Grass Clippings - Home of the British Lawn

Top 10 Autumn lawn tips

2009-11-13T07:30:00+00:00

Lawns often feature on the Royal Horticultural Society's Top 10 garden problems each year so why not have a top 10 lawn tips to help you through this autumn. The nights are closing in and ideal mowing days reducing dramatically. We have not had many frosts in the South East of England which is quite suprising for almost mid November but you just know that winter is around the corner and we will soon be scraping the ice off the car windscreen in the morning and view frost on the lawn.

Here are our Top 10 Autumn Lawn Tips :-

1. Keep mowing the lawn, even if it is only once every four weeks or so.
2. Make sure you remove the dead leaves and needles off the lawn weekly
3. Trim back any over hanging shrubs and bushes that are growing over the lawn
4. Fertilise the lawn with a good autumn lawn fertiliser, sooner than later
5. Control any moss and lawn weeds now!
6. Aerate the lawn monthly over the autumn and winter months
7. Control the worm casts to prolong the mowing season and retain the grass cover
8. Keep off frosty lawns until the frost has burnt off in the autumn sunshine.
9. Buy a Lawn Guide to get a greater insight into lawns and their care
10 In your new 2010 diary, make an entry to fertilise the lawn every three months

That should keep any lawn owner busy for a few weeks leading up to Christmas.

Shopping List

Lawn Guide - good fireside reading
Moss Control - Sulphate of Iron in a handy 10 Kg bucket
Lawn Fertiliser - to keep your lawn in tip top condition
Leaf Blowers and Equipment - get your Christmas list written early

Weather to mow the lawn or not.....

2009-11-12T06:35:00+00:00

Finding the ideal time to mow the lawn this autumn can always be a challenge. You should never consider that you do not have to mow the lawn in the autumn or winter months as the lawn will never acutally stop growing - it will just slow down. You do not get out of it that easy!

Having a reliable weather source is vital in planning on which days you could mow your lawn that fits in with your busy work, home and social life and a time that coincides with the weather not throwing it down with rain at the time!

One such web based weather source that we like is Metcheck.com. you can search for your local weather dependant upon your location around the UK and view up to seven days in advance.

If you need some advice on when to stop mowing your lawn, take a look at our earlier post on the subject.

Disposal of Garden Lawn Waste

2009-11-11T06:45:00+00:00

On the many occassions that we have scarified and renovated a lawn, there is always a lot of scarifying debris to get rid of. There are many Local Authority green waste schemes but you might need a lot of wheelie bins or recycling bins to place your debris accumulated into them so that it may be disposed of and recycled.

You have several options available to you should you have a lot of garden and lawn debris to dispose of. You could of course burn it, compost it, organise a skip, make many trips to the local waster transfer station (the tip or dump) or consider using a Hippo Bag.

Now do not let me mislead you on the amount of debris that will be removed from your lawn during it's renovation process. The first task should be to mow the lawn down within an inch of it's life to remove the 'bulk denisity' of lawn growth. Then you can start to scarify the lawn in an Union Flag pattern.

You will get around 10 cubic metres out of a 1000 square metre lawn - that's 11 Hippo Waste Bags which come in a handy 1 cubic yard size or 'dumpy bag' or a 1.5 cubic yard bag that looks more like a bath tub - for getting rid of the very same!

You can purchase Hippo Bags from many a Builders yard or DIY outlet such as Wickes and B & Q or Travis Perkins or Jewsons. Buy a 1 cubic yard Midi Bag for between £8.00 and then once filled, contact Hippo Bag to arrange collection online or over the telephone which will cost £49.40 including VAT. There are some economies of scale and costs when booking multibag Hippo Bag collections.

There are a few restrictions on where the lorry can pick up the now full bag(s) and more details of these can be found on the Hippo Waste web site.

Aerating a lawn - the importance of this lawn maintenance task

2009-11-10T13:10:26+00:00

Lawn enthusiasts will go to great lengths, not to mention expense, to work on the top surface of their lawn but totally neglect, and in many cases fail to understand, what is necessary below ground to keep the grass roots healthy and aerated.

I can imagine the shopping trollies at the garden centre full of autumn lawn feed, sulphate of iron to combat any moss and perhaps some soil and seed to reinstate low and bare patches where the grass may have failed through the year but I somehow feel that spiking is not on most lawn owners to-do list.

