Soil

This is a subject that is often disregarded when considering lawn care. We are talking a growing medium. Would you consider planting your beloved bedding plants in a bucket of builders sand? Well that’s often what we are up against when trying to get that perfect lawn.

We all know that builders are ok at building houses, but pay scant regard to the garden area. Usually low grade topsoil, and sometimes the remains of a pile of building sand, old paint tins and even the odd broken wheelbarrow have been found lurking under the surface of the lawn.

Put simply, the condition of the soil always dictates the condition of the grass. All soils contain biological life. Microbes in the form of bacteria and fungi are working in the soil and it is these that we rely on to make everything work. These microbes are responsible for processing nutrients, breaking down dead and decaying organic matter (thatch) and keeping everything in balance.

Experience tells us that we have to be careful not to upset this delicate balance.

Over the past few years many high profile golf courses have trodden a path that has created many problems by using too much chemically produced fertiliser too often. This will create disease problems and will then require hugely expensive fungicides to correct, and then more fertiliser to recover. This is a circle that cannot be sustained and is totally avoidable.

Matching fertilisers to soil type is a key issue and we at Just Lawns pay careful consideration to what we use throughout the season.