Grass Clippings

Solve your lawn worm casts at Longacres

CastClear, the solution to worms casts in lawns is being stocked by Longacres Garden Centre in Bagshot, Surrey and has been since last autumn.

Longacres Nursery is one of the largest garden centre outlets in the South East of England.  Situated on 9 acres of land, just off Junction 3 of the M3, they also boast one of the largest cut flower departments in the whole of the country. 

More importantly, they have one of the best lawn care and chemical sales areas the Grass Clippings Team have seen at a garden centre.  Longacres has currently undergone a major building development project to improve the store, completed in early 2012, the results of which are excellent.

Worm Cast Control at Woking Garden Centre

Woking Garden Centre provides a very comfortable shopping environment as well as the range and quality you would expect from a Squire’s Garden Centre. 

The well stocked plant area offers an extensive range of quality plants together with a comprehensive range of garden buildings and sheds.

Woking Garden Centre and the other Squires Group of Garden Centres have recently started stocking CastClear from The Lawn Company, who are working to continue to bridge the gap between professional and domestic lawn care products.

Seasons Coffee Shop has been given a new look and serves breakfast, hot and cold lunches, snacks, cakes, teas and coffees.  Why not take a look at their Gardening Calendar for some timely garden care tips and advice or maybe attend one of their garden events.

Worms are great for the lawn but in the autumn through to the spring months their casts cause a really big problem on the lawns surface making it muddy, bumpy, wet and uneven. Worm Cast control products have not been available to domestic lawn owners until now.

CastClear - the solution to lawn worm casts is totally non-pesticidal, safe for lawn users including children and pets but it is advisable to keep lawn users off the treated lawn for 48 hours.  It's £29.99 for a 1 Litre Bottle which will treat up to 500 square metres. 

Why not take a trip into Woking Garden Centre and see what they have to offer. 

Woking Garden Centre - Horsell, Surrey  GU21 4XR

 

Casting a spell on worms at Glee 2012

GLEE is the place where the garden industry meets to discuss products, innovations and ideas to move the industry forward and ultimately become more profitable.

 

Held annually at the NEC, Birmingham, Glee covers all aspects of garden retailing, providing suppliers with the valuable opportunity to showcase current ranges, launch new products and network with garden retailer communities over 3 days. 

Another exhibitor that is returning to the 2012 show is The Lawn Company.  In 2011 they showcased CastClear, a domestic approved, non-pesticide lawn worm cast suppressant.

Lawn Advice 24 hours a day

If you are a regular reader of our Grass Clippings Lawn Advice Blog, then you are already converted to our free advice on lawn care and news.

We use a platform called Typepad and since we set the advice blog up, the lawn advice blog has received a whopping 507,607 unique life time page views.  One of our technical posts is classified as a page view and there are over 450 technical pages to search to solve your lawn conundrum.

CastClear available at Badshot Lea Garden Centre

Located just off the A31 outside the lovely Georgian town of Farnham, Badshot Lea Garden Centre is well known in the locality and has particular expertise in aquatics and pets.  Squire’s has a reputation for offering quality and value throughout the centre which is evident to all who visit.

The Squires Group of Garden Centres have recently become stockist of CastClear the domestic approved, non-pesticide lawn worm cast deterrent.   It is not the activity of the worms naturally aerating the soil beneath the grass surface, but the detrimental effect of their casts that cause the problems.

We do love a dry weekend in the garden....

Our Managing Editor is looking forward to getting outside in the garden this coming weekend and taking a good hard look at his lawns that have only been mown once in the past three weeks because of the wet weather in the South East.  Are you looking forward to a drier weekend too?

Last week during a gap in the wet weather, the lawns were dry enough to literally take the top off them with the mower on a high setting to tidy the garden up a bit.  The legs of the Jack Russell were disappearing in the long grass! 

Horrific Lawn Mower Accident in USA

A five-year-old girl is in hospital after her father accidentally severed both her feet with a lawn mower.  The child, from Forest Hill, Maryland, USA was flown by helicopter to Johns Hopkins Children's Center on Monday evening where doctors were unable to save her feet.