Sadly, lawn aeration - some prefer to call it spiking or tining - is the very last thing that gets attention. Maybe because it is a procedure that will not create an instant effect or tangible result in a short space of time. There are many benefits from aerating your lawn and it is one mechanical task that should be performed throughout the autumn and winter months - in fact monthly throughout the year unless the weater and lawn's surface is very dry and hard.

Aeration should be treated as a proper and essential maintenance procedure which is as important as scarifying or fertilising; aeration is integral to overall lawn performance and a lawn will green up and respond almost instantly after aerating a lawn.

How to aerate your lawn and why we do it.

Hire a Lawn Aerator
Buy Sulphate of Iron to control moss
Shop for Autumn Lawn Fertiliser

Fusarium Disease kills lawns in the Autumn

2009-11-10T12:56:18+00:00

Every professional Turf Manager is fully aware of the perils of their sports turf becoming diseased. The finer the playing surface, the greater the disease risk and blemish to the sward. A disease outbreak can appear over night which is why it is important to take a good look at your lawns every single day, especially in warm and moist conditions commonly found in the autumn months.

We have touched on Fusarium Disease in the past and how this devasating disease can literally spread like wild fire across a lawn and any outbreak must be controlled with fungicides as soon as the symptons are spotted. This disease will kill the turf grasses and even once a contact or preventative fungicide has been applied, a re application may be required after six weeks and ongoing when the environment is just right for another outbreak.

We grow tired of hearing moans from lawn owners, especially those with newly turved lawns stating that "the turf was delivered with Fusarium spores and they should replace it". To comments like this, welcome to real grass and real grass problems! A tired worn out lawn could get diseased many times and the lawn owner would probably never notice. Install some new grass and a lawn disease will show up like a sore thumb. Knowldge and advice is everything in correct identification and then control and then prevention. Do you need to buy quality lawn turf?

The fact is that newly turved lawns do get diseased and it is not the fault of the turf farm or supplier or landscaper. The turf will arrive on site, rolled up and this will generate a lot of heat in the middle of the roll. This is why turf should ideally be laid on the day it arrives and if this is not possible then to stagger the delivery of the turf so as to generate pallets of turf waiting to be laid.

I think that there are many landscapers, good and bad who are not fully wised up on turf problems and if they were, then some of the problems experienced would not occur. At The Lawn Company, we make a habit (unless budget constraints on the project) to apply a granular fertiliser as soon as the turf has been laid and also apply a preventative fungicide so as to get some control over a potential outbreak of Fusarium Disease or Snow Mould. As the new lawn is mown and the chemical 'cut out' over time, a re application may be required. Buy Autumn Lawn Fertiliser.

There are many diseases of turf grasses that may appear all in one go - how unlucky is that? These include - Fusarium Disease, Red Thread, Leaf Spot, Anthracnose (Basal Root Rot), Fairy Rings, Thatch Fungus, Dollar Spot, and a host of seedling diseases.

Red Thread Disease is common on poorly fed lawns in the growing season. It does not kill the grass plant. Fairy Rings are a bit tougher to control.

Lawn Guide - a great Xmas present for the lawn lover in your life

2009-11-10T12:40:58+00:00

If you have a lawn lover in your family or network of friends, why not give them a useful reference on how to look after a lawn?

This useful guide, priced at only £9.50 each including packing and postage could be included in their pile of presents under the tree and provide an endless supply of hot lawn tips and lawn advice from the professionals.

You can purchase a copy by visiting The Lawn Shop found at www.lawn.co.uk

How to measure a lawn

2009-11-04T15:49:42+00:00

Knowing the size of your lawn is vital should you wish to care for it correctly. Measuring a lawn is so important when making an assessment on how much fertiliser to buy and then ensure that you have applied the correct amount of product over the given area and this applies to granules and liquids. The ultimate aim is to arrive at the total number of square metres of the lawn or each lawn and the total of all of the lawns making up the garden.

A quick way of measuring is to simply stride down each lawn and then across each lawn. Make a note of the total number of strides each way and then multiply the two figures you have written down together. For example 10 strides up or down by 10 strides across will equal approx 100 square yards total as a stride is roughly one good stride in a John Cleese kind of walk!

