Repair Your Lawn

Those glaring bare or thin spots: how to fix them

Your lawn looks great - everywhere, that is, except for one little bare patch by the patio. Oh, and that one by the tree... and the little one next to the driveway. Even perfect lawns aren’t always perfect. Small areas seem to defy your best efforts to grow grass there. If you have some persistent bare or thin areas in your lawn, this is the ideal time to tackle the problem.

Find out what’s causing the problem

There’s always a reason for bare or thin spots, the trouble is, they’re not always obvious. It helps to do a little detective work. Does the soil drain well in the bare spot? Do dogs leave their calling cards there? Maybe you have an insect problem, lawn disease, or too much shade. Is the grass you’re planting suited to your conditions? Your lawnmower could be ‘scalping’ your lawn with a low setting. Bare spots could be the result of any of these, but the first thing to check is how you feed and water your lawn.

Repair the bare

Fortunately, it’s easy to fix most bare spots. Spike the damaged area with a garden fork to allow water to drain through and air to get to the root. Spread a little soil, such as EverGreen Enriched Lawn Soil, over the area and apply a quality grass seed. EverGreen also make a convenient Lawn Reviver pack and Lawn Repair Kit, these contain both the seed and feed in a single application.

If it’s too far gone, consider renovating

If a patch of your lawn only grows weeds or unsightly grass, you may want to start over from scratch. Spray the area with a weedkiller like Roundup GC. Once all the grass has turned brown, rake out and treat the whole area in the same way as repairing a bare patch.

If your bare spot is the entire lawn, over-seed

It happens: your nice, green lawn looks a little threadbare all over. Take a look to see what’s causing the problem. If your lawn has a lot of thatch, you may need to rake this out or hire a scarifying machine. Going over your lawn with one of those gives new seeds a chance to take root, and it helps the grass you have get more water and nutrients.

You also may need to add a thin layer of topsoil, this will help the existing grass to produce thicker healthier roots. Spiking will aid drainage and increase air to the root zone, however, this may not be practical over larger areas and you might need to hire a special aerating machine.

Apply a layer of quality grass seed over the entire lawn and then all you have to do is keep it moist, which is why now is a perfect time of year to seed grass. In a few short weeks your lawn will look rejuvenated and revived.

Make it routine: feed regularly

Give your lawn the nutrients it needs by feeding regularly with either a granular or liquid lawn feed. This will ensure it grows thick and stay looking great all season long.

Make Your Own Compost

Why buy bags of compost when you can grow your own? Leaves, grass clippings, and other garden waste can be used to create nutrient-rich compost. After all, composing is nature’s way to replenish soil and feed plants. Follow these simple steps for making compost the easy.

Build it in a bin

Putting your compost pile in a container keeps it neat and tidy. Besides, the material decomposes faster. There many containers available at your garden center, or you can build your own.

Your recipe for great compost

The ingredients you need for composting are easy to find. Grass clippings, leaves, weeds, straw and wood chips work great. You can even throw in banana peels, vegetable scraps, used coffee and filters, tea bags, and even egg shells. Just don’t add animal waste, since it will smell awful and possibly contribute harmful bacteria.

How to build your compost pile

Think of your compost pile as a sort of layer cake. You might start with a layer of coarse mater, such hedge cuttings and twigs, cut up or chipped into smaller pieces. Next, try an equal layer of leaves or weeds.

Spray what you have so far with water to dampen it, as moisture speeds along the decomposition, then you can top it off with some grass clippings. As the season progresses, keep adding on layers as space permits.

Helping the process

As you layer your compost pile, you can add a sprinkling of Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Compost Maker granules. This contains nitrogen that stimulates the growth of micro-organisms and thus the composting process. The more microbes you have, the faster your pile breaks down.

Pour it on

Your compost is ready when it appears dark and crumbly. It will have a rich earthy smell. Work it into your garden soil with a shovel or rake - your plants will thank you for it.

Maintenance

With compost piles, the hot spots are in the center, and that’s where the decomposition takes place. Keep turning the material, and make sure it stays as moist as a damp sponge. Keep adding material, and you’ll keep your compost production running.

Grow Your Own Strawberries

Growing healthy, organic strawberries isn’t rocket science. If you’ve ever bitten into a juicy homegrown strawberry straight from the garden, you know there’s nothing else quite like it. Even so, some would-be gardeners think they’re too difficult to grow. In fact, growing your very own strawberries is easy if you follow a few steps.

Where to grow?

You don’t need space for a small farm to grow delicious strawberries. All it takes is a bright sunny spot where you can put a Levington Organic Blend Strawberry Giant Planter and you’re on your way. Place it near your kitchen door and you can just step out and pick garden-fresh strawberries whenever you like.

When to grow?

Now is the perfect time to visit your local garden centre to buy your young strawberry plants. These are usually available in small pots so you can ‘pick ‘n mix’ your varieties... but remember each planter will need 6 plants for a bumper crop. Make sure you pick plants with plenty of healthy green leaves that are fairly compact and not too leggy.