The devastating accident, considered most parents' worst nightmare, happened at about 6.30pm, when the girl's father was cutting the grass on the family's Kensington Farm property.

According to Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association officials, the man had not seen the child in the yard when he put the riding mower in reverse, only realising she was there when he heard her screaming.

Read more - The Daily Mail

The Grass is always greener....

Proof that grass is always greener on the other side: 4 in 10 look on our neighbour's lawn with envy. 

Eight per cent get so jealous of a nearby garden they would contemplate sabotaging it and One in ten say a scruffy garden lowers the tone of a neighbourhood reports the Daily Mail over the recent bank holiday weekend.

If you spend your weekends gazing enviously over the garden wall at the immaculate lawn next door while casting contemptuous glances at your own weed-strewn patch, cheer up – you’re not alone.

Smile - you are on camera

A recent news story made us all smile in the office....

These daisies appear to have grown into the shape of a smiling face, leaving their owner speechless. 

The beaming flowers, one of which is thought to have mutated, were discovered by pensioner Michael Lester in his back garden in Oxford.  Some photo experts believe the images may have been manipulated.

 

Fundamentals of Soil Water

The soil underneath your lawn is made up of many elements such as soil air, soil organic matter, soil nutrients, soil micro organisms, soil structures but most of all soil water.

Now I am sure that water is the last thing on your mind currently as we head into a bank holiday weekend but I was explaining the fundamentals of soil water to a client who had a soggy lawn and thought that it would be worth sharing it on this lawn advice blog.

The form water takes in the soil depends on a variety of factors, including the existing moisture content of the soil and the structure and texture of the soil.  Water may be divided into four groups:

David Domoney teams up with Alan Titchmarsh in new ITV Show

A personal friend of our Managing Editor, David Domoney is to team up with Alan Titchmarsh in an ITV1 prime-time gardening show.

David is co-presenting ‘Love Your Garden’ with Alan Titchmarsh – which starts on ITV1 at 8pm from the end of June, in its new one hour commissioned series of six weekly shows. 

Both David and Alan have a long history in the gardening world both in TV and with the RHS. The chemistry between Alan and David was much enjoyed on Alan’s ITV daytime show in which David teamed up regularly with Alan Titchmarsh on gardening items.

Hose Pipe ban costing turf jobs

Water companies are now pushing the line that commercial landscape schemes are included in hosepipe bans despite their published information and advice to contractors failing to make this clear.

This shift comes as evidence gathered this week by the Turfgrass Growers Association (TGA) shows the drastic impact of the bans. The TGA survey found that four people from turf businesses had lost their jobs, with 10 more under threat, due to the bans.  Member companies have lost up to 40 per cent of sales against last year, with some forecasting 60 per cent losses.

May Day celebrations cancelled due to waterlogged parks

One of the more local traditional May Day Fairs has been cancelled due to the persistant rainfall - not bad for a drought!   

Sadly, it will not be the only event to be cancelled this weekend, all victims of the wet weather.

May Day is traditionally celebrated on the first Monday of May when local villages take to the local green and have fun and games and local businesses sell their produce.  Traditional British May Day rites and celebrations include Morris Dancing crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving a Maypole.  May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. 

Lawn Treatments - do or dye

When lawn owners make liquid or chemical applications to their lawn, they are faced with a big dilemma - how can they mark where they have sprayed already?

Professional Turf Managers have been using Spray Pattern Indicator Dyes for decades but these have never been widely available before to the amateur lawn owner. 

Turf Managers also use what is called a foam bout marker on their large sprayers which leaves a trace blob of foam down the travelled run of the fairway so that the operator can match up with the last pass on the return run.  The foam soon disappears after an hour via sunlight.

How much Lawn Fertiliser?

Lawn owners will traditionally apply Lawn Sand to their lawns in the spring time and this is still okay but expect a rush of growth and some extreme mowing to get it back under control again. 

