| Just Lawns 2000
Lawn CareThere are a lot of companies offering a lawn care service. We take pride in giving our customers what they require.
We are a local business and have a lot of experience in gardening obtained over more than 25 years and are on call locally
to give free advice or just have a chat.
Below are a few details of lawn problems and advice.[ This is our opinion ]
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| Grass: | A lawn is supposed to look like a carpet of green lush grass, with no weeds or
discoloured areas, this isn’t always easy to have but with a bit of time and TLC even low grade
quality lawns can look good.
Luxury Grade lawn: a luxury grade lawn is basically to look good and look at it is made up of
fine grasses which need lots of attention to detail to keep them looking good and really are not for
most peoples garden as they will not stand up to the average persons needs wanting to use them for
activities i.e.: parties, games, kid, pets etc.
Luxury utility grade lawn: this lawn is what you see in most peoples gardens, parks etc this
lawn basically is for living on and will tolerate most activities and can still be kept looking good all
year round with a bit of attention to detail.
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| Scarification: | All grass holds onto dead material called thatch, it builds up over the season/s and
smothers the area at the base of the grass known as the mat layer.
It is dead material like missed grass clipping, dead insects, twigs, worm casts etc which get left behind
by the mower and trodden into the lawn, over time this builds up and can cause drainage problems and growth
problems by not letting light, air and nutrients to the grass roots. We would recommend aerating the lawn after
scarification as this will help get light air and nutrients to the grass roots.
Scarification is a vigorous process and puts a lot of strain on the grass so this is usually done every other
season to give the lawn chance to recover.
We have found that a light scarifying each season has helped alleviate other problems like moss with out too much
use of moss killers but this is only to be a light raking in the spring.
The Difference between raking and scarification is:
Raking with spring back rake only uses the thin prongs on your rake.
Scarification using a machine uses long knifes which rotate slicing through the grass down to
the problem.
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| Compaction: | The lawn gets compact over time with mowing, walking, playing etc and can cause problems
with the lawn EG: drainage, discoloured areas etc. having the lawn aerated regular helps with these problems
and also helps light, air and nutrients reach the roots of the grass.
Have the lawn aerated at the beginning of the season and end of the season is a real plus for the lawn.
On small areas this can be done with fork but large areas may require a machine to do this. There are two ways
of aeration,
- Tine-ing using a solid tine or fork
- Hollow-Tine-ing removes soil cores from the grass.
Both have great benefits for the lawn allowing air, light, nutrients etc to get the grass roots.
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| Fertilizers: |
Grass is a living organism and requires nutrition and other elements, all these are what achieves a
green lush healthy lawn.
The fertilizer used is slow release and each treatment lasts up to 3 months. We feed our lawns 3 times
per year.
[ mar / apr] [ june / july ] these are the high nitrogen based fertilizers which keep the lawn topped with nutrients in the growing season
[oct / nov ] this is the final feed which is a low nitrogen feed which feeds the rooting system over the winter
and doesn’t make the grass grow.
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| Weed control: |
Weeds can take over lawn areas at an alarming rate and unless controlled can cause severe damage to
your lawn. we treat weeds at the beginning of the growing season
which is the same as the fertilizer season, the only difference is the lawn will be fed first then approx
14 days after, the weed killer
treatment will be applied thus giving the weeds chance to come through, this is because the weed killers are
taken in by the leaves of the
weeds and the more area of leave available the better. The weed killers used are selective and treat most
weeds please note some areas may
need a further treatment but we do find the most only need one treatment per season. treatment is an ongoing
thing as weed seeds are being
transported to your lawn areas all the time either by the wind , birds or other means.
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| Mowing: | We do offer a mowing service for people who want to just admire there lawns in full glory,
we only cut lawns on a weekly basis as this
is a more beneficial for the grass promoting healthier roots and a lovely looking lawn.
Also we work on the
principle little and often.
If you are serious about your grass then you already know this. Cutting your grass in different directions also helps maintain a healthy
lawn and can discourage weed growth. All our mowers are cylinder mowers which in the right conditions will stripe the grass and really
make it stand out.
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| Moss: |
Moss is/can be a real problem in lawns. It is usually found in lawns with bad drainage, compacted lawns and shaded areas.
if you cut your lawn to low this can also help moss take a hold. the only way to really control moss in
your lawn is to eliminate or reduce
the growing conditions of moss, raking will only remove certain amounts of moss. We prefer if possible
not to use chemicals for moss treatment
but to use the old fashioned way with lawn sand ,or scarify the areas or both. Autumn is the best time
to get started with the problem,
a deep scarification followed by tine-ing whether it be hollow or solid this will help reduce the causes
of moss, but these are ongoing tasks
which really should be done every season to ensure the complete removal of moss from the lawn.
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| Lawn Sand: |
Lawn sand used to be the main way to treat moss and broad leaf weeds in the lawn but since the introduction of chemicals is not used as much
The sand works like this: you apply sand to moss or broadleaf weeds in your lawn and the thin granules in the sand cling to the leaves
of the weeds and moss and burn away the culprits also lawn sand as the added benefit of AMMONIUM SULPHATE which give a lawn a rich
green colour.
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