Written by Mark Falco for UK Gardening Supplies

Summer is here and with the coming of the sunshine and the heat comes a period of severe wear and tear for the average family lawn. Garden games like football and cricket tear it up, garden parties compact the soil and general neglect or poor maintenance practices can do it more harm than good as you try to keep it looking nice. What follows is a couple of very basic tips for keeping a lawn looking reasonably good.

Nurturing With Fertilisers

For a stronger, lusher, greener lawn you can't beat a little bit of fertiliser applied at the right time and in the right quantities. Be sure to test your soil type before you start thinking about buying a fertiliser and then buy the one which compliments this the most if you want the best results. You should apply the first batch of fertiliser around 1 month before the beginning of the growing season to give your lawn a kick start into the summer and then expect to apply around 3 more spaced around 2 months apart to keep it looking at its healthiest. Be sure to read your manufacturer's guidelines however as this can vary. You can fertilise by hand if you were proper protection but for safer, more effective results we recommend the use of specialist spreaders which get the job done more evenly and accurately. Drop spreaders are recommended for smaller lawn areas which broadcast spreaders, also known as rotary spreaders, will be more efficient at covering larger garden lawns.

Do not be tempted to go to town with fertiliser as this can actually cause the grass to grow to fast and weaken it as well as encourage fungus and weeds to take over. After fertilizing it is usually a good idea to water-in the fertilizer or plan to add fertilizer before expected rainfall unless otherwise stated in the usage instructions.

Watering Your Lawn

Sounds simple enough but it is easy to over-look watering or forget you have the sprinkler on and over-water parts of your garden. Too much water can be as damaging as not watering in the first place. Knowing when your lawn needs water is the first step to getting this right. Just because the day has been a little on the warm side doesn't necessarily mean you garden is crying out for water. There are a couple of simple tests you can perform to know when you need to get the hose out:

The footprint test - simple step on your lawn and the blades of grass should spring back into position. If they are particularly slow to react then it's time to water as healthy, moisture rich grass will always spring back into place.

Leaf rolling and tinting - when grass becomes dehydrated the blades begin to curl and roll which is atell-tale sign and also you might find a slightly blue-ish purple tinge to the leaves in many types of lawn when lack of moisture is evident. Again, time to water.

If you can, it is best to water early in the morning, when the sun is weakest to reduce evaporation or late in the afternoon for the same reason. Mid-day watering should be avoided and it is best to avoid watering over night as soggy grass left overnight can increase the risk of turf disease. Do not over-water either, ensure if you use a sprinkler or hoze you do actually move it around your garden rather than letting big puddles form while other areas of the lawn go untouched. Too much standing water can prevent oxygen reaching the roots and lead to the same symptoms (leaf rolling) as a lack of water.

Lawnmowers and Mowing

You are not Tonto so don't scalp it! The key to mowing a lawn well is to ensure your mower blades are sharp and to mow only down to a level recommended for the type of grass you have. If you do not know what type the grass is then simple do not cut it too short. Buzzing away down to root level isn't going to help and cutting too low on a regular basis is the easiest way to do fast, lasting damage to your lawn.

Never cut grass when it is wet and if your lawn if particulrly overgrown then take a couple of passes to mow it back to the level you want rather than setting the blades low and tearing through the undergrowth. You may rake the clippings away if you desire, but these do not automatically turn to thatch and can be left as an extra nutrient if you desire. Mulching lawnmowers will cut these clipping up very small so they fall between the blades of grass negating the need to raking afterwards.

Choosing the right kind of lawn mower will give you the best results. If you want the very best cut, with those stripes you see on professional bowling greens etc. then aim for a cylinder mower, or a rotary mower with a back roller for a cheap alternative. If you have lots of pits and undulations then a hover mower should glide over these whereas other mowers might 'dig in' and cut a chunk out of the earth.

Letting Your Lawn Breath

Grass is a living thing and like all living things (well most anyway) it needs to breath if it going to thrive. Aeration of your lawn is therefore important as it allows water, air and fertiliser to reach the roots more easily and improve drainage. If you are regularly using your gardem, which will be especially true during the summer months, then your soil is likely to become compacted making it harder for roots to penetrate the soil and for the aforementioned air, water and fertiliser to reach down to them.

You can help out with in a very simple way. Take a garden fork and drive it into your lawn at regular intervals as this will break decompact your soil. For more effective aeration or for larger lawn areas you can buy specialised lawn aeration tools which will make short work of the job driving in spikes or taking cores of soil out of the lawn like an apple corer.

