There are several things that can be done to help, including properly preparing your lawn during the spring, by feeding, aerating, and generally helping the grass gross strong roots. Its is also important not to mow your lawn too short. A slightly longer lawn will help trap whatever moisture there it.

Most importantly, and perhaps most obviously is to water your lawn. During periods of hot and dry weather (and especially if you have recently seeded) we recommend watering every day. The best solution to do this, is to use a sprinker, or install an irrigation system, which typically will embed sprinkler heads within or close to the lawn.

We’ve just started working with an irrigation company which offers systems that do just that. We’ve seen them in action and they are very good. Typically they install “intelligent” computer controller irrigation i.e. its works on a system but responds to existing water levels.

We’re also particularly impressed by their solution to the enviromental concerns surrounding use of water in your garden – they can use “grey water” (recyled from other domestic uses) or even rainwater (stored in underground tanks).

If you are interested please give us a call in the office and we can point you in the right direction 0800 0612606 or visit Watermatic Ltd (mention you found them through us and we can liase with them on the right system).

To keep your lawn looking green and healthy, the trick with watering lawns is always to give the lawn a good soaking when you do it. You need to allow the water to penetrate down into the soil and encourage deeper roots so if it has been dry for a little while you will need to run the sprinkler for quite some time. It is always best to water in the evening or during the night if you have a controllable irrigation system installed.

Grass plants are in fact amazingly resilient and simply go yellow and dormant waiting for enough water to start growing again. Encouragingly, even after the terrible drought in 2006 (and the hose pipe ban) lawns did green up as soon as the heavens helped us out with some proper rain, but they develop thatch which is the yellow colour that you see in drought conditions, and look a little scruffy whilst they are in their recovery phase.

During the autumn season, we like to scarify the lawns that we look after which have been badly damaged by drought and then do a little over seeding where the plants look like they are going to struggle to recover.

Top Tip: Watering little and often is not good for the lawn as this makes the plants think that water will be readily available and so encourages shallow roots.