New generation slow release fertilisers provide a slow or controlled release of key major grass nutrients and also provide up to 12 weeks of nutritional benefit for the thousands of grass plants that make up a few square metres of lawn. 

Lawn Treatment Companies tend to favour Sulphur Coated lawn fertiliser which is fine but sometimes they use the absolute minimal application rate.  The technology of Sulphur Coated Fertiliser is quite old too. 

Control Moss with Ferrous Sulphate

The weather as you know has been a little wet of late, despite hosepipe bans and the threat of stand pipes in the streets, poking their little heads up through the flood water!

The spring rush of lawn care had not really started to be honest as we were almost there then it started raining and continued to rain for pretty much most of April.  This coming May Day Bank Holiday weekend is looking like the weather may have a little rain to offer but do not let that deter you from thinking about your lawn.

Should you need to control the Moss in your lawn then Ferrous Sulphate, the product found in Soluble Iron is ideal for killing moss, not just retarding it.  There is a difference between killing moss and controlling moss.  You need to get rid of it by killing it with Soluble Iron and then get the grass growing again following scarification to make sure it does not come back!

Squires Garden Centre Group stock CastClear

Squires Garden Centres are a family-owned garden centre group with 14 modern centres across West London, Surrey, Berkshire and Sussex.  They are committed to providing a wide range of quality plants and garden products, together with an extensive array of garden furniture, houseplants and gifts.

Over seventy years ago, David Squire, known as DJ, Head Groundsman and Gardener at the Police Orphanage in Twickenham was made redundant. With a young family to support he set up his own business, and that business has grown into a thriving, family-owned garden centre group which now comprises 14 Garden Centres, and rose, herbaceous and bedding plant nurseries.

April was the wettest month for 100 years

It has been the wettest April in the UK for over 100 years, with some areas seeing three times their usual average, figures from the Met Office show. 

Some 121.8mm of rain has fallen, beating the previous record of 120.3mm which was set in 2000.

Flood warnings are in place with up to 20mm to 30mm of rain forecast for southern England on Monday night.

A 52-year-old man has died after his car became submerged at a ford south of Newbury following heavy rain.  The man and his dog died when a Toyota Yaris was trapped in "5ft of fast-flowing water" as it drove across the ford on Thornford Road, Compton Wood.

In support of the Great British Lawn

Whilst the Ladies feverishly tend the borders and pots around the garden the Gentlemen are more interested in the quality of the sward that for them is the eternal centre of the universe.

British men have a near obsession with creating that perfect but seemingly un-obtainable perfect lawn.  If we study the consumer stats for horticulture it is clear to see that the lawn care industry, in direct contrast to gardening is big business.

British consumers are spending over £400 million on lawn care a year and increasing at over 5% a year. 

Lawn Edging Options

One of the most important aspects of a lawn is the grass content and density but also as important the lawn edge where it meets a pathway, driveway or flower border.  

In the scenario where the lawn meets a flower border, over time because of the foot traffic of the gardener tending to the border, the edges of the lawn will naturally dip down towards the border.  Alongside the edges of driveways, lawns will soon get driven over or driveway material through up onto the lawn making mowing hazardous.

Having the correct Lawn Tools

It is important to ensure that before performing a DIY task that you have the right tool and lawn tools are no different.  How many times have you struggled with a simple plumbing task without the correct spanner to reach up and behind the kitchen sink?

The handy tool in the picture is a Soil Profiler, used by an Agronomist for looking at the soil profile under a turf area during a consultancy visit.  The state of the underlying soil is important to understand reasons why an area of lawn may be exhibiting signs of poor growth and density or retaining excessive moisture.  Without it, the Agronomist would need to have a crystal ball to see if the root zone or sub soil was undesirable for grass growth and turf establishment.

The wettest drought on record....

It is expected to be the wettest day of the year today, with a month's worth of rain falling in Britain in just 24 hours. 

April could turn out to be the wettest on record yet the drought restrictions may stay in place until December.

And today, the UK's weather looked to be following forecasters' predictions as the heavy rain and high winds swept across England and Wales.