Scarifiers and Dethatching

Tatch is a combination of dead a decaying organic matter which collects around the base and roots of you lawn throughout the year. It comprises things like dead grass, leaves, twigs etc. and without removal can prevent air, water and fertiliser from reaching the roots of your lawn. Scarifying or raking over your lawn is an essential part of a good spring and autumn lawn maintenance routine. Scarification improves the drainage and allows more air and water to penetrate to the roots as well as lowering the risk of lawn disease. Before scarifying a lawn you should ensure there are no moss growths as this will only help to spread the moss around, kill the moss first, then scarify. Scarifying a lawn can be done by hand by raking on small gardens whilst larger lawns might require a power lawn scarifier machine which can be bought or hired for the purpose.

Article copyright Mark Falco, webmaster of ukgardeningsupplies.co.uk where you can find lawn care and gardening equipment including lawnmowers, scarifiers, garden tools and lawn care accessories available for UK delivery.

Buy Spreaders Online

For spreading fertiliser, grass seed and other lawn treatments you can either do it the hard, inefficient way by hand, or pay out a little on a specialist fertiliser spreader. Spreaders come in a couple of basic types and are a vastly more efficient and safer way of fertilising a lawn area especially if your garden is on the larger side although equally good for smaller gardens.

Drop Spreaders

For smaller or more accurate results, fertilizer drop spreaders are the recommended solution. These drop the fertiliser or lawn seed straight down under the spreader machine as you wheel it along allowing for accurate placement. As the fertiliser drops down in a width equal to the width of the hopper, you do need to be careful about achieving a full coverage and as failure to do so can lead to a striped effect. Most models will allow you to adjust the volume of product dispensed as you walk in accordance with your fertiliser manufacturer's guidelines.

Broadcast Spreaders

Also know as rotary spreaders, these use a spinning disc underneath the hopper to fling seeds and fertiliser out in a fan shape around the spreader as you wheel it along. Broadcast spreaders are ideal for covering large areas in short times but are obviously lesss accurate and you need to ensure you make several passes to ensure good coverage of an area. Due to the 'flinging' action you may find you need more control by using a drop spreader if you are working on an area close to somewhere you wouldn't want to be throwing fertiliser (like the street or a neightbour's garden).

Which Spreader Is Best

If you have a small area or require more control over where the spreader deposits its payload then opt for a drop spreader. A broadcast spreader is also not very good at handling denser materials like mulch and compost which are also better suited to drop spreader use. For very small area like flower beds, a crank operated handheld broadcast spreader is best suited whilst if you have a large area to cover then a broadcast spreader is definitely recommended.

Spreader Care and Maintenance

After finishing with the spreader, whichever type you choose, you are well advised to give it a good clean to ensure it remains in tip top condition for the next time it is needed. Fertilisers and pesticides have corrosive properties which will damage the metal parts of your spreader if left unchecked. Be sure to follow your manufacturer's cleaning instructions after every use.

By Mark Falco For UK Gardening Supplies

If you have a lawn then it will need mowing. It's a fact of life and choosing the right lawnmower for your needs is critical to saving you time, money and most of all effort.

Thing To Consider

Chosing a mower is often a simple case of looking at the size and complexity of your lawn area. There are a number of different styles of lawn mower out there and what you choose will be mostly governed by how big and how complicated your garden is.

You first step is to choose between the two main types of mower which is a straight choice between an electric or petrol driven mower.

Electric or Petrol Mower?

Electric mowers plug into your main powers supply like any other appliance. They are typically cheaper than petrol driven mowers, are lighter, smaller and therefore easier to move around and store. The chief downside is the electric cable which is typically less than 20 metres in length but can of course be boosted with an extension cable if you need to. You also need to ensure that cable stays away from the cutting blades so if you are someone who knows they are liable to zone out whilst mowing and run over the cable then perhaps electric is not the best choice as this can be dangerous.

If you have a small, uncluttered garden then you can probably get away with an electric mower and save yourself a few bucks. If it is large or filled with shrubs and statues then the cable will either not be long enough or become frequently tangled making mowing your lawn more of a chore than it need be and you should look at a gas driven mower instead. Petrol powered lawnmowers generally offer a wider choice of 'types' of mower as well including the tractor style ride-on mowers which are great for mowing larger green areas. These are hower noisier than electric mowers and the exhaust fumes make them a less environmentally friendly option.

