The Lawn Association Partners with The University of Oxford to Lead the Way in Sustainable Lawn Care The Lawn Association proudly announces its ground-breaking collaboration with the world-renowned University of Oxford to spearhead a new venture in sustainable lawn care. Lauded for their meticulously manicured lawns, University of Oxford have long been admired by visitors worldwide. Now, with sustainability at the forefront of environmental concerns, these prestigious institutions are turning to The Lawn Association to chart the future of eco-friendly lawn maintenance. David Hedges-Gower, C ..read more

Choosing what is going to give you the best lawn possible this summer means you need good sensible planning NOW. Here are just a few tips to get down in your diary. Best tip possible is to think about how you improve your soils and what have you done to enhance them recently? Grasses are plants and making soils work is the most important aspect you need to think about.  In fact, thinking about grass like your other plants will help you think about what we may be doing wrong. Does it have adequate air, light, water, food?  Does it hold too much water?  Is it hungry looking ..read more

The Lawn Association team have always advised keeping to the use of native grasses when it comes to good lawn care…but why?  Choosing non native grasses means you may be in for harder work than you think! Nature knows best What grows in your lawn is a great indicator of what likes to grow in your lawn. So, identifying what likes to grow will be crucial and no grasses like to grow as much in the UK as native grasses! Our two main native grasses (bent and fescue) are given to us by nature so making those two a choice for your lawn is essential. Our lawns are mainly made up of ..read more

If you think feeding your lawn once a year as often touted by TV celebrity gardener’s, you would be wrong.  Like any plant, lawns benefit from a feed but on a far more regular basis, but its also a complete myth that you must feed a lawn in Autumn, with something that is called an ‘autumn feed. Well now we have cut through all that mythology and here are all the facts that you need to know.   How time has come up for the four in one marketing lawn feed. Ever been into a garden centre and been a little confused by some of the terminology?  ‘Lawn Thickener’ or ‘Extreme Green’ a ..read more

Most Spring lawn tips are much the norm about now but what is key is being aware that the sooner you get them done, the sooner you will have a nice lawn FOR Spring. Spring is last chance for a while to get the foundation right.  So, get out and hollow tine aerate your lawn now.  Aeration often takes many weeks for your soils to react to what has been done and the later you leave this job, the more chance of it being too dry. Pruning is a term used in gardening but rarely on lawns.  But scarifying the lawn is one way we make our lawns thicker.  You see, native grasses gro ..read more

Perhaps Defra has shares in the oil industry? That at least would help to explain its complete failure to address the plastic grass debate by providing honest information and education to the public. Here’s the problem. Due to inaction by Defra and other governing bodies (not to mention MPs), our outdoor spaces are being increasingly carpeted in plastic. That’s right – carpeted gardens; try explaining that to the wildlife losing its habitat and food. And not only is it the kind of non-recyclable and oil-based product we need so badly to reduce – it also strips away essential but fragile eco ..read more

A Charter for Saving an Essential Part of the UK’s Biodiversity Here in the UK, we have our very own Brazilian Rain Forest Crisis – a loss of natural habitat, a degrading and erosion of sustainable biodiversity and a slow destruction of our own bearable living conditions. And it’s happening right here in our own gardens, every time a square foot of living lawn is replaced with fake grass carpeting. It really is that serious but you’d never know – and gardeners are not the villains. As gardeners, we are guided by what the industry offers us – from bulbs and seeds, tools, machinery and fertil ..read more

Why would anyone replace a key sustainable component of our living environment with a coal and oil-derived product, one of only limited life span and almost impossible to recycle? When the entire planet is waging war on unnecessary plastics and the climate emergency, what is it that persuades consumers to make this terrible choice? And why cover children’s sports fields in products that can harm their health? Why on earth does anyone choose artificial grass? And why does the Government do nothing about it? The reason is threefold: 1) skilful marketing, 2) the absence of product and consumer in ..read more

Nature is a wonderful thing.  It does so much for us and that’s no exception when it comes to germinating grass seed.  You see Spring is a great time to fix those bare patches and the earlier we do it in the season, we will find that nature helps us even more. You see, if we go back to how a seed germinates, it gives us a better idea of the conditions we need in order to achieve perfect success. So, firstly let’s look at seeds.  When we open a packet of whatever well named seed it will comprise of a few different species.  They will normally be a blend of native fescue’s ..read more

There are some wonderful things you can buy for gardeners with lawns. I wouldn’t mind some of them myself this year – after all, even the best-made tools eventually wear out. So, here’s my list of suggestions for you to add to your letter to Santa this year – but first…. …. my perfect Christmas gift is not yet available; but if it were it would be a simpler way to keep mower blades sharp. Yes, I know it doesn’t sound earth-shatteringly exciting, but if you know anything about lawns you’ll know just how important sharp blades are! So, maybe it’s something the Lawn Association boffins could star ..read more