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

Lawn Care is a Science

The Team at Grass Clippings are pleased to boast that lawn owners have at their disposal on this Lawn Blog over 1,590 lawn related technical pages covering the wide technical subject of lawns and their care. This Lawn Blog is living up to it's name -'Grass Clippings - Home of the British Lawn.'

Our lawn advice blog site site is almost at the grand total of over 3,000,000 technical posts having been read by Visitors seeking sound advice on their green swards.

Whether you are after a little bit of advice on summer lawn care, or lawn pests, or some advice on controlling moss, scarifying your lawn or the source of a reputable turf supplier, you will find all the answers here on this lawn advice site.

 

 

Beating the drought lawn tips

With only 16.25 mm of rain in 34 days, we are very much in a drought.

The natural cumulative evaporation rate between the hours of 11:00 and 18:00 hours today be 40 mm spread across the 7 hours, 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 40mm of water each day 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!

You may think that you are applying water but all you are doing is trying to reduce the water deficit.

With only 16.25 mm of rain in 34 days, we are very much in a drought.

The natural cumulative evaporation rate between the hours of 11:00 and 18:00 hours today be 40 mm spread across the 7 hours, 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 40mm of water each day 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!

You may think that you are applying water but all you are doing is trying to reduce the water deficit.

With only 16.25 mm of rain in 34 days, we are very much in a drought.

The natural cumulative evaporation rate between the hours of 11:00 and 18:00 hours today be 40 mm spread across the 7 hours, 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 40mm of water each day 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!

You may think that you are applying water but all you are doing is trying to reduce the water deficit.

Getting your Weeds under control

A weed is simply a plant growing in the wrong place.  Such as your driveway, patio, terrace, fence line, car park, garden centre, industrial site... the list is endless.  Weeds will grow anywhere so long as there moisture.

Weeds really ruin the fabric of a fence line and building line and post and wire fence base as well as brickwork and pavings and a planned programme of weed management is a good practice to adopt.

DIY Vs Lawn Care Company

What the majority of lawn owners require is clear, concise and consistent advice.  We live in a service industry world and having your lawn treated is a bit like getting your laundry done. 

Increasingly, we note on our travels that lawn owners are trying one or more of the many lawn treatment companies for a couple of years and then seeking a change, more often than not reverting back towards looking after their lawns themselves now that the weeds and moss have gone and the grass quality and density is so much better than it was before the lawn treatment company were employed.

Lawn Shop Open All Weekend

Now we have had some welcome rainfall in the South East, over 8mm so far since midnight, time to pick up on your lawn fertilisation and treatments.

It has been a very dry month to date with only around 1mm of rain (before the recent spell of rain) in 22 days and with a natural water loss of some 4-5mm per hour, we were in drought conditions so far as the lawns are concerned.

There are a lot of visibly brown lawns and sports turf out there so the rain today is really welcome for professional turf managers and lawn owners.

New Lawn Product from The Lawn Company Team

Lawn Quencher™ - Lawn Dry Patch Remedy is a NEW Wetting Agent Tablet Concept that will easily fit into your chosen Garden Hose Diluter / Feeder.

Lawn Quencher™ is a product developed by the innovative Lawn Company Team for Domestic Lawn Owners.  It is the solution to lawn hydration.

Take a look at your lawn and you will see localised dry patches, maybe as a result of last years or this years drought.  Dry Patches on your lawn do not occur only during or after a drought, they can be there all year where damaged areas of the lawn have formed a hard and dry crust.

Pesticide Training via Home Study

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.

Lawn Advice for all

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?

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 Mistakes - Top Ten

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

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

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

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

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.

Enjoy a game of Croquet

The Croquet season is in full swing around the country with the continued dry weather ideal for putting on the ‘whites’ and engaging in this skilful and competitive sport down the croquet lawn.  Image by Liz Monahan for CreatureMag

There are a lot of croquet clubs around the UK; some have professional green keepers looking after their lawns and other use their members to assist with the day to care and maintenance of the lawns, mostly on an unpaid basis.

The Team at The Lawn Company take a pragmatic approach during their Lawn Consultancy visits to home owners and croquet club members when both have sought TLC advice in keeping their lawns and croquet lawns in tip top condition or sorting a problem with them too.

Solving Dry Patches in your Lawn

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.

