Edit 2018: This first blog page published in 2012 refers to my previous business which was moved in May 2018 to it’s current location in Exeter, Devon.
Welcome to my lawn care blog. My name is Kris Lord and I ran the South Manchester branch of of a lawn care franchise from 2010 until 2018.
Firstly, I’d just like to clarify that I was from Manchester in the North West of England, not any of the ‘Manchesters’ across the pond in the USA! That is important as a great many of the issues that I will address will only really be relevant to British lawns with cool season grasses. So if you see any other lawn care blogs on the web that mention grasses called, Zoysia, Bermuda, Bluegrass or Buffalo then chances are they’re not based in the UK so may (or may not) be what you’re looking for.
The lawn care franchise service specialised in the maintenance and regeneration of lawns all over the UK, and my branch in the North West serviced an area about 10 miles around Manchester airport. So, although this is blog is aimed specifically at gardeners in this area, it will still be very relevant to folks in the North West and hopefully of interest to many others across the UK.
Over the coming year I hope to use these pages to highlight some of the issues that I encounter on lawns and to offer solutions and advice to the most common and not so common lawn problems that I find. If you have any questions about your lawn, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Manchester lawn care
Last year (2011) was a very challenging year for lawns in the North West, mainly due to the very strange weather we had earlier in the year. In total, we had around 6 weeks of snow on the ground last winter and then barely a drop of rain for nearly three months during the spring! This played havoc with spring lawn re-seeding. Seed germination rates were right down due to the heat and a few lawns in my area that could not be watered, needed to be re-treated and re-seeded in the autumn. Thankfully the latter half of 2011 was a much better period for grass, with lovely damp weather for the majority of the Autumn which continued right through November, December and January!
I have recently been having a look at the lawns I re-seeded in the autumn of 2011 and they are coming on a treat. Lots of germination and strong, even growth means that the new grass plants have established brilliantly and are well on their way to looking beautiful this year.
Now it seems that a cold spell will be upon us for a couple of weeks, so stay off your lawn if it has a frost on it, keep any debris such as sticks or leaves off it and keep it long to help it to make the most of the short days and low-light levels.
If you feel moss maybe making it’s way in and, due to the prolonged damp weather, it probably will be, then get in touch and schedule a Winter Lawn Treatment to control it. A couple of weeks later it can then be raked out and your lawn will be ready for spring … which hopefully won’t be too long in coming!
That’s all for now, enjoy your gardens!
Kris Lord
