Dandelions are the most stubborn weed in any lawn because they evolved to win against grass. The taproot can drive 25cm (10 inches) into the soil, snapping cleanly when you try to pull it out and regenerating from any fragment…
If your lawn looks tired in late May despite regular feeding, watering, and mowing, the answer is probably hiding three inches below the surface. Compacted soil is the most underdiagnosed lawn problem in any garden, and it cannot be fixed…
A self-propelled mower is the upgrade that most gardeners realise they should have made years earlier. For anyone cutting more than 200 square metres of lawn, or anything that includes a slope, the difference between pushing a manual mower and…
Topdressing is the step that takes a passable lawn and turns it into the kind of surface people stop and ask about. It is also the step that most home gardeners never attempt because they think it is the sort…
A lawn that fills up with the same weed year after year is sending you a message about the soil beneath it. Most gardeners react to weeds as if they were random invaders, spraying or pulling without ever asking why…
Crabgrass is the single most frustrating weed in a summer lawn because by the time you see it, you have already missed your best chance to stop it. The plant only becomes visible in July or August, when its long,…
Most lawns die in summer not because of heat but because the people watering them never let the water reach the roots. A daily sprinkle wets the top few millimetres of soil, the surface dries within an hour, and the…
Stand in front of the cordless mower aisle at any large retailer and the marketing tells you that voltage is everything. A 40V mower is twice as good as a 20V mower, an 80V mower is the dream, and as…
You can still buy a lawn roller at any large garden centre. They sit on the shelf next to the mowers, often with a little sign suggesting you roll your lawn in spring to flatten it out and improve the…
Buying a strimmer (or string trimmer, weed eater, whipper-snipper, depending on where you grew up) looks simple until you stand in front of 40 models at a garden centre and discover the cheap one is £35/$45 and the expensive one…
