You will probably have noticed that parts of the lawn are looking a little tired. One reason for this is the lack of sunlight and this will be addressed by pruning some of the larger trees over the winter. The other is that the gardeners have not had machinery sufficiently slender to fit through our narrow entrance gates. Until now. Read on as the gardeners explain:

“At a recent trade show we found a spiking machine that is not very large and heavy that we will definitely be able to get into your garden. It guarantees a depth of spike to 3 inches (when the soil is wet of course) and works in a completely different system of forcing the tines into the ground using a spring loaded entry mechanism rather than relying on the weight of the machine. This should mean that we will be able to spike your lawns with a 3″ hollow tine spike. We will then need to top-dress with a sandy dressing to get the maximum effect and need to do the whole job several times in the first year to really make a difference to deep compaction. This machine called a DECOMPACTAIR is not actually available yet and they do not expect to be selling it until the end of the year (but then your soil won’t be ready to use it on until at least then).

Secondly: We will purchase a medium sized scarifier that can get through your gates. This will take longer to use than our top of the range professional one and not leave the surface looking as good to start with. But it will still get dead grass, moss and thatch out and the grass will grow back. The scarifying will allow the fertiliser and seed to get in as well as the water to better get to where it is needed and the long term results should be a much better lawn.

So with the above in mind I can now say we intend to follow the lawn care plan below in an attempt to get your lawns looking as good as possible:

Terry [one of the gardeners] will be spraying the worst areas with a selective lawn weed-killer in the next week (weather permitting).

He will over seed the barest patches soon after with Barenbrug Bar Stadia seed – which we have had very good results with this year on areas of less light.

We will then spike and top-dress the lawn in winter (providing we can get the new DECOMPACTAIR machine) and when the ground has softened up sufficiently.

We will scarify the lawn in late winter.

And then reseed and lightly top-dress (either straight after scarifying or slightly later depending on the weather and timing).

Then fertilise with a slow release fertiliser in about April – again depending on weather etc.

With just a little luck the above will give as good a lawn as it is possible to get and the results should start to be clear in early summer next year. However the full results won’t be apparent for probably another year.

As for costs the only additional costs to the garden in the short term will be for the materials: Grass seed, top-dressing and fertiliser. We will not be charging anything for the two machines purchased primarily to use in your garden as we will be able to use them elsewhere.”