Lawns and Lawn Care 4
Lawn pests and diseases

I wouldn't recommend this method for the beginner though unless you do a few tests with canes and weighed amounts first. Do take care with application as in a couple of months time I'll get a few emails where people tell me they have over fertilized and killed patches of the lawn and want advice on what to do next! Soluble fertilisers are easier to apply in the recommended amount, but you still need to measure the garden out with some canes first, it's more time consuming though.

When the grass looks like it's recovering add a high nitrogen LAWN fertiliser in the autumn (fall) at 1/4 to 1/2 the recommended rate. It doesn't much matter about the brand as long as it's high nitrogen and you apply it evenly. If the grass is growing strongly, you may not even need to add anything at all as there may be enough of your original fertiliser left around, it depends on your soil and how well drained or retentive of nutrients it is.

Q.  I have a problem with my lawn and I was hoping that you could give me some advice on how to get rid of it.

A.  What you have is a very impressive case of turf thatch fungal mycelium. The cause is fungi that are living on the thatch - the dead grass and other debris just below the living leaves and above the soil. The most susceptible lawns are those that have not been maintained very thoroughly or sometimes, newly laid lawns from turf.   

The solution is to carry out all of the heavy-duty Lawncare chores such as scarifying and spiking to aerate. Collect your lawn mowings rather than let them lie of the grass and add to the thatch.   It's not a disease as such, but a case of opportunist fungi making the most of an abundant source of food. Our damp summer would have made it worse.  You may need to dig up very badly affected areas and re-seed or re-turf.

Q. I have had a patch of brown appearing in a horseshoe shape on my lawn for 2 yrs in a row. Last year I thought I had cured it by re-seeding, but the horseshoe is re-appearing - even larger than ever (outside the previous year's perimeters). It may even join up in an egg shape ring. I never had this problem before last year, but I do tackle moss with weed & feed. What causes this & what can I do please?

A. It sounds like you've got the beginnings of a fairy ring. This is a ring of fungus growing and feeding just below the surface of the lawn. Characteristically there is a brighter green strip of grass on the edges of the dead or brown patch. If it is a fairy ring then it will start producing mushrooms above ground any time from July onwards which will confirm it. more on fairy rings

Q. We laid 120 sq. m. of turf (supposedly grown from seed) about 6 weeks ago. The whole area is now covered in toadstools too many to pick by hand. How can we get rid of them?

A. The toadstools have to be feeding on something and my guess is that they're feeding on something in the soil, i.e. not in the turf that you have bought. The only way to get rid of them for good is to remove whatever they are feeding on. The only time I've come across a similar situation was when some-one used bark chips to level the ground before laying the turf. Result, the nice dark and moist conditions underneath the turf along with a good food supply meant a very healthy crop of toadstools.

Is there anything like this under your turf? It may be caused by pieces of wood squashed into the soil and covered over (common in new homes), or alternatively by rotovating in old grass or weeds and not clearing them from the site before laying the turf.

What to do about it? If it is bark chips and you paid some-one to do it I think you've a good case to get them back to sort it out. If not, then it will sort itself out in time when the conditions change and the food supply is exhausted. Cut the toadstools down with a mower or just knock them down with a broom or besom, they'll soon dry up and shrivel to nothing. Fairy rings are the only fungi that will really harm a lawn and it doesn't sound like you've got any of those.