We have seen a lot of lawn and turf areas turning brown or mottled following a couple of dry weeks in May, a wetter than average June and hardly any rainfall in July to date but this dry patch problem has nothing to do with lack of rain or potential drought. Below are the rainfall figures for a weather station in eastern Berkshire:

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.

We have seen a lot of lawn and turf areas turning brown or mottled following a couple of dry weeks in May, a wetter than average June and hardly any rainfall in July to date but this dry patch problem has nothing to do with lack of rain or potential drought. Below are the rainfall figures for a weather station in eastern Berkshire:

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.

We have seen a lot of lawn and turf areas turning brown or mottled following a couple of dry weeks in May, a wetter than average June and hardly any rainfall in July to date but this dry patch problem has nothing to do with lack of rain or potential drought. Below are the rainfall figures for a weather station in eastern Berkshire:

The Green Green Grass of The USA

Today is Independence Day in the USA, marked by a national federal holiday for one and all, with private and public events celebrating the Declaration of Independence on July 4th 1776, independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. 

There are simply millions of homes with lawns in The USA.  It was in the USA that the service industry of lawn treatments and care was born and that service industry is a multi billion dollar business.

There are many differences between growing grasses in The USA and Great Britain, mostly becuase of climate.  They mostly have warm season grasses and we have cool season grasses, but to fair The USA does have many varying climate regions and in some states, our cool season grasses flourish.

It's Red Thread Disease time for UK Lawns

Red Thread Disease in you lawn season is now upon us.  Warm, humid and wet / moist environmental conditions are ideal for an outbreak of this unsightly lawn disease.  That's all your lawn needs after the lack of rain fall in April and May.

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.

Red Thread Disease in you lawn season is now upon us.  Warm, humid and wet / moist environmental conditions are ideal for an outbreak of this unsightly lawn disease.  That's all your lawn needs after the lack of rain fall in April and May.

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.

Make Garden Treatments Visible

When lawn owners make liquid or chemical applications to their lawn, they are faced with a big dilemma - how can they mark where they have sprayed already?

Professional Turf Managers have been using Spray Pattern Indicator Dyes for decades but these have never been widely available before to the amateur lawn owner. 

Turf Managers also use what is called a foam bout marker on their large sprayers which leaves a trace blob of foam down the travelled run of the fairway so that the operator can match up with the last pass on the return run.  The foam soon disappears after an hour via sunlight.

 

When lawn owners make liquid or chemical applications to their lawn, they are faced with a big dilemma - how can they mark where they have sprayed already?

Professional Turf Managers have been using Spray Pattern Indicator Dyes for decades but these have never been widely available before to the amateur lawn owner. 

Turf Managers also use what is called a foam bout marker on their large sprayers which leaves a trace blob of foam down the travelled run of the fairway so that the operator can match up with the last pass on the return run.  The foam soon disappears after an hour via sunlight.

When lawn owners make liquid or chemical applications to their lawn, they are faced with a big dilemma - how can they mark where they have sprayed already?

Professional Turf Managers have been using Spray Pattern Indicator Dyes for decades but these have never been widely available before to the amateur lawn owner. 

Turf Managers also use what is called a foam bout marker on their large sprayers which leaves a trace blob of foam down the travelled run of the fairway so that the operator can match up with the last pass on the return run.  The foam soon disappears after an hour via sunlight.

When lawn owners make liquid or chemical applications to their lawn, they are faced with a big dilemma - how can they mark where they have sprayed already?

Professional Turf Managers have been using Spray Pattern Indicator Dyes for decades but these have never been widely available before to the amateur lawn owner. 

Turf Managers also use what is called a foam bout marker on their large sprayers which leaves a trace blob of foam down the travelled run of the fairway so that the operator can match up with the last pass on the return run.  The foam soon disappears after an hour via sunlight.

When lawn owners make liquid or chemical applications to their lawn, they are faced with a big dilemma - how can they mark where they have sprayed already?

Professional Turf Managers have been using Spray Pattern Indicator Dyes for decades but these have never been widely available before to the amateur lawn owner. 

Turf Managers also use what is called a foam bout marker on their large sprayers which leaves a trace blob of foam down the travelled run of the fairway so that the operator can match up with the last pass on the return run.  The foam soon disappears after an hour via sunlight.