George Howson

The next time you mow in a dry spell, stop emptying the grass box. Leaving the clippings on the lawn, a practice called grasscycling or mulch mowing, is one of the simplest ways to help grass through a hot summer,…

If patches of your lawn have turned a bleached, pinkish-tan colour and you can see fine red or coral threads woven through the grass when you look closely, your lawn has red thread. It is one of the most common…

If small mounds of fine, dry soil have started appearing across your lawn this month, you are seeing the work of ants, and June is when they are at their busiest. The good news is that ants do not eat…

If you only change one thing about your lawn care this summer, make it the height of your cut. Raising the mower by a couple of centimetres does more to keep grass green through a hot, dry spell than any…

Lay new turf in the middle of summer and the job is only half done when the last roll is down. Fresh turf has no roots into the soil beneath it, so in hot weather it can dry out and…

If your lawn turns rock-hard and starts to crack in summer yet sits soggy for days after rain, you are gardening on clay. The fix is not more water in the dry spells or better drainage pipes in the wet…

The single best window to mow in a hot summer is mid-morning, roughly between 8 and 10am, once the dew has dried but before the day reaches its peak temperature. A late afternoon slot, around 4 to 6pm, is a…

If the forecast shows a run of hot, dry days, the safest thing you can do for your lawn is put the granular feed back in the shed. Applying a standard high-nitrogen lawn fertiliser to dry, heat-stressed grass is one…