If not treated this can cause long term damage and mean a lot of recovery work in the Spring.

Do get in touch and book a fungicide treatment if you’re concerned on  020 8417 1752

The Winterisation treatment is a specially blended formulation of Iron and Seaweed that attacks moss as well as providing superb micro nutrients for the turf during the winter months. It promotes root strength rather than top growth so no extra mowing will be involved above that which you would normally be contemplating.

If your lawn is looking a little unhappy over the winter months then we can gladly find you a slot in the diary for this treatment.

This autumn we seem to be experiencing a lot of grub activity in our lawns.  It’s impossible to tell if you have an infestation just by looking at the grass – the grubs live amongst the roots. The easiest way to tell is from animal damage, this either comes in the form of:

1. Birds (generally large strong birds like crows) pecking at the lawn repeatedly so that little tufts of grass are lifted out and discarded all over the lawn.

2. A large amount of small holes dug to a depth of about 1-2 inches by foxes (Yes, foxes are omnivores and they eats grubs as well!)

3. If you’re really unlucky you will have badger damage where the animals peel back the turf in large patches to access the grubs underneath.

The two most common lawn grubs are chafergrubs and leatherjackets (pictured in that order):

These are in turn crane fly larvae or chafer beetle larvae. Unfortunately, these animals are creatures of habit and once they have decided that they like your lawn the problem will return as they will lay eggs in their own breeding ground.

We do however have some very effective treatments that have a long lasting effect, so if you are in our area then just give us a call if you are at all worried and I will be happy to come and have a look.

The infected plants will largely lose any green colour leaving you with yellowing patches on the lawn.The sward will also have a rather red appearance to both stem and leaf. At the height of its attack, little bright pink ‘balls’ are formed and these are very recognisable – like tiny patches of candy floss.

This disease should improve with the addition of nitrogen, but can spread very easily and quickly but a very effective fungicide treatment is available which should suppress the disease and its symptoms within a few days. Of course, if you’re in our area give us a call and we will come as quickly as we can and apply an appropriate treatment for you.

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.

For london lawn care this is a very busy time of year. Not only do we have lots of remedial work to do on lawns damaged over the winter, but we also start the process of setting the lawns up for the rest of the year.

You will know if this disease is present by orange/brown circular patches which will appear on your lawn. As it spreads the patches become larger and more irregular in shape. As the disease matures these patches can have brown edges with yellowing off in the middle. Prolonged humidity (even when cold) can produce sparse white or pink mycelium – these looks a little like small snatches of candy floss.

Although usually found in the Autumn as it favours warm, humid conditions, Fusarium Patch can also appear in spring after there has been snow lying on the lawn for some lengthy period. The disease can spread and take hold under cover of a snow blanket – hence the common name ‘Snow Mould’.
It normally subsides a little as the air temperature warms up and lawns dry out. As with all diseases, it is much easier to prevent than to cure and proper lawn care and maintenance is the answer.

Key to maintaining a healthy lawn is a fertilisation programme to ensure the lawn does not get stressed due to a lack of nutrients, making it vulnerable to attack. In some cases a fungicide treatment can prevent susceptible lawns and/or help stem the tide if the disease is caught early.

If after the recent snow fall you can see evidence of this disease the following steps are a good start:

• Do not walk on lawn when covered with snow and try to minimise traffic until the lawn is dryer.
• Rake out dead grass plants as the weather warms up.
• Re-seed patches that have been infected in Spring.

Or of course if you’re in london give us a call we’d be happy to come and have a look for you and give you bespoke advice for your lawn.

What are the repercussions for your lawn?

Under the snow, the grass does not completely stop growing but slows to an extent where the metabolism of the grass plant is barely moving.

Unfortunately it is common for turf grasses to develop diseases such as Fusarium Patch under the snow blanket where it is quite warm and disease pathogens can be incubated and encouraged to spread. Read my post on Fusarium for more info.

The best thing that you can do at this point to protect your grass from snow damage is to allow only the minimum amount of traffic over the lawn. The lawn will contain differing levels of frost, so walking on the surface will cause the layers to shift and create a shearing action causing the roots to break resulting in weakened plants this spring.

As the frost dissipates, the upper surface may lift slightly – known as heave. If you don’t have a roller on the back of your mower it might be an idea to give the lawn a gentle roll in the spring (trying not to compact the soil particles too much) if things don’t settle down between now and then.

Of course once air temperatures rise all of this extra moisture is likely to make the upper surface of the lawn soggy – just another reason to keep off the grass as much as possible to avoid compaction. Not good news for small footballers I’m afraid!

MOSS

We have found that due to a horrible wet August, a lot of our lawns are looking pretty mossy this year; unlike weeds, moss cannot be completely killed off as spores live on post treatment. Therefore even if we have done our best to rid our lawns of a moss infestation this autumn you may see it rearing its ugly head again. If this is the case we would recommend a moss control this winter to retard any growth now,  making the spring task of getting your lawn back in shape much easier (and less costly!).

COMPACTION

Moss thrives on lawns which are suffering from compaction meaning that as a result of poor drainage, water sits on or near to the surface. By aerating you loosen the soil which allows the water to drain away with greater ease and permitting better oxygenation of the root zone.

We are spiking lawns that could benefit from some extra aeration this winter. If your lawn is very soggy after rain or you have worn areas due to use (paths to sheds, areas used frequently for garden games etc) then spiking could really make a difference in preparation for a lovely lawn next spring.

LEAF FALL

With the recent cold weather the trees are shedding their final leaves. Make sure you remove the leaves as soon as you can as they encourage worm activity on the surface, shut out the light and oxygen and will generally be deleterious to the health of your lawn. Be warned: piles of leaves left on lawn for any length of time will kill off the grass underneath!

MOWING

Oh yes, and don’t forget to get out there on a dry afternoon and give your lawn at least one haircut this month!

A word of warning, however: walking on frozen grass will crush the cells inside the leaf (as they are mostly water and therefore hard and brittle when frozen), which will damage the plant – so please keep off your lawns as much possible until the frost has gone.