This Morning: 'UK’s best lawn-fluencer' shares his best mowing tips
Lawn care is extremely important all year round, especially during the spring months. Appearing on ITV’s This Morning on Wednesday, UK’s best lawn-fluencer Stuart Grindle shared how gardeners can achieve a lawn like his which he has been tending to for 43 years.
This Morning presenter Craig Doyle joined Stuart Grindle at his Doncaster garden which has won “Britain’s Best Lawn” to get an insight on how he gets his grass to look “impeccable”.
As Stuart’s lawn had just been scarified, the process where surface thatch is removed, it is set to look “even better” in a few days than it already does.
Stuart explained that anyone who wants to achieve a lawn that looks like his has to “spend a lot of time” working on it as “it doesn’t get like this by just cutting it once a fortnight”.
The most important lawn care job of all is mowing, but it can be difficult to know how often this should be done.
Although annual spring tasks such as scarifying and aerating make a huge difference, without keeping on top of the mowing throughout the growing season, any additional work to improve the lawn will be in vain.
He advised that the grass “needs cutting at least twice a week” at a minimum.
Back in the day when he was fit and healthy, the expert noted that he would mow the grass “twice a day, every other day”.
For regular lawns, cutting once a week is more practical, possibly upping it to two times a week when the lawn is growing its fastest, but gardeners don’t have to stick to a strict regime.
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Cut more often if the lawn is growing strongly and starting to look shaggy, or for those who have got guests coming – just keep the height consistent.
Likewise, when growth starts to slow towards the end of the season, reduce the mowing frequency to suit.
Remember to ease off or raise the mowing height in very hot, dry weather, to avoid stressing the lawn – close-mown lawns are also the first to turn brown when no rain falls.
Stuart explained that the more time the lawn is being cut, the finer the leaf will be.
When the presenter asked why grass turns “spiky” and dull once it has been mowed after a long period of time, Stuart said: “It’s because you’re cutting the green bit of the leaf stalk off and you’re leaving the stalk, so that is why it’s white or brown.”
To avoid this happening, the expert recommended mowing “regularly” and only taking “no more than 5mm” off of the grass blades.
Keeping the grass at a medium height like this is a good idea ad it’s short enough to look neat, but it doesn’t rob the grass plants of too much leaf area so they can continue to grow strongly.
Cut the grass too short and it has very little leaf left with which to generate the energy it needs to grow again.
It will also help the grass survive and recover from any periods of drought that might come along in summer – very close-cut lawns turn brown the quickest in hot, dry weather.
If the lawn looks dry after it has been mowed, it is a good idea to water it.
However, if the weather is too hot, then watering the grass is never a good idea as it can end up scorching the lawn and cause a lot of the water to evaporate before the grass has the chance to have a good drink.
Watering in the evening can also cause a problem as any excess water that isn’t absorbed by the grass will just sit there, providing ideal conditions for fungal lawn problems, like mould and mildew.
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