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

How to Control Yellow Suckling Clover

Weeds in your lawn are a nightmare. One particular weed that is prevalent at this time of year is Lesser Trefoil or Yellow Suckling Clover.  It looks like a small leafed clover type weed that creeps close to the ground covering large areas from a single root. Left uncontrolled, it will quickly spread across the surface of a lawn. It is one of the more difficult weed to control in a lawn.

Trifolium dubium is a procumbent summer annual found in UK lawns and also open ground. It is common throughout Britain and is recorded up to 1,600 ft. Two distinct forms occur, one found in open habitats on cinders and spoil, the other on grassland sites, waysides, wasteland and on lawns. In lawns it survives mowing by developing a low growth habit, missing the mower blades. On grazed sites this is less successful and it is not a common weed in pasture.

Teach yourself in the safe use of Pesticides

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.

We were asked multi-times to provide training one to one to small business owners and as a result came up with the the self study pesticide course concept to support our on site training for larger companies and organisations.

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.

We were asked multi-times to provide training one to one to small business owners and as a result came up with the the self study pesticide course concept to support our on site training for larger companies and organisations.

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.

We were asked multi-times to provide training one to one to small business owners and as a result came up with the the self study pesticide course concept to support our on site training for larger companies and organisations.

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.

We were asked multi-times to provide training one to one to small business owners and as a result came up with the the self study pesticide course concept to support our on site training for larger companies and organisations.

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.

We were asked multi-times to provide training one to one to small business owners and as a result came up with the the self study pesticide course concept to support our on site training for larger companies and organisations.

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

Stormy Weather

Lots of parts of the United Kingdom received a lot of rain yesterday but the sudden downpours were very localised as Woking had about 30mm of rain in 30 minutes and a few junctions down the M3, nothing at all. Our local village was flooded with highway storm drain lids lifting rendering the road through our village impassable.

All good news for drought stretched lawns and the garden in general. This week will be warm for most with the risk of heavy showers and thunderstorms breaking out across many areas state The Met Office.

Hassle Free Garden Treatments

Indigo Garden Spray Dye is an innovative product brought to you from The Lawn Company Team, that you simply add to your garden sprayer to help you make liquid applications / treatments to your lawn and garden.

Benefits:

Spray Pattern Indicator Dye

Saves Time, Money, Product,

Lets You See Where You Have Or Have Not Sprayed

Indicates When Your Sprayer Is Clean

Takes The Guess Work Out Of Making Liquid Treatments In The Garden

All this for £14.99 inc. P&P.

Available from Amazon and The Lawn Shop

Lawn Quencher™ Tablets - The Solution to Lawn Hydration

Your lawn may be looking a little sorry for itself especially with the general lack of rainfall in April and May.  When the lawn returns to its former green self, spare a thought of the localised dry patches left visible on the surface.  Dry crusty patches where the grass is simply not growing.

It is very common for lawns to suffer from localised dry patches and drought has nothing to do with this natural occurring turf / lawn problem.  Rainfall or irrigation will not solve these dry, crusty, and hydrophobic areas. Nothing will grow in these affected areas as there is no available soil moisture.

Controlling Red Thread Disease on your Lawn

Red Thread Disease can appear on lawns in the early to late summer, especially seen on lawns of low fertility, especially Nitrogen. If the summer months are humid and moist there will be an incredible outbreak of this disease on UK lawns.

Identification:

This disease is now thought to be a combination or complex of two fungal species:

a) L.fuciformis – Red Thread – where the red needles are present
b) L.fuciformis – Pink Patch – where the pink mycelium is present.

This disease is now thought to be a combination or complex of two fungal species:

a) L.fuciformis – Red Thread – where the red needles are present
b) L.fuciformis – Pink Patch – where the pink mycelium is present.

Wetting Agent Tablets - First Aid for Lawn Dry Patches

Lawn Quencher is a 75 gram Wetting Agent Tablet that you pop into your chosen hose diluter / feeder and attach to the hose pipe and spray onto the localised dry patches or entire lawn.

Lawn Quencher is the solution to localised dry patches on your lawn. These problem will not get wet by way of applying water or natural rainfall alone as the soil underneath has become hydrophobic - repelling water.

 

June Lawn Care Tips

May has been a really dry month with only 0.8mm of rain in the month in the South East at least. April was down a bit on rainfall with only 37.60 mm in the month.

We are officially in a drought and the lawns are really suffering now with the high natural daily water loss /deficit that only a good days of regular rainfall will resolve.

 

Look for the Lawn Dry Patch Dark Halo

Some rain is forecast today, but the relentless wind and sunshine is really drying out the lawns quickly.

Dry patches that are hard to re-wet are the primary causes of lawn failure.  If a lawn is renovated, it is always these long-lasting dry areas that are the root cause of any seed failing to germinate and establish in these well marked and visual areas. 

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.

How and When 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 27.7 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.

