Real Lawn Care

Now that you have laid a brand new lawn, there is plenty to do to keep your lawn looking green and lush over the course of the year. Lawns typically take up a large part of garden design, and have a big visual impact which means it is pertinent to keep on top of regular maintenance. Here below is our guide to looking after your newly laid lawn to ensure it looks it best through the seasons;

1. One of the most important part of ensuring your lawns longevity is to water it regularly for the first few weeks. As with any new plant, water will allow the roots to bed into the soil below. If you have a sprinkler head, set a timer for every 30 minutes and move it around the lawn during the first few days. Then you want to water it a minimum of twice daily for the first two weeks at a minimum.

2. Your lawn will take around two weeks to bed down, so until then keep foot traffic off the lawn so you don’t damage it. At the end of this, your lawn will be ready for its first cut. Cutting the lawn helps to stimulate growth, similar to when you cut for example hedges, when you remove part of the plant, it stimulates new growth and encourages a healthy lawn.

3. First cut - we recommend you cut on a high blade - approx 1/3 of the length of the grass. You’ll want to leave the cuttings on the lawn on this first cut (no mower basket, this is optional as the cuttings will stay on the lawn until they either decompose or blow away.) This will act as a feed for the lawn. As the new turf is grown with a good fertiliser with high nutrients, as it breaks down it will act as an extra feed for the lawn.

4. Next is to keep up regular lawn maintenance, you’ll want to do regular cutting and watering to your lawn. Ideally cutting every week, if you leave it for longer than two weeks it will turn your lawn into a meadow.) If you have been away and the lawn has grown a little longer - you’ll want to cut it down in stages, take off just 1/3, leave it for a few days and then do another cut. If you do it in one go, you could shock the grass and cause it to die off. It is still important to do regular watering if your lawn, it will dry out and turn brown in hot weather and unless watered soon after it’s cut it is less likely to recover.

5. Ideally you would be laying a new lawn in early Spring - this is when there is more rainfall to help water the lawn on top of your manual watering. The lawn maintenance annual programme is the following;

Mid - March - first cut on a high setting after winter

April - start weekly cutting on your lawn

Beginning - June - summer lawn feed and and extra watering if there is a dry spell

End - August - end of summer feed, continue to cut and water if there is a dry spell

End - September/October - winter lawn feed and weed - this is to prepares the lawn and slows growth over the winter to allow the roots to establish over winter to protect it

November - move to fortnightly/monthly cuts of your lawn until December if it continues to grow.

Mid-November/March - restorative work on your lawn, which could include

• Relaying - use turf rolls to patch up bare patches

• Scarifying - this is the process or removing moss/thatch from the grass, typically in shady sections and to be followed by;

• Reseeding

HP Landscapes offer annual lawn maintenance care for your garden - please enquire at office@hplandscapes.com for more information

Biological Pest Control

Wildlife in the garden can be wonderful and welcome, and there can be aspects of garden planning and maintenance that encourage the right kind of wildlife in your garden. One of our favourite garden wildlife encouragers are wildflower meadows; not least because they make for beautiful soft landscaping, but they which contain a wide range of colours and scents to attract important pollinators. Birds are also a fantastic form of ‘pest control’ They feed on the grubs and insects we do not want, so think about adding a bird feeder or bird bath to your garden and enjoy the wonder of nature!

 On the flip side, there are pests and insects that we want to discourage. It can be a horrible feeling looking out into your garden and seeing your favourite shrubs decimated, and leaves full of cut outs, or dead. Or your hard work on the veggie patch taken out by a hungry slug.

 We have put together a guide to some of the popular biological solutions on the market, that are most importantly safe for your other garden visitors such as pets, children and encouraged wildlife.

 If you are unsure of what pest you have, you can take a photo and send it to maintenance@hplandscapes.com or click on this helpful link from The RHS https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/common-pest-identification-guide

Nematodes

Pest it deals with: Ants, fruit flies, leather jackets, chafer grubs, slugs, vine weevils

How to use: Mix into a paste, dilute in water, then water over problem area

 Nematodes are microscopic parasites that essentially latch on to a host and then kill them from the inside out so there is nothing left behind. This is a much more effective approach than a chemical spray which can get caught in the wind and can cause collateral damage on other plants. 

  If you don’t use them straight away, you need to store them in the fridge. When they’re in season our office fridge has a few boxes handy so you need to double check before you pull out a snack!

There are two types of Nematodes that we are using in our London gardens;

Nemaslug - Biological

Time of year: Autumn/Spring

Pests it deals with: slugs

Time frame of results: needs reapplying every 6 weeks 

Toxicity: harmless to wildlife, pets, birds and children

A solution for slugs particularly on veggie patches. It is completely safe you just need to wash the fruit and vegetables as you usually do before enjoying. This is also the only slug solution that works in wet weather which is when slugs thrive and do their worst.

Vine Weevil Killer - Biological

Time of year: September or April. This is very important to stick to otherwise the nematodes can be killed before they can get to work.

Pests it deals with: Clue is in the name! Vine Weevil larvae. These are white legless small grubs.

Time frame of results: You’ll need to make applications over two to three years to completely eradicate the problem. A single application will make a small difference, depending on the level of infestation, but realistically it can take up to 3 years (or longer) to completely remove the vine weevils. Regular applications will be needed if the problem has reached  the soil, If the problem is in the pots it can be much easier to deal with.

Toxicity: Harmless to children, pets, birds and wildlife. Also suitable for edible crops. 

Vine Weevil’s need to be dealt with at their larvae stage and on damp soil. This solution needs to be put down in a cool evening on well watered soil where the larvae is present. It’s difficult to completely eradicate as they are such a prevalent pest in UK gardens, but one treatment a year is more than adequate to keep the problem at bay.

One of the best ways to prevent pests is to feed your plants, because a health plant is less prone to infestations. 

Another ‘pest’ or source of trouble in our London gardens are foxes;

Foxes will always be a nuisance in London and nothing will completely stop these garden visitors, but there are methods to reduce and discourage the damage they can cause. Here are some of our tried and tested solutions.

Lighting - motion sensor lighting can scare away foxes.

Silent Roar - Whilst it’s marketed as a cat-repellent to stop them using your beds, it is an effective fox repellent. 

Gravel boards- stop your garden being a through way by sealing gaps at the bottom of fences where foxes can dig to get through.

Gaps - you need to close up gaps under sheds, decking to prevent nesting

Regular Garden Maintenance – keeping your garden tidy, open and free of rubbish makes it less attractive for foxes, as there are no places to hide and nest.

Spring is Coming

As the days are getting longer, you may find yourself rediscovering the space outside your kitchen window.  Sometimes brown, sometimes green and sometimes …. well, unorganised!  If you have not been out there much since long before Christmas the warm sunny days will encourage you back to enjoying the outside space once again.

It is time of the year to jet wash your patio, add mulch to borders and feed the plants for the upcoming season. Any fence /trellis/bench repairs are easily done on spring sunny days too.

If you happen to have Astroturf that works so well in the summer in a small city garden, perhaps consider giving it vacuum and jet wash to refresh it for warm spring days when the bbq can be lit up for the first time this year, perhaps even before the Easter weekend!

Also it is a great time to refresh your garden plants for the summer months and if you have planted Spring bulbs in autumn they should be beginning to show their shy heads, mulching and tiding the border around them will help to make the most of them.

And of course any roses, wisteria and fruit trees will benefit from a Spring prune too if it's not already been done.

If any of the above sounds good and applies to your garden, please feel free to contact our maintenance manager, Anna, for a quote.

Maintenance@hplandscapes.com