Magazine is no exception to this rule with lots of features including a couple on a Guide to Organic Lawn Care by TV Gardener and Presenter Alan Titchmarsh, plus Lawn Problems Solved on page 72 were the BBC Writer & Designer Sue Fisher looks at the right products and tools that lawn owners will need this spring in their quest for a better lawn.

One of the products featured in the feature is The Lawn Company's worm cast deterrent called CastClear, the solution to lawn soil casts, available from over 330 stockists or direct from The Lawn Shop.