A mulching blade is not simply a sharper version of the blade your mower came with. It is a different shape designed to do a different job. Where a standard blade flings clippings out of the deck and into a…
When patches of lawn turn yellow and then straw-brown in the sunniest, driest parts of the garden in the middle of summer, almost everyone reaches for the hose. If the patches keep spreading no matter how much you water, the…
You can sow grass seed in the middle of summer and get a thick, even result, but you have to respect one hard truth first: the heat that drives established grass to grow fast is the same heat that kills…
Scattered straw-coloured spots about the size of a coin, dotted across an otherwise green lawn in warm summer weather, are almost always dollar spot. It is one of the most common lawn diseases of the season, and the fix surprises…
For a home garden, the John Deere machine you actually want is a ride-on from the 100 Series or the X300 Select Series, not the commercial walk-behind mowers that share the same green and yellow badge. Those walk-behinds, with their…
A petrol mower that will not start after months in the shed almost always has one of five faults, and you can fix most of them in half an hour with cheap parts. Work through them in order of likelihood:…
The stripes you admire on sports pitches and show gardens are not cut at different heights and they are not a different grass. They are an optical illusion created by light bouncing off grass blades bent in alternating directions. That…
Those dark green circles, arcs of wilted grass, or rings of toadstools appearing in your lawn this summer are fairy rings, and they are caused by fungi feeding on buried organic matter below the surface. Most are only a cosmetic…
Before you tear up a brown summer lawn and start again, test it. Most lawns that turn brown in a hot, dry spell are not dead, they are dormant, which is a survival mode the grass enters on purpose. Two…
If your dog leaves yellow or brown spots on the lawn, the grass is not reacting to anything toxic. It is being overdosed on nitrogen and salt. The fastest way to limit the damage is to flush the spot with…