5 to try

Strawberries come in all different shapes, sizes and flavours. Here’s our favourite 5 to help you pick the right variety for you:

1. ‘Honeoye’ full flavoured goods cropping early fruiting, pick in early June
2. ‘Cambridge Favourite’ A mid June cropper with good fruit size, disease resistance
3. ‘Elsanta’ this is the most widely grown commercial variety high yield and large fruit
4. ‘Hapil’ produces large juicy strawberries and grows well in planters and containers
5. ‘Irresistable’ an ever bearing variety that can fruit continuously from July to September

Planting out

Shake planter to distribute contents evenly and pierce drainage holes in the bottom. Cut 6 planting holes and insert the young plants to the same depth as they were grown in their pots (Warning: planting too deep can cause them to rot off).

Watering in

After planting water in thoroughly and continue to water regularly for the next few weeks until plants become established.

Make a Raised Vegetable Plot

Nothing matches the taste of vegetables harvested fresh from your own garden. They’re delicious to eat and fun to watch as they grow. But don’t be put off if you haven’t got a massive garden, you can grow loads of succulent vegetables in pots, containers and window boxes. Here we show you how to create a raised vegetable bed.

Why grow in beds?

‘Bed systems’ provide easy access to crops and a very effective solution if your soil is poor. They look tidy and you’ll be amazed by the amount of vegetables even a small raised bed can produce.

What are they made of?

The great thing about raised beds it that they can be made out of almost anything. You can buy them as kits but we’d recommend recycling something like old floor-boards, wooden pallets, concrete blocks or even builders planks.

Size isn’t everything!

The most practical width is about 120cm (4ft) as this will allow you to reach over from either side without walking on the soil, also avoid making it too long as it can become tedious walking all the way around to get to the other-side. A height of around 15cm is ideal to make a nice deep root zone. Maybe try starting off with 1m x 1m beds and adding to these over the season if you have space.

Location is key

Picking the right place to start is vital when planning your vegetable garden. Vegetables are sun-worshippers, and love sunny, open spaces in order to thrive. Look for a spot that provides at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day... more would be even better.

Choosing your vegetables

What kind of garden you make depends on what you like to eat. Are salads big in your family? Or is your household full of corn-on-the-cob connoisseurs? Decide on your must-have vegetables, then consider your space. When you’re satisfied that you have enough room for the vegetables you want, you’re ready to get started. One note: try to avoid planting more than your family can eat!

What Vegetable can you be growing now?

The following vegetables can be grown during April:

• Carrots
• Onions, Shallots, Garlic
• Early Potatoes
• Courgette and Squash
• Beetroot
• Leeks
• Parsnips

Grow Your Own Vegetables

Carrots

Carrots can now be sown outside into shallow drills (about 1cm deep and 15cm between rows). The seed is very small but it’s a good idea to plant them as thinly as possible as this will prevent the need to thin later. It can be difficult to sow thinly, so a handy tip is to add a handful of sharp sand and sow the sand seed mix. Lightly cover with soil and leave to grow. It’s that easy!

Onions, Shallots, Garlic

The easiest way to grow these crops are from ‘sets’. Sets are smaller versions of the mature bulb, they are planted out now and increase in size until they are ready to harvest. Generally, growing from sets is easier and more reliable than from seed and should give a better yield. Push onion and shallot sets into the soil so the tips are just showing on the surface, the rows should be about 10cm apart. Garlic is grown in the same way except the bulbs are push into the soil about 5cm deep.

Early potatoes

Now is the time to get ‘chitting’. Chitting means encouraging the seed potatoes to sprout before you plant them. Stand the tubers with the blunt end up in trays or old egg boxes, and make sure you pick a spot which is dry and has plenty of natural light. In about 6 weeks the shoots will be about 2cm long and ready to be planted out.

Courgette and Squash

Fill a small pot with compost and insert 1 seed into each pot about 3cm deep. Cover the seed and water thoroughly before placing on a sunny windowsill. A handy tip is to plant the seed on its side, this way you can be 100% sure you haven’t planted upside down!

Beetroot

Homegrown Beetroot are fantastically sweet and what’s even better, one of the easiest vegetables to grow. Simply make a 2cm trench using the back of a rake and drop in a seed every 10cm. Loosely back fill the soil and wait for them to grow. To ensure a fresh supply of the smallest sweetest beetroot, repeat sow every month.

Leeks

You can take the easy option and buy ready-grown seedlings to plant out between May-June, but they’re easy to grow from seed now straight into your veg plot. Make a shallow groove with the back of a rake (about 1cm), thinly sprinkle the seeds and cover with soil. In about 4 weeks you’ll see the grass like leaves pop above the soil, but be careful not to mistake these for grass weeds and pull the whole lot up!

Parsnips

Many people are put off growing this crop because they take quite some time before they’re ready to eat, but it’s well worth the wait to have home grown parsnips with your Christmas Lunch! The soil temperature is just starting to warm up now so it’s the best time to sow directly outside. Sow 3 seeds together in shallow rows (about 1cm deep) every 15cm. Cover with soil and wait around 4 weeks for them to start growing. The reason you sow 3 seeds together is to avoid gaps in the row, simple prick out 2 seedlings to leave the healthiest one. Parsnip don’t transplant very well so it’s best to compost these thinnings.