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Written and edited by Tammy Johnson 22nd Dec 22 With the warmer seasons now finally upon us our lawns spring back to life. You'll probably find yourself, like me, out there mowing your lawns weekly to keep up and maintain them looking in tip top shape. With the good rains we've had this season replenishing the deeper subsoil moisture my own lawns (pictured above) are looking the best they have in a long time. If you follow these steps, you'll have the best-looking lawn in the street guaranteed! Feed feed feed. Your lawn is using a lot of energy to keep growing at the pace it is so just like your teenage kids it's going to be hungry. Use a good balanced NPK fertiliser like the Brunnings green up. Apply it at the rates recommended on the product label and mark it on your Calander to apply it at least every three months. You can also top dress with organic compost or aged animal manure. Your microbes will love you for it. *Hint- just remember not to feed your lawns when it's over 30 degrees, wait for a cooler day, and water it in well. Mow regularly. Mowing your lawn regularly not only keeps it looking 'Mickey Mouse', but it will encourage continual fresh new growth and if there are any weeds, you'll catch them before they flower, dropping seed and replenishing the seed bank. Water. Finally water your lawns regularly and deep, particularly over the hot dry weather. Water in the cool of the morning to prevent moisture loss through evaporation in the heat of the day. You're far better off to water less frequently but for longer periods. A regular good, long, deep soak encourages the roots of your lawn to follow the water down and establish deeper as opposed to frequent short waterings where your roots will stay shallow making them more susceptible heat stress and just make for a less robust lawn all together. ultimately you want a good deep strong healthy root system on your lawn. And it's about as simple as that. Don't hesitate to message me if you have any queries. I'm always up for a chat. Happy gardening!

Written and edited by Tammy Johnson 18th December 2022. Following on from my first blog post about soil nutrition, I want to briefly touch on the other vital key component which is soil pH, and what the relevance of it is to your garden. What is soil pH? pH stands for 'potential of Hydrogen ions.' the H is always uppercase as hydrogen is a chemical element. Put simply, pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of soil. I won't get any more scientific than that, I'd rather keep this simple. Most plants are happy in a relatively neutral soil pH of between 6.6 and 7.3 (7 is neutral). Anything above 7.5 is considered Alkaline and will need Sulphur to bring it down - Sulphur is an acidifier. Anything below 6 is considered Acidic and Lime will be required to raise the pH - Lime has the ability to neutralise acidity. The problem is that when soil becomes too alkaline plants can't derive nutrients from the soil regardless of whether they are there or not. Any nutrients present will be 'locked up', bound to the soil particles essentially starving your plants. And when our soil is too acidic the Aluminium and Manganese in the soil become soluble allowing for too much uptake by your plants causing toxicity, essentially poisoning your plants. Both lime and sulphur are products you'll find readily available online and through most leading outlets, just use them at the recommended rates on the product labels. To test your soil pH is really very easy to do yourself. All you'll need is a 'soil testing kit'. A Manutec soil testing kit will be available through most leading outlets. I don't expect you to remember the 'nitty gritty' parts of this, even I have trouble remembering it, but I DO want you to take away this, the pH of your soil IS really important and needs to be right. I hope I haven't bamboozled you too much! Remember I'm always up for a chat so don't hesitate to message me. Happy Gardening 😘🪴