Types Of Lawn Mower

Now you have decided whether a petrol or electric lawnmower is best suited to your needs, there is a further decision to make. Choosing the style of lawnmower for your needs is generally determined by what kind of cut you want, weight and physiology of your lawn.

Hover Mowers

This type of mower rides on a cushion of air making them easier to push around the garden when in use. More typically electric than petrol driven, hover mowers are also good for dealing with uneven lawns and slight undulations in a lawn where other mowers may chop into the ground, these simply ride over many small bumps. Blades vary from metal, plastic or nylon strips or wires, and they give a pretty good cut for the average home lawn, but not that professional look that cylinder or some rotary mowers can give. In additional, hover mowers tend to throw clippings about meaning you will need to rake afterwards, even with those which come with collecting boxes as these only lessen the amount of clippings needing to be collected after mowing as opposed to removing the problem entirely. Hover mowers can be quite cumbersome to move around when not in use as they have no wheels but shop around and some are starting to come with small wheels at the front to help counter this.

Rotary Mowers

These use a high speed rotating blade like a helicopter and are a good choice for the average gardener who occassionally lets his lawn get a little over-grown, has patches of rough grass etc. as they take both in their stride, slashing away at these without a problem. Blades can be metal, plastic or nylon cords although the latter two tend to break quite easily when they come into contact with twigs and stones so if your garden is prone to foreign objects like twigs burying themselves amongst the grass, it is perhaps advisable to opt for the metal blades which typically come with petrol driven rotary mowers. In maintenance terms, rotary mowers have an extra advantage as it is easy to sharpen the blade yourself rather than having to take the mower somewhere to get this done. Some rotary mowers also come with a roller attachment which helps give that professional finish given by cylinder mowers.

Cylinder Mowers

For a high quality cut you can beat a good cylinder mower. These use a rotating cylinder of blades which cut against a bottom blade giving a uniform scissor-like action and an even cutting length across your lawn. Rear rollers give your lawn that striped effect you see on professionally cut lawn areas like newly prepared grass tennis courts etc. These can be quite heavy as the roller itself is a weighty attachment but for a finely manicured lawn, cylinder mowers are best.

Ride-On Mowers

The ultimate in big boys toys! Ride-on mowers are as fun as they look and a must for larger size lawns over say, 1000 square metres. If your lawn area is particularly complicated, with lots of inset flower beds, shrubs and ornaments then these may not be quite such an ideal solution, although they do make easy work of borders as you can usually ofset the blades so they extend to the side slightly so you do not have to balance on the edge to cut close to the edges. Resembling mini-tractors these are large, often expensive pieces of kit typically running into the four figure price bracket so secure storage is a must if you buy one of these.

Robot Mowers

The ultimate in lazy gardening are the new breed of robotic lawnmowers. Robomowers are battery powered little beasties which will happily mow your lawn whilst you sit back and catch a few rays on your sun lounger. An intelligent array of sensors prevent the mower from diving into your swimming pool, giving the cat a haircut or taking itself off down the street and the more advanced can be programmed to come out and mow at set times without any intervention from you. Sounds brilliant? Well there are a few considerations, for example the battery packs only allow the mower to perform for a certain number of hours before it needs recharging and they are not suitable for larger gardens. Equally, they do not perform well on steep gradients or with long or rough grass and do take a lot longer than humans to mow the same lawn area. For smaller, simple, flat gardens however, one of these could be the perfect solution for the less greenfingered gardener or gadget lover out there. Check the battery lifespan and recommendations before making a purchase as these vary between models.

Other Things To Consider

Some other general pointers to consider before making a purchase include:

Weight: How heavy is the lawnmower? Does it have wheels, or self-propulsion to counter this or do you need bulging biceps to push the machine around!

Storage Space: Some mowers have collapsable handles and other space saving features which are a bonus if you are short on storage space. Another consideration again is the weight of the machine if you have to store it up stairs or carry it to your garden.

Clippings: If the idea of raking these up after mowing sounds like more hassle you do not want to deal with then there are other options. Mulching mowers cut clippings up very fine and return them to the lawn giving back extra moisture and nutrients to feed your lawn. Other mowers may come with a collecting box which catches a lot of the clippings for later disposal.

Happy mowing!

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Mark Falco is the owner of the British gardening shopping guide http://www.ukgardeningsupplies.co.uk/ where you can find Cheap Lawn Mowers as well as other gardening equipment, plants and accessories available from top UK shops and garden stores online.