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…
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…
Lawn compaction is the invisible reason a lot of May lawns look tired despite regular feeding and watering. The damage happened slowly through autumn and winter, the lawn coped with it through the cool spring, and then the first warm…
Most lawn advice you read online quietly assumes you know what grass you are growing. Feed at this rate, mow at this height, sow at this depth, treat for this disease. The trouble is that the same instruction will produce…
Thatch is one of those words you hear thrown around at garden centres without ever being told what it is, why it forms, or when you should care. Most lawns have a thatch layer of some thickness. A small amount…
If your lawn looks tired despite regular feeding and watering, the soil pH is the first thing to check, and the result will change every other decision you make for the rest of the year. Grass cannot absorb most fertiliser…
You go to bed with a flat lawn and wake up to a perfect circle of pale beige toadstools 40cm (16 inches) across, sitting in your front garden. Three days later they are gone. A week after that, a curving…