A yard is approx 0.9 metres so 100 square yards would be 90 square metres. If you have curves and non square or rectangle lawns that would make measuring difficult, simple 'square' the lawn up into little sections and the measure these down and across and total up the individual areas to make a 'whole'. If the lawn looks like an hour glass or May West’s waist, measure across the lawn say every two or three metres down and 'slice' the lawn up measuring the distance across the lawn's surface every two or three metres.

Making selective weed killer or fertiliser applications to the lawn is very much a calibrated process to ensure measured results. Selective herbicides will be applied at a given concentrate amount or dose rate in a given water volume per a given area. For example written as 5 litres in 200 litres of water over a hectare - which is 10,000 square metres or 2.4 acres in old money. Granular fertilisers will be applied at say 30 - 35 grams per square metre or 350 Kg per hectare.

A good quick calculation method on determining how much product per a given area -

Liquids - take the chemical dose rate from the product label and divide it by 10,000 (number of square metres in a hectare) and multiply by the known and just measured total area of the lawn, which will be in square metres (sqm). This will give you the amount of actual chemical product for the complete lawn area or job. Then take the recommended water volume that the active ingredient is mixed with so let's say 200 litres of water per hectare. Divide the 200 by 10,000 and multiply this by the known lawn area and you will end up with the amount of water to be applied over the given area of lawn or job. Taking the two figures, you now know how much chemical and water for the lawn. For example a selective herbicide may say 3 litres per hectare (Ha) in 200 litres of water per hectare. You have a 500 square metre lawn (sqm) that needs treating. Divide the chemical dose rate of 3 by 10,000 and multiply by the lawn area of 500 sqm = 0.15 litres or 150ml. For the water volume divide 200lts by 10,000 and multiply by the lawn area of 500 sqm to arrive at 10 Litres. The answer is 1.5 lts of chemical in 10 lts of water per 500 sqm of lawn. Apply too much, you will not get the best results, apply too little - the same applies!

For granular products take the measured lawn area, multiply by the application rate shown on the label let's say 30 grams per square metre (sqm) and divide this by 1,000 (number of grams in a kilogram) to arrive at the number of Kilograms of product for the lawn area. For example 800 sqm lawn x 30 grams per sqm divided by 1,000 = 24 Kg of product or 1.25 bags if the product comes in 20 Kg bags.

To convert from acres to hectares, multiply the acreage figure by 0.404 to get the number or percentage of hectares. For example 6 acres x 0.404 = 2.42 hectares or 24,200 square metres!

One foot in length is 0.348 metres. One square foot is 0.009 square metres.

Phew! Just in case you need some more indepth information on measuring lawns and gardens, this a really useful Download Measuring a Lawn on the subject.

Tips on caring for a new lawn

2009-11-03T17:32:32+00:00

We are often asked by lawn owners who have recently received a new lawn - "How do I look after it?"

So how do you care for a new lawn? If the lawn was turved, you really do hit the deck running. Ensure that you do not let the turves dry out at all otherwise they will shrink and it will look awful. Do not make the mistake of being too kind with the water too otherwise you run the risk of killing the lawn. Your landscaper or turf care organisation would have fertilised the lawn with a pre seeder fertiliser before the lawn was laid or fertilised it with a granular fertiliser appropriate to the time of year after laying, so an autumn and winter fertiliser to aid root development and toughen the turf up ahead of the perils of winter. You can turf a lawn all rear round so long as the soil on site can be worked and the turf farm can lift the turf.

Newly turved lawns can be mown after around ten days so long as the ground is firm after laying. Plan to remove no more than 25% of the grass growth in any one mowing session - a fact true of established lawns. You should be aiming for around setting 4 from lowest on a Hayter and the other mowers like Honda and Mountfield to name a few have similar mower height settings. It is important to remove the clippings to the compost heap. Keep an eye out for Fusarium Disease and Red Thread Disease. You may also get a few mushrooms growing in the early autumn months on the new lawn. Just collect the mushrooms to stop the mower squashing them and spreading the spores. The presence of mushrooms on the lawn denotes a healthy soil, not poor quality turf. Continue to mow weekly in different directions and DO NOT forget to fertilise the lawn in three months time and every three months thereafter. This is the biggest failings of new lawns - they get starved and/or mown too low.

