life
GARDENING
Caring for your
lawn
Here are some useful tips for this summer to keep your
lawn in shape and looking splendid.
Regularly mow lawns to keep
them in shape - removing
'little and often' is the key to
a good quality sward.
- Mow pathways through areas
of long grass to allow access to
other areas of the garden.
- Cut the lawn edges with a
half-moon edging iron to ensure
they are neat and well shaped.
- Grass growing over the edge
can be trimmed with edging
shears.
- Use the half-moon edging iron,
or a spade, to create a 7.5cm
(3in) ‘gutter’ around the lawn
edge. This will prevent grass
from creeping into the border
from the main lawn.
- Add grass clippings to the
compost heap in thin layers (too
much grass all at once is likely to
be very wet and poorly aerated,
resulting in smelly slime rather
than compost).
- Apply a high nitrogen summer
lawn fertiliser if not done
last month to encourage a
healthy-looking lawn.
- Move garden furniture and
other objects regularly to allow
grass to recover and prevent
yellow patches.
- Ensure new lawns (either from
turf or seed) do not dry out
during hot weather, as turves
will shrink if allowed to dry out,
and fail to knit together.
- Don't worry about wee d
seedlings in newly seeded
turf. These will disappear once
regular mowing begins. Start
with a high cut, lowering the
height of the mower blades
gradually.
Troubleshooter
-During periods of prolonged
dry weather, you could help by
keeping your lawn a little longer
76
than usual, and even investing
in a mulching mower. Mulching
mowers shred the grass
clippings very finely and then
blow them into the lower layers
of the turf, where they act like
mulch to help the lawn retain
moisture. Because the clippings
are fine, the end result is not
unsightly, especially later in the
season when the lawn gets very
dry, and the mulch helps to keep
it green rather than brown.
- If moss is a problem, choose
a combined fertiliser and
mosskiller when feeding the
lawn.
- Selective weedkillers are
available for lawns, which
will kill the weeds but not the
grass or any naturalised bulbs
(providing they've died down).
However, they will kill wild
flowers.
- Disperse dry worm casts with a
hard-bristled broom.
- Molehills can be a problem in
rural areas. Traps are the most
effective way to deal with this
problem.
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