Lawns & Turf

Lawns & Turf

The British are known to take pride in their lawns. Anglian Water enacted a temporary hosepipe ban on July 11, 2026, which resulted in many lawns across the region turning straw brown by August. Most people thought the lack of green meant the grass had died; in reality, most of it was simply waiting to come back.

The advice in this article is tailored specifically to lawns and weather conditions in Britain. Advice that mentions sod or suggests you water your lawn daily is irrelevant to lawns in Britain and should be disregarded.

The Lawn Year

In the lawn care industry, the most important thing is to time the application of the product. The first cut of the year should be made around the beginning of spring, and the grass should be set to a height of approximately 4 inches (10 cm). The height of the cut should be increased to 5 inches (12.7 cm) for the rest of the growing season.

Thatch should be removed and the lawn aerated in the fall. Thatch is the buildup of dead grass which collects on the lawn. This should be done before the weed control and seeding of the lawn. Low nitrogen fertilizer should be applied at this time as well. This is the most important lawn care task of the year and should be done as soon as the weather permits in the fall.

In the winter, the lawn should not be walked on to determine if the ground is frozen. This can damage the grass and cause brown / dead looking grass to collect on the ground.

Dry weather and water restrictions

Many gardeners panic when their lawns turn brown. Don’t! Pull on a few blades of grass. If they come out of the ground, they’re still alive. Mowing brown grass makes it die.

Wait for the rain to come, and when it does, mow the grass. Give it a couple of weeks to green up, and if it hasn’t, then you can overseed to fill in the bare spots. The green color will encourage new growth and the grass will fill in the bare spots. The worst thing you can do is give it a quick-acting high-nitrogen lawn food. The new growth will be soft and will collapse.

Seeding or Sodding?

Seeding is the cheaper option, and gives you more choices, but a sodded lawn means you have a lawn immediately. Spring and Fall provide the best times to seed, with Spring being the better of the two. Sod can be laid in the Fall, but April and May are the next best times.

The work is done by you when you sod a lawn. You will need to properly prep the soil and firm it down. The sod needs to be watered for the first two weeks and a longer time between watering means it will not take. If a watering ban is in place, check to see if your water company allows watering of a newly sodded lawn.

Turf or artificial grass

There are situations in which artificial grass is a better choice, but most of the time, natural grass is the better option. One of the main advantages of natural grass is that it will stay cooler on hot days. Artificial grass will also start to smell bad over time if it isn’t cleaned, and it will cost more over time due to having to replace it. Artificial grass can be a good option to use in spots that naturally don’t get a lot of light, or in spots where dogs are wearing the natural grass down.

Shady lawns

A seed mix will not be effective if there is not sufficient light. A mix that has fescue in it can do a bit better in shaded areas, but it will not last. If it is a really shaded area, it will not be worthwhile to seed it.

Mowers

In the past, we would say that people should get a mower that is powered by gas, but a lot of changes have been happening in the battery powered mower industry. A good battery powered mower will be able to take care of a standard size lawn. If the lawn is really large or very un-even, a gas powered mower would still be a better choice.

Whatever kind of mower or grass you use, make sure you don’t cut off more than a third of the grass at a time.