With the summer season fast approaching (despite the miserable weather outside) now is the time to distinguish what type of lawn you have so that you can take the necessary steps towards acquiring your perfect summer garden.
There are four types of lawn that you could have:
- The Luxury Grade First Rate Lawn
- The Utility Grade First Rate Lawn
- The Second Rate Lawn
- The Worn Out Lawn
Take a good look around your garden and complete the flow chart below to find out which applies to you:
The Luxury Grade First Rate Lawn:
This type of lawn could not be mistaken. It has a velvety, bowling green appearance and is admired by all. The turf is composed of fine leaved compact grasses and is kept regularly mown at carpet-pile height. This prevents the more coarser grasses from swamping the fine-leaved varieties and over-taking them. This type of lawn is perfect for being close by the house for all to see, but for very few to walk over. Despite this lawn being a complete thing of beauty, of course it has some draw-backs. A luxury grade lawn can’t withstand hard-wear such as children playing, or its owner wandering up and down day in, day out. You must also be an incredibly dedicated gardener and be prepared for a regular routine of lawn care management. It is also more expensive than other lawns, due to the specific seeds and turfs required for such outstanding results. If you’re starting a new luxury lawn from scratch then it can be a very long and laborious process as the grasses and seeds needed can be very slow-growing. Careful site preparation before seeding and turfing is also essential. If there are any small bumps or ridges in the lawn that are usually unnoticeable in a utility lawn, they will be extremely visible in a luxury lawn.
The Utility Grade First Rate Lawn:
If you want a lawn which is for living on, rather than just admiring, then this is the type for you. This is perfect for children to play on and for adults to use as an outside living area. The utility grade lawn is able to withstand moderate neglect and small amounts of bad management without serious effects. Poor quality mowing of this type of turf could result in areas looking unsightly, however on a luxury grade lawn it would make areas of turf look as if it had been stripped bare. A lot of the native coarse grasses are easily hidden in this type of lawn, but in a luxury lawn they would stand out as unappealing weeds. A big advantage of the utility grade lawn is that the cost of seed is a lot less than that of a luxury lawn, and it establishes itself in the new lawn a lot more quickly and easily. As before, there are of course some disadvantages such as how quickly the grass will grow in the spring and summer, requiring very frequent mowing. It is also lacking the velvety look and feel that the luxury grade lawn sports, however if you use a good cylinder or roller mower than you can create a classic striped effect to make up for it.
The Second Rate Lawn:
The majority of lawns in this country are second rate lawns. It is inevitable that one of more garden troubles will be present, such as algae, brown or bare patches, weeds, daisies, moss, toadstools, mole hills or water-logging. However, there should still be a reasonable amount of desirable turf grasses visible. If you are wanting to turn this type of turf into a first rate lawn, then you must first discover what it is that makes your lawn a second rate lawn. This will allow you to be able to make the correct cure, and follow the specific procedures to make sure that the problem won’t return. When trying to upgrade your lawn, careful attention must be paid to site preparation, drainage and the selection of turf or seed. Neglect is the most common cause of a second rate lawn. Failure to feed, water, or weed are all causes of lawn decline. Along with neglected mowing and over-close mowing. Too much of the wrong treatment can be just as harmful as too little of the right one.Things such as liming when it isn’t necessary and over-feeding in autumn or over-use of a heavy roller mower can all damage a lawn. The second rate lawn can generally be brought back into first rate condition because the essential ingredient of a good distribution of turf grasses, is still present. All you have to do is establish the cause and provide the remedy. This could be a very simple process and be a single treatment, or it could be quite time consuming and mean you have to follow a lengthy lawn care plan.
Worn Out Lawn:
This type of lawn is easily distinguished from the other types mentioned. It can often be found in parks, paths, or if you are unfortunate enough, your back garden! The desirable grasses that are mentioned in the other types of lawn are not present in the worn out lawn. There may be a sparse covering, isolated patches, or just none whatsoever. The lawn grasses have been taken over by moss, coarse grass, broad-leaved weeds or just bare earth. If the whole area is in this worn out condition and you want to upgrade, then the only option is to clear the whole site and start again. In a lot of cases it is only one area that is worn out, which means you can clear away the top growth and use the reclamation technique for bare areas. If the worn out area is large and you want to avoid creating an extensive bare patch you could try the technique of applying micronised lawn sand and moss control in late spring and raking away all of the moss and re-seeding. Re-making or re-patching the worn out lawn is not the only answer though. The original cause of the worn out lawn must first be found, and the cure should be applied to avoid it happening again.
Over the next few weeks we will be posting a variety of blogs with some essential lawn care tips for the different types of lawns, so keep checking back for more information and gardening tips.
If you’re uncertain about anything, or would like further details, then call our highly experienced sales team now on 01263 820202 for helpful, friendly advice.
