Watch those lawns!

Lawns can become very waterlogged, even in the summer.

So, before you get working with the lawnmower, check to make sure that the grass is not too damp to cut.

 If it is, leave it for a day or so. And you could save your lawn. And if you do find you have accidentally killed a patch, use lawen patch kits, available from all good garden stores.

Or visit

http://thatsgardening.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/be-lawn-arranger-with-barenbrug.html for details of trhe lawn seeds that Barenbrug provides.

Water those plants! Or not...

When the weather gets dryer later this year, we all want to get out into the garden and start up with the watering.

Whilst we should water those plants, we should remember to water them, but not too well!

Because although many gardeners like to give their garden a good soaking with a hosepipe, many more experienced gardeners will counsel against this practice.

For they would argue that over-watering a garden (as they would see it) can cause problems. The theory is that if you regularly use a hosepipe that this can result in lazy plants.

If you give them a lot of water on the surface of the ground, they will not have to put their tap roots down very far so could become weakened and thus perhaps prone to damage by disease, etc.

Much better, they would argue to have a tug filled with rainwater and use watering cans to spot water your plants, making sure that plants that require more water are well-watered.

You can buy a  rainwater harvesting system and install it now, filling it up ready for the dry months later in in the year.

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Garden Designers at the ready!

BBC Gardeners' World Live, featuring the RHS Flower Show Birmingham, is seeking talented new Show Garden designers, with a new Show Garden competition category.

The Show's a hotbed for emerging new talent in the garden design world. 2014 saw 15 year old Harry Ward achieve a Silver-Gilt medal for his first show garden, with help from John Cavill and Dean Brown, having debuted at the show in 2013 with a 'Beautiful Border'. The 2014 show saw 2013 winner of the 'Beautiful Border competition' Elspeth Stockwell and 2013 winner of Metamorphosis Garden Owen Morgan both winning high RHS medals.

The Lifestyle Garden competition is a part-funded Show Garden competition. Four designers will be selected, each taking a different brief to create an inspiring design, packed with take-home ideas for gardeners in all stages of life. From starter homes, to young families, and retirement haven, they represent key stages in a gardener's life.

The RHS and BBC Gardeners' World Live team are making the process of application for designers simpler.

Designers just express an interest in being part of the competition by submitting details of previous work.

Four designers will be chosen to create innovative designs according to their brief.
For more information and to book tickets please visit www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com.

Be a lawn arranger with Barenbrug

'The Emergency Life Saver' is a new hard-wearing grass that germinates faster, even in cold weather. Barenbrug supplies the lawn seed to Creamfields, the dance music festival.

Ed Dawson, landscape contractor for Creamfields uses The Emergency Life Saver to sow high-traffic main stage areas and walkways because of its: "resilience, good looks and lightening germination."

Almost 70,000 people visited the Daresbury Estate, Cheshire, over the August Bank Holiday.

This was a real test for the Emergency Life Saver, part of Barenbrug's Green Velvet lawn seed range.

The overseeding ryegrass blend offers faster establishment than any other 100% perennial ryegrass blend.

It offers the ultimate quick fix for emergency repairs for year-round lawn cover.

Keep a packet in the shed for patching, or repairs. It's ideal for winter and early spring or year round cover for bare patches, getting your lawn green, faster.

Its annual ryegrass can germinate at 3.5°C in just 3-5 days.

Said Ed: "After the 2012 floods, the ground was wrecked. Foot deep ruts over about 40% of the 400 acre grounds. New drainage had to be built, so we couldn't reseed in autumn. When I took the site back in April 2013 I had under four months to get it ready. An impossible task?"

To renovate a site the size of 230 football pitches, Ed turned to 'The Emergency Life Saver' lawn seed. By August it was ready with dense, quality turf that could withstand heavy wear.

All Green Velvet mixtures are available in a range of sizes, 15sqm cartons and 50sqm pouches, priced from £6.99 for a 525g carton to £87 for 20kg. For details visit: www.greenvelvetlawnseed.com or wholesale enquiries, please call 01359 272000.

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Eagle-eyed remedy for slugs

If you have an infestation of slugs in your garden and prefer not to use toxic slug killing chemicals where children, pets and wildlife may come into contact with them, you can treat your slugs to their very own 'Hotel California experience'.

How? By using strategically placed shallow dishes or deep saucers of beer in your garden.

Why do we call it the Hotel California experience? Because after drinking the beer, the slugs tend to check-out, but they can never leave!

Lawn care

The grass is long.

How tempting it is to get the lawn mower out and to give the lawn a nice cut. Only to find the lawn being ploughed up, leaving nasty, muddy patches!

To stop this happening, please remember to check to ensure that your lawn is not too damp to safely mow.

Better to let it look a bit too long for a week or so, rather than mowing the lawn if the ground is too wet!

Water the birds!

Bill Oddie's asking us to think of wildlife and put out fresh water for birds to drink and bathe. "Water the birds!" says Bill.

"I'm not suggesting you hose down Blackbirds and Robins. That's NOT the kind of watering I'm encouraging! No. It's as basic as this: provide fresh drinking and bathing water for birds, daily if you can, and you'll make life easier for them. You'll enjoy watching them splash around. It's great fun, and it costs pennies. Get the kids involved.

"If you haven't got a bird bath, go out and get one. Please! Or use a shallow dish/plate, ensure you make filling it part of your daily regime. Clean it regularly, too, you'll be awash with happy birds," says Bill.

Birds bathe to keep clean and also to keep their feathers in good condition. A few species, like Starling and House Sparrow, like to bathe in groups. It's great to see eight or more birds bathing at the same time! Get the camera out. Bill's asking you to share your photos on twitter, #waterthebirds.

"We know it's only days before the weather changes. But providing fresh water, daily, is a great habit to succumb to as birds need watering all year round - even in winter!"

(EDITOR: It is best to use tap water rather than from a water-butt.)

Recycle in your garden

Canny gardeners have always been into recycling, decades before it became fashionable.

 But what can you recycle? If you have an old hob kettle or a teapot that no longer holds water, or which leaks tea, you can, perhaps after drilling some holes in the base, use it as an interesting garden planter. If you don't want to drill it, just stand a plant pot in it, but be careful not to let it get waterlogged.

Anyone can make seedling pots from newspapers if you buy one of the easy use kits. There's no glue or chemicals required so it's a safe, fun project for the next generation of young gardeners.

Bees. What can you do to help?

According to reports, bees and butterflies are not thriving.  There are a variety of reasons: Pesticides, poor weather, diseases, loss of habitat.

What can you, as a gardener, do to help? Be careful which pesticides you use, if any.

You can attract bees and butterflies by choosing to plant brightly coloured, large flowering bedding plants. Bees like to get to the centre of the flower so avoid 'double' flowers and plant bedding with 'daisy-like' flowers instead.

Bright orange and yellow flowers attract pests like aphids, so planting marigolds or nasturtiums will draw aphids away from vegetable plants.

If you want to help moths, night scented stock is a good option.