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

Smart New Retail Carton for CastClear®

CastClear® is a proven combination of both organic and unique nutrient materials large and small. It's the solution to lawn worm cast problems and has been selling in Garden Centres since the autumn of 2011 via 350 retail stockists. To enhance further retail sales CastClear® is rolling out a smart new retail carton into the garden retail sector this autumn.

Attractively packaged The sizes of 250ml, 500ml and 1,000ml are displayed as an attractive mix and have boosted sales to consumers. As POS (Point of Sale) becomes even more critical, this attractively packaged product really stands out on the shelves! The peak selling period for CastClear® is August to April but it does sell all year round on the product shelves. CastClear® compliments and enhances any lawn care display and will increase your sales so why not stock CastClear® now?

Lawn Care Advice for the Masses

There are a lot of Landscapers and Gardeners who 'claim' to know a lot about lawn and grass. There are numerous trade suppliers to the industry who specialise in their range of products and advice associated with them.

There has been a steady rise in the establishment of Lawn Treatment Companies over the last few years also adding their bit to the advice bank. So why is it that the advice given to lawn owners varies so much and is often so inaccurate and poor?

Lawn Care is a science commonly known as The Science and Practice of Turf Culture. The science is based around the separate subjects of Botany, Biology and Soil Science, with Chemistry and Physics all playing a big part as does Meteorology.

Pesticide Training in a Self Study Module

Who better to train you in the safe use of pesticides than an organisation that is doing what you will be trained to do, each day of the year?

Weed Free are able to provide formal training and assessments for Food and Environment Protection Act Certificates of Competence in the Safe use of Pesticides. Each year, we train many Greenkeepers and Sports Turf Managers and Local Authority Staff.

You can purchase self-learn NPTC / City & Guilds training modules and other publications here.

Who better to train you in the safe use of pesticides than an organisation that is doing what you will be trained to do, each day of the year?

Weed Free are able to provide formal training and assessments for Food and Environment Protection Act Certificates of Competence in the Safe use of Pesticides. Each year, we train many Greenkeepers and Sports Turf Managers and Local Authority Staff.

You can purchase self-learn NPTC / City & Guilds training modules and other publications here.

Lawn Aeration - A Beginners Guide

In a wet summer or 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.

How to get rid of earthworms in lawns

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.  The title of this blog post was a typical Google search.  The worms are great for the lawn, but their messy soil casts are not.

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. 

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.  The title of this blog post was a typical Google search.  The worms are great for the lawn, but their messy soil casts are not.

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. 

Top Ten Lawn Mistakes than can be prevented....

Lawn care is a science and like all sciences there is a requirement to follow a sequence like a flow chart and also to keep everything in balance too. 

Tip the scales or be too reactive and your lawn will suffer, get diseased, go thin and less dense and sometimes die.

In no particular order, here are some of the errors we see when out and about visiting lawns:

1. Mowing too low and infrequently and always in the same direction

Well, that's a three in one to start!  It is important to mow at least weekly in the main growing season and continue to mow throughout the early spring and winter months too if ground conditions permit and the grass is growing albeit slowly.  Why do lawn owners mow their lawns so short too?   Do not remove any more than 25% of the grass growth each time you mow and nothing less than 12mm in height unless you have a super dooper fine lawn like a bowling green.  Most grasses are tufted in growth so change the mowing direction each time you mow to keep the grasses growing upright.

Lawn care is a science and like all sciences there is a requirement to follow a sequence like a flow chart and also to keep everything in balance too. 

Tip the scales or be too reactive and your lawn will suffer, get diseased, go thin and less dense and sometimes die.

In no particular order, here are some of the errors we see when out and about visiting lawns:

1. Mowing too low and infrequently and always in the same direction

Well, that's a three in one to start!  It is important to mow at least weekly in the main growing season and continue to mow throughout the early spring and winter months too if ground conditions permit and the grass is growing albeit slowly.  Why do lawn owners mow their lawns so short too?   Do not remove any more than 25% of the grass growth each time you mow and nothing less than 12mm in height unless you have a super dooper fine lawn like a bowling green.  Most grasses are tufted in growth so change the mowing direction each time you mow to keep the grasses growing upright.