Landscape and horticulture expert

Support in Sport clinches Champions League final spot

Whilst the Wembley pitch continues to cause concern for English football fans, there will be no such worries for the Russians after they called in Support in Sport to re-turf the Luzhniki Stadium pitch in time for the Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea on the 21st May.

However, despite the consideration that the UK climate is ideal for growing grass, the turf, which had been grown in Slovakia, was transported via refrigerated lorry and laid in time for the final.

The Lawn Society launches interactive network

If you wanted to find information on gardening in the United Kingdom you will be spoilt for choice if you searched through one of the major search engines.

The internet has become saturated with gardening blogs and older less dynamic sites, but if you wanted to locate a resource that is dedicated to maintaining lawns, you would be hard pushed.

Lawn weed and feed applications

I hope you don't mind, but I am digging into the archives again to bring you one of my lawn advice tips that could save you a lot of time and maybe even prevent you killing your lawn.

This time of year, lawn owners will be scurrying to the garden center, intent on coming away with bags of weed and feed to create lawns that resemble Wimbledon.

How to balance your rotary lawn mower blade when sharpening

If you are like me you try and do as much of your own machinery maintenance as you can.

I do concede and get in an expert if the job is a major one because it is usually my luck to put something back together and find that I have five screws left without five holes visible meaning they were supposed to be inside somewhere.

The dangers of buying turf without seeing it first

Did you know that if you were looking to buy turf for your garden, you have the right to inspect it in the field? I would also advise you to inspect the turf rolls, at random, whilst they are still on the delivery lorry.

This is what the client of a well know turf supplier had probably wished he had done after collecting over two hundred Leatherjacket grubs from twenty square metres of turf that were delivered to him last weekend.

Spiking your lawn will bring long term results

Have you ever been into a photographic shop and bought a new camera and gone on to add a few filters, a handy storage bag and maybe a tripod or perhaps some editing software and then find, these accessories go on to lay in the cupboard for years and never used? The same can be said for ride on tractor accessories.

Beware, Fusarium could be lurking this weekend

Due to a rise in soil temperatures, coupled with further rainfall this weekend, the Greencast website is showing a severe risk to lawns from Fusarium attack.

Turf managers are being urged to take preventative action which usually means, especially on a golf course or bowling green, to apply a preventative/curative systemic fungicide.

If you are keen on your lawn, the Greencast website holds some valuable information that could be very useful in the management of your home lawn. This extensive article on turf disease management from March was written with the turf industry managers in mind but it is worth any amateur gardener reading and taking it on board.

Lawn edging under the gaze of 'le Château de Duras'

Does anyone believe in coincidence?

Having just covered the the Everedge lawn edging here on Landscape Juice, I got a call from Alex at
Everedge to say that they have a customer in France who is just 45 minutes from me and in the middle of installing their product.

Alex told me that the installation was taking place in Duras and invited me to contact their client direct to discuss a possible visit to see Everedge in situ.

I did indeed call and had a pleasant conversation with the owner of the house and learnt, to my astonishment, that the house was attached to the historic Château de Duras overlooking the Dropt Valley.

Everedge - the 'Forever' edge

How many of you are in the throws or planning to lay a new lawn this Spring?

Getting lawn preparation right is not an easy task and getting your lawn edging to not only do a job, but also look stylish, is even harder.

Constructing a brick edge is very labour intensive and quite costly. It also involves a fair bit of experience, if the desire to create an eye catcher, is your goal.

Everedge is that great alternative solution that is not really an alternative but more than quite acceptable as the 'first' choice.

The Wembley pitch comes through

It was a pleasing night all round for both the English football team and of course, from an industry professional and fans perspective, the pitch played a blinder too.

The pitch has recently been relaid - after the American football fiasco - and to everyone's delight stayed the course.

Identifying Leatherjacket damage on the lawn

Be afraid....be very afraid! I bet that got your attention, not!

No seriously, you may want to pop outside and check your lawn for signs of Leatherjacket Larvae - Tipula paludosa. They will be active in the lawn chomping at the grass roots, and boy can they chomp.