A wet lawn - a pragmatic approach to lawn drainage

We get a lot of emails and also comments from lawn owners seeking advice on their lawns and this lawn advice blog is our initial technical outlet and first prot of call for lawn owners seeking lawn advice. 

There are over 450 technical articles to help you with your lawn so please do use the lawn advice blog search facility before posting a comment or emailing us as you are going to find the answer to the most common lawn problems from the confort of your armchair or desk.

When you cannot find the answer, please feel free to post a comment and this will find us and we can respond on this blog or privately.  The question and answers email below is a good example of the help we provided to one recent lawn owner who had posted a comment about a soggy lawn -

Scotsdales Garden Centre become a CastClear Stockist

This April will be the wettest ever known during a hose pipe ban in the majority of Mid and Southern England and the worm activity on the lawns will be rampant when it finally stops raining as these wonderful creatures gasp for air and dump their soil deposits called worm casts on the surface of the lawn.

Scotsdales Garden Centre based in Great Shelford in Cambridgeshire have recently requested stock of CastClear, the only domestic approved, non pesticide lawn worm cast control product.

Solving the puzzle of lawn treatments

Your local Garden Centre or DIY Shed have shelves and pallets full of bags and bottles, granules and sprays and potions to help you create a better lawn. 

Quite often, there is no one around to help you select the correct product to solve your lawn care problem and it is left to you to make the decision, not quite sure whether you have the right product or not when you get home.

Top ten tips for buying and applying lawn care products -

Celebrating the Great British Lawn - Happy St George's Day!

Having a lawn is a very traditional British concept. There is nothing quite like it so take time today to stroll over it and marvel at the concept of so many tinly plants living in harmony with each other and a few alien species too maybe like weeds and moss.

Enjoy the relaxing concept of mowing it and the smell of fresh mown grass up your nose - don't you just love it? Then take a harder look at the content of the lawn and be thought provoking about how you may improve it this year.

Growing grass is Child's Play...

...it is turning the grass plants into a lawn that is the difficult part!

Grass will not grow everywhere despite what many gardeners think.  It prefers light and steady air flow as well as regular feeding, moisture and keeping all the baddies out like Moss, Lawn Insects, Weeds and Disease to name a few.

If you have a problem with your lawn, there is usually an underlying cause which will need to be resolved or improved before the grass will pick itself up.  Too much shade, boggy ground, poor soil, topography, compacted, over utilised, overhang from shrubs and trees, the drip, drip, drip of water coming off trees, neglect, improper maintenance and treatment regime, the list is endless!

Using a Knapsack or Garden Sprayer

Picking up a knapsack sprayer for the first time and wondering how to calibrate it can be a scary moment for any lawn owner.

Applications of lawn treatment products to your lawns are a finely calibrated process - making sure you get the correct amount of treatment product across the chosen square metres of lawn in the correct amount of water will ensure that you do not have a sleepless night.

Lawn Treatment Franchise for £6,000

A New Year, a new challenge and an opportunity to get a slice of the growing lawn treatment industry for only £6,000.

Buying a lawn treatment franchise can traditionally be anything between £16,000 and £25,000.

The Team at The Lawn Company have managed to come up with a simple but effective concept for only £6,000 which includes the customer management and treatment software, initial equipment to make successful lawn treatments, personal protective equipment to help you comply with pesticide legislation, some stock of fertiliser and chemicals to get you going, and 5,000 marketing leaflets for you to distribute locally to spark consumer interest in your new service.

CastClear now stocked in The Wirral

At Burleydam Garden Centre, you'll find a great selection of products for every part of your garden, from bright, vibrant plants for every corner of your garden, to seeds, compost, relaxing water features, superb garden furniture, even wild bird seeds and feeds.

They are now stocking the lawn worm cast control product CastClear in their garden centre for the benefit of local lawn owners plauged by worm casts on their lawns.  It was at the request of a local customer who went to the centre to enquire if they had it available that the chemical sundres buyer contacted the suppliers of CastClear, The Lawn Company to seek stock for their shelves.