Tag Archive for: Lawncare

‘Green’ lawncare key for environment

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‘Green’ lawncare key for environment: There are more than 20 million domestic garden lawns in the UK and one man is driving a campaign to ensure that British gardeners get the latest and best possible ‘green’ advice on lawncare.

“There is a place for the occasional use of chemicals in lawncare but there is also a rapidly increasing range of totally green options that are just as effective.  I want to ensure that the new breed of specialist lawncare advisors promote this green route,” says Richard Salmon, managing director of ProLawnCareUK.

'Green' lawncare key for environment

‘Green’ lawncare key for environment

He has spent his entire career in lawn and grass care and is one of the UK’s foremost experts.   Part of his work is training people who want to establish businesses as domestic lawncare advisors and his two and four day courses focus strongly on the environmentally friendly approach.    He believes that too many professional lawncare advisors rely on strong chemical treatments and over-feeding grass with manufactured, expensive and not kind to the environment Nitrogen.  They do this to ensure a quick-fix and a bright green lawn, deliberately ignoring the more gentle and natural true green alternatives.

“We all want verdant green lawns but trying to force this to happen by applying excessive Nitrogen is neither beneficial to the lawns or environment nor is it sustainable.    Steady rain, and even snow, does deliver useful amounts of nitrogen for free.  The problem comes from torrential rain that can wash it away again.”

There are three cornerstones of his training courses: ensuring lawns are compaction free, having access to balanced nutrition and some basic lawn management tips that home owners can undertake.

The benefits of a lawn being compaction free are:

  • Allowing roots to grow deep in search of natural nutrients and water.
  • Allowing rain to percolate down to the roots and not waterlogging the lawn.
  • Preventing the grass from suffocating and dying through lack of oxygen.

“A compaction free lawn will have a healthy soil microbial population,” says Richard.  “The soil is a larder full of natural nutrients vital to grass and delivers it in a form that the roots can take up.   This way there is no need for synthetic fertilisers.”

With this combined treatment package lawn owners should mow little and often.  Richard believes that mulching is best as nutrients are retained in the leaf and put pack into the soil.  In excessively dry weather irrigate using harvested rainwater.  This combination will create a thick sward that keeps weeds and moss at bay.

“Our 20 million domestic lawns, collectively, cover an area larger than any UK National Park.  Lawn owners have a responsibility to ensure that their small part of such a large area is treated with the utmost respect and care for the environment.  It is important that when lawn owners seek professional help and advice, they are not offered a chemical package that runs counter to this objective.  Once trained they will find that being able to promote themselves as environmentally responsible lawncare experts will be a major sales boost,” says Richard.

Courses run throughout the year in Cambridge

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Leading lawncare expert refutes Monty’s claim

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Leading lawncare expert refutes Monty’s claim: One of the UK’s leading lawncare experts has totally refuted the claim by TV gardener Monty Don in a national newspaper that mowing the grass “is about the most injurious thing you can do to wildlife.”

Richard Salmon, managing director of ProLawnCare UK Limited, dismisses the claim as “utter nonsense” and asks what is Monty’s evidence for making such a claim?

Leading lawncare expert refutes Monty’s claim

Leading lawncare expert refutes Monty’s claim

“Visit any garden where lawns are regularly mown and you will see all manner of birds and insects.   Badgers are particularly fond of such areas as it makes searching for insects that much easier than in long, wild grass,” he says.

“All golf courses are enjoyed by an abundance of wildlife – and they don’t restrict their visits to the rough.  The other factor he forgets is that leaving grass to grow wild and reducing the mowing frequency, means that when you come to mow, it will be more difficult as the grass will be long.  It will take several passes with the mower to reduce to the required height, using more fuel and energy.  Plus it will put additional stress on the grass by reducing its height too much in one mowing operation.

Grass mowed little and often produces more leaf because additional tillers (side shoots) are stimulated to grow.  The more leaf you encourage, the greater the Co2 absorbing capability of the turf is achieved.” 

Richard agrees that all gardens, regardless of size, should leave an area uncultivated but, he points out, many wild flowers cannot compete with rampant long grass, so set aside areas for wildlife and manage them accordingly and leave the lawn as a lawn.

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Allett’s Complete Lawncare System

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Allett’s Complete Lawncare System: Whilst we’re all hoping the Beast From The East, The Pest From The West and any other cold weather extremes are far behind us, take a moment to consider their impact of such conditions on your lawn.

There is a direct correlation between grass growth and ground temperature, and the extreme lows followed by recent highs will have grass growing incredibly well. The downside to this, however, is that the chances of moss and weeds also growing have increased.

Allett's Complete Lawncare System

Dealing with these problems, and creating the perfect lawn, takes both time and patience so it is vital to use the correct equipment, and at the correct time. Buying various pieces of equipment can be costly and problematic, particularly for those where storage space is at a premium. The unique Complete Lawncare System from Allett could be the answer.

The Complete Lawncare System features six interchangeable cartridges that fit on to Allett’s Kensington petrol mowers and Liberty 43 battery powered mowers. The system transforms the machine from a traditional mower to a specialist gardening tool simply by changing its cartridges. The system includes an aerator, a lawn brush, dethatcher, verticutter and a 10-bladed cartridge, as well as the walk-behind cylinder lawnmower, all in one machine which eases storage issues and reduces costs.

Scarifying is a key way to ensuring your lawn is healthy and gloriously green throughout the summer and is a particularly good way of repairing it after the recent cold weather spells. The Allett scarifier cartridge gently removes moss and thatch, whilst also reduces weeds and prevents problems in the future. For lawns with severe problems and thick growth of dead matter, an alternative cartridge in the system to use is the dethatcher.

For more than 50 years, Allett has specialised in the design and manufacture of precision, single-cylinder, walk-behind mowers that produce a quintessentially striped lawn. The homeowner range are leaders within their various market sectors providing users with expertly-built, reliable, well-proven grass-cutting reel mowers which produce a seemingly effortless first-class finish to every lawn on which they are used.

All of the cartridges are available from Allett’s UK wide network of specialist independent garden machinery dealers. Lawn mower prices start from £429.

For further information visit www.allett.co.uk.

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