How to Control Weed Grasses in your Lawn

We often get asked by lawn owners the best remedy of controlling weed grasses in lawns. Just because it is green, it does not mean that it is a grass or grasses you want in your green sward.

A lawn should have nothing in it except good healthy desirable turf grasses but this is often not the case. Weed grasses will react violently to changes in climatic conditions such as drought or fertilisation or selective weed control or a change in soil moisture.

Clumps of weed grasses of which there could be many are very unsightly, and more often than not, the weed grasses will colonise into large clumps across a lawn.

We often get asked by lawn owners the best remedy of controlling weed grasses in lawns. Just because it is green, it does not mean that it is a grass or grasses you want in your green sward.

A lawn should have nothing in it except good healthy desirable turf grasses but this is often not the case. Weed grasses will react violently to changes in climatic conditions such as drought or fertilisation or selective weed control or a change in soil moisture.

Clumps of weed grasses of which there could be many are very unsightly, and more often than not, the weed grasses will colonise into large clumps across a lawn.

Controlling Japanese Knotweed in your Garden

When you are involved with weed control, you will always get asked about a wide range of weeds that can appear in a garden, even though your specialist knowledge is really lawn weeds.

Being the helpful sort, we like to keep you up to date with all weed related matters and this technical post is about controlling Japanese Knotweed and provides some up to date news about this invasive weed.

The majority of homeowners instantly panic about JNW.  It is truly not hard to kill if you use a professional and licensed treatment company and don't be lured into expensive eradication concepts and programmes.  The initial treatment will mostly control it and the second treatment can pick up on any regrowth the next year or after six months after the first treatment.  The more you have, the more complicated eradication may become but small clumps are easily and quickly dealt with.

 

 

When you are involved with weed control, you will always get asked about a wide range of weeds that can appear in a garden, even though your specialist knowledge is really lawn weeds.

Being the helpful sort, we like to keep you up to date with all weed related matters and this technical post is about controlling Japanese Knotweed and provides some up to date news about this invasive weed.

The majority of homeowners instantly panic about JNW.  It is truly not hard to kill if you use a professional and licensed treatment company and don't be lured into expensive eradication concepts and programmes.  The initial treatment will mostly control it and the second treatment can pick up on any regrowth the next year or after six months after the first treatment.  The more you have, the more complicated eradication may become but small clumps are easily and quickly dealt with.

Lawn Care Tips for beating the Drought

With only 16.2mm of rainfall received in April to date, we are very much in a drought and the 15.6mm of rain over the past weekend was really useful but with warm sunny and windy weather a lot of the rain benefit is quickly reducing.

The natural evaporation rate per hour today is 6mm currently so trying to water a lawn to get some vital green colour back is a bit of a losing battle as you would need to apply 6mm of water each daylight hour to keep abreast of the natural water loss from the lawns surface and turf grass plants.  It is easy to see that you will be in a water deficit in no time!

With only 16.2mm of rainfall received in April to date, we are very much in a drought and the 15.6mm of rain over the past weekend was really useful but with warm sunny and windy weather a lot of the rain benefit is quickly reducing.

The natural evaporation rate per hour today is 6mm currently so trying to water a lawn to get some vital green colour back is a bit of a losing battle as you would need to apply 6mm of water each daylight hour to keep abreast of the natural water loss from the lawns surface and turf grass plants.  It is easy to see that you will be in a water deficit in no time!

With only 16.2mm of rainfall received in April to date, we are very much in a drought and the 15.6mm of rain over the past weekend was really useful but with warm sunny and windy weather a lot of the rain benefit is quickly reducing.

The natural evaporation rate per hour today is 6mm currently so trying to water a lawn to get some vital green colour back is a bit of a losing battle as you would need to apply 6mm of water each daylight hour to keep abreast of the natural water loss from the lawns surface and turf grass plants.  It is easy to see that you will be in a water deficit in no time!

Making Garden Treatments Easy

The sun is shining, we are being told to stay at home as a result of the current COVID-19 restrictions so what better timing to get the weeds in your garden under control?

Indigo Garden Spray Dye is a unique product when added to your garden treatment product in your garden sprayer.

Can assist in spraying any garden treatment product when applied to driveways, patios and lawns. It may stain soft sandstone so be careful!

Indigo Garden Spray Dye will allow you to see where you have or have not sprayed, where you should have not sprayed, when your sprayer is clean and if you have contaminated yourself.

It comes as a 80 gram liquid, sufficient to treat up to 80 litres of spray solution but you may require a little more for it to show up on your lawn.  Circa £13.00 inc P&P.

Available from:
The Lawn Shop
Amazon

Solving Lawn Worm Casts with CastClear

CastClear is the solution to lawn worm casts.

It's a lawn soil cast suppressant and a deterrent. It's proven in control on both lawns and sports turf.

Which? Gardening Trials Team trialled it and gave it the thumbs up.

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.