If your lawn is looking a bit sorry for itself then help is at hand. With just a few quick techniques the lawn can look lush and green once again ready for the family to enjoy.

Although a lawn may be able to recover on its own, the likelihood is that the weeds will grow faster, and the grass will be overtaken by weeds, so the first step is to dig out any weeds such as dandelion and buttercup. You could treat them with a weedkiller, but you do have to be careful not to kill the grass at the same time.

For the grass to grow well the soil needs to be aerated which is a simple process and can either be done by poking holes in the lawn with a garden fork or by using a rolling aerator. Improving the air flow in the lawn will make a big difference to how well the turf grows and is especially good for lawns that have become impacted and waterlogged.

Using a good quality fertiliser on the lawn will bring back the lushness and should make the grass look greener and healthier. It encourages the lawn to grow giving it the nutrients that it needs for healthy growth.

You may think that having a lawn means that you will need to do very little maintenance and that your lawn will mostly “look after itself”. Of course, this is not strictly true, but working on your lawn little and regularly will reap benefits later.

You will need to mow your lawn regularly in spring, summer and even early autumn and, this may occur as often as once a week or fortnight, depending on weather conditions.

During the spring, tidy up your lawn edges with a half-moon shaped edging tool. If you have a curved lawn edge, you could use a length of hose or thick rope as a guide.

In order to keep your grass looking lush and green, you will need to apply fertiliser at least twice a year – once in the spring and once in autumn. If you have a small lawn, you could spread out the fertiliser granules by hand but larger lawns may need the use of a lawn spreader. Make sure you do this on a dry day after it has rained a day or two before. You don’t want to do it when the earth is bone dry.

If your lawn is plagued with weeds then you may want to use a combined feed and weed product which will encourage good plant growth, at the same time as getting rid of weeds at the root. Ideally, you should use weedkillers in the spring, before weeds start flowering and then spreading their seeds. If you have the odd dandelion or thistle growing in your grass, then you may find it just as easy to dig it out and pull it up from the root.

Dandelions are often considered the scourge of most gardeners. Their fluffy, yellow flower heads may look quite attractive but once the heads turn to seed, the slightest puff of wind spreads dandelion seeds over the whole of the garden. You could try digging them out but they have a long, tapering tap root which tends to break off as it is pulled. You only have to leave the smallest part of a tap root behind in the soil and you will soon have dandelions growing again.

The best way to get rid of these bright yellow flowers with their broad green leaves is to prevent them becoming established in your lawn in the first place. In order to do this, after each mowing, make sure you leave some grass clippings on the surface of your lawn. These will act as a mulch and will help prevent seeds from germinating. Also, make sure you do not cut your grass too short as this weakens the grass, allowing weeds like dandelions to become established. Do not allow bare patches to develop in your lawn. Make sure you rake over the bare patches, break up the soil a little and sow with new grass seeds.

However, if you continue to lose the battle against dandelions, then you could harvest them as an edible supplement for your salad bowl!

A garden decking is more than just a tidy area to lay your garden equipment, it can be anything you want, whether it’s an area to sit and enjoy alfresco dining, a high area to enjoy seclusion and far reaching views. The fact is deckings depend on your own garden.

Today, Garden Deckings can be built to specification and because of this a lot of thought it required. It is important to know why you require a decking, and from then on, you can begin to understand the decking you require.

Some people want a decking so that they can relax or unwind; a pleasant area to sit. Others may want to use it as an area for seclusion, or to lead you up to a elevated lawn, perhaps another individual may want a decking to sun bathe. In this case it’s important to know the areas of your garden where the sun hits for the longest.

These hot spots are ideal for summer, and a decking can allow you and your family to take advantage of the British weather when it’s out. Deckings can be ideal platforms surrounding a conservatory, and in this case it’s important to know how much space you want to give to a decking. Many gardens will have various areas such as a lawn, a paved patio, perhaps a pathway leading through the middle, and making sure you have the space to fit a decking is the most important step.

Starting a lawn care business can be fraught with obstacles, challenges, and new experiences. However, just because starting a business is new to you, doesn’t mean you have to go into it blind. A simple way to improve your chances for success is to follow the steps other more successful landscapers take. When you do this, you limit the time it will take you to get up and running and you speed up your breakeven point. Now let me share with you one of those important steps.

Anytime you deal with customers, you are inevitably going to run into problems. A big reason for this is you have two parties agreeing on two different ideals and two different outcomes because the end goal wasn’t thoroughly discussed. But what can you do to simplify your interactions with mowing customers? You can use a lawn care contract template.

Lawn Care in Northampton

Such templates are readily available across the internet and most of them are available for free download. My suggestion when you are ready to take this step is to not just find and download one landscaping contract, instead download many of them. Open these documents up in your word processor and read each and everyone. As you go through them, you will see certain issues that will apply more to the services you offer than others. For instance, will you be spreading fertilizer as well as offering mowing services? If not, then remove all fertilizer subsections of the contract.

Maybe on the flip side, you will see concepts that you hadn’t even taken into consideration before. A great example of this is how the home owner and you will deal with dogs? If the home owner has a dog, you need to make sure you spell it out in your contract that the dogs must be brought into the house prior to your arrival. Also, you will need to spell out if you are going to clean up after the dogs, for an additional fee, or will that be the home owner’s responsibility before you mow the lawn.

How long will your agreement to mow the property last? This needs to be spelled out too. What about how will the contracts renew in the next year? Will the customer have to sign a new one or will it automatically renew unless the customer calls you to cancel service? When will the customer be billed and how long will they have to pay their invoice? This is another issue that should be discussed in your lawn care contract  template.