If your lawn was seeded, you will be twiddling your fingers waiting for the new grass seed to germinate and grow. Keep the surface moist and water little and often. It will not grow uniformly, quite the opposite. It will germinate quickest in areas of the lawn that possess a warmer micro climate or alongside a nice warm heat retaining brick wall. Keep foot traffic to a minimum, especially pet traffic during the germination and early establishment stages. Once the weather starts to get frosty, grass seed germination will still occur but establishment will be a lot slower than earlier in the growing season. Once the temperature gets above 10 degrees centigrade, it will grow quite happilly so long as the surface is kept moist.

A grass plant has 6 to 8 leaf stages when it is fully developed. You can easily count them. It will take a few months to get to 4 leaf stages, quicker with careful and correct mowing which will encourage a new grass plant to 'tiller' out. Do not apply any selective weed killers to the new lawn until 4 months has passed since sowing and should you need to; choose one that is safe to seedling grasses such as Vitax Lawn Clear. Mow as soon as the grasses are getting to 3 leaf stages and no more than 25% of the grass growth should be mown off at a time. Do collect the clippings so as not to smother any grass seed that has yet to germinate. After some 6 - 8 weeks, you should consider applying a slow release granular fertiliser appropriate to the time of year to aid establishment. Once you have fertilised the lawn and now mowing weekly, you can over seed the lawn and address any bare areas where the lawn seed failed for what ever reason. The new grasses will be protected by the grass plants that exist, providing shelter for them and creating their own little micro climate to speed up germination and establishment. Continue to fertilise every three months, keen an eye out for lawn pests and lawn diseases and weeds. Alternate the direction of mowing each time you mow too.

Do you have a shopping list for a new lawn - visit these links to make your shopping experience easier :-

Turf and Soil
Grass Seed
Autumn & Winter Fertilisers
Spring & Summer Fertilisers
Selective Weed Killers
Moss Killer

Happy Halloween from The Grass Clippings Team

2009-10-30T17:23:16+00:00

We have been having a bit of an Indian Summer of late, so ample opportunity to get to grips with your lawn renovations this autumn. Take advantage of the warm weather ahead of the cold frosty nights that will no doubt arrive soon.

The process of autumn lawn renovation should always follow this flow chart -

1. Mow the lawn down really low - that's two from lowest setting on a Hayter lawn mower
2. Scarify in a union jack pattern, making many passes across the surface of the lawn
3. Aerate with a solid tine, making multi passes to get many holes in the lawn
4. Fertilise with an autumn and winter lawn fertiliser
5. Over seed with a good lawn seed - all over at around 20 grams per sqm
6. Top dress with a lawn dressing and trulute it in.

Follow these simple steps and your lawn will be in great shape for next year. Search any of the key words into the lawn blog search facility and you will come up with some previous useful lawn technical posts to assist you in your task.

We are off, enjoying our Halloween weekend. Each year, we call ours 'Wilson' - well it has to have a name so why not?

Whatever you have planned - forget the lawn for a night and go off and enjoy yourself!

Apply an Autumn & Winter Lawn Fertiliser now

2009-10-30T16:45:45+00:00

A healthy grass plant needs regular food to survive and this time of year it is important to remember to apply an autumn and winter lawn fertiliser to your lawns to set them up for the cold and peril of winter. All to often we hear horror stories of lawns only being fertilised once a year - arghhh. The makings of a good horror story for Halloween weekend at your lawn's expense.

Autumn and winter lawn fertiliser will have less Nitrogen but more Phosphorus and Potassium to feed the roots and assist in improving the vitality of the grass plant. The roles of these important lawn food nutrients is discussed in greater detail here

A typical nutrient analysis would be 15-0-22 or 12-0-24 perhaps with some added Magnesium or Iron. These can be applied now up until the first hard frosts arrive. Continue to mow your lawn over the autumn and winter months.

You can buy professional quality autumn and winter granular fertiliser from The Lawn Shop and they will quickly courier it out to you, thus avoiding the Royal Mail postal strike. Just make sure that the leaves are clear from the lawn and the lawn mown ahead of making the application. If the thought of applying a lawn fertiliser leaves you a bit cold, here is some helpful advice on How to apply fertiliser to a lawn.

It still not too late to apply a selective weed killer to the lawn either as all the weeds would have appeared by now and you stand a good chance of the lawn getting 'clean' of weeds in the spring it you treat them now. Apply Vitax Lawn Clear of Verdone Extra.

If moss is a bit of a problem, try tackling the moss problem this autumn.

Use the search facility at the top right of the Blog to search popular technical posts on scarifying a lawn or aerating a lawn for example.