Peter Seabrook: taking care of your lawn will help wildlife, says Peter
Lawn care is really important to wildlife, says Peter
“Areas overgrown by shrubs now need attention”
THERE were times last summer when the front and back lawns were looking pretty sorry for themselves. Lack of rain and scorching temperatures on heavy clay soil took their toll. Speed of recovery after heavy rain is reassuring and little less than a miracle, although the damage still shows in some places.
Neatly mown lawns are not just decorative – where would our song birds be without an area of moist turf to forage for grubs and worms? I just wish they would sort out the ants at the same time! Turf, like all green-leaved plants, absorbs carbon dioxide, traps dust and absorbs rainfall, reducing run-off and the risk of flooding.
It is too many years since both my modest domestic areas of turf were stripped off, the soil cultivated and new
turf (Rolawn Medallion) laid. It has served us very well, although ant hills, invasion of coarse grasses and areas overgrown by shrubs all now need some immediate attention. Reseeding the bare patch, having pruned Hypericum ‘Hidcote’ back hard, is straightforward. Now is a good time to break up the surface soil with a wire rake and reseed with a good generalpurpose lawn seed. The invasion by patches of coarse grasses is not so easy
to tackle – but working on hands and knees with a knife, slicing through it and pulling out clumps will work on a small scale.
Bumps pushed up by ants can be lowered by the standard cutting of an ‘H’ in the turf, peeling back from the central cut in opposite directions and removing some soil below before returning the turf into the lowered position.
My best approach at present is to get a contractor (GreenThumb) to scarify and pull out dead grass, moss and other accumulated organic matter. Contractors have heavier, more powerful machines, which will do a better job than my lightweight electric type.