The weeks after peak summer give you the best chance of the year to reset a tired lawn. Hot spells, foot traffic and drought leave grass thin, patchy and full of dead material, and the mild damp spell of early…
A lawn that has filled with weeds is not really a weed problem. It is a grass problem wearing a disguise. Weeds move in where the turf has thinned, where the soil has hardened underfoot, where the mower has been…
Pinkish-red threads webbing through pale brown patches of grass are the clearest sign of red thread, one of the most common lawn diseases in cooler, damp climates. It shows up most in wet summers and through the heavy dews of…
A heat-stressed lawn does most of its recovering in the weeks after peak summer, not in spring. The grass you walked on, mowed short and watched fade through the hottest stretch is carrying drained roots and a thin, patchy surface.…
A lawn that has gone thin and brown by the end of a hot summer does not need stripping and returfing. It needs air in the soil, organic matter on the surface and fresh seed, applied in that order. That…
In the shady, damp corners where grass thins out and gives up, most gardeners keep fighting a losing battle with seed and feed. There is another option. A moss lawn turns those difficult spots into a soft green carpet that…
If you laid turf in the last few weeks and the joints have started to open into finger-width gaps, do not assume the turf has failed. Those gaps are almost always a sign that the turves are drying out and…
Both an underwatered and an overwatered lawn can turn the same dull yellow-green, which is why so many people water a struggling lawn harder and watch it get worse. The two problems need opposite treatments, so before you touch the…
If wasps have started working over your lawn this month, the first thing to know is that most of them are not interested in you at all. They are feeding, hunting or house-hunting, and once you work out which of…
Turf gives you a green lawn the day it is laid; seed gives you a cheaper lawn with deeper roots, if you are willing to wait a few months for it. That is the trade at the heart of the…
