Lawn looks forlorn Q even after an autumn feed?

Why is my lawn dying in patches, How can we screen a 3m gap in our garden wall? Q What is this weird daisy in our school allotment?

AThe grass should be in good condition if it had an autumn feed, but wet winter weather may have caused the grass to die, by washing away vital nitrogen. Much depends on your soil type and if it’s heavy clay, that could have added to the waterlogging problem.

If the soil is heavy, wet and/or compacted, spike the lawn with a fork to improve surface drainage and keep raking out the dead grass. A spring/ summer lawn feed should help to improve growth and it may be worth oversowing with grass seed in very bare areas.

Leatherjackets, the larvae of daddy-long-legs, eat the roots of grass and cause this sort of damage, so it’s worth lifting a section of the grass to check for larvae, then treat with Nemasys Leatherjacket Killer (£16.99 for 100sqm).

ADuring the current lockdown restrictions, I suggest you simply erect some screen netting (£5-10 from Homebase) then plant your favourite screening plants beside it, such as roses or hedging plants. An alternative would be to plant sunflowers or cosmos, in which case the screen netting would still be useful and give the young plants some protection while they grow.

AYour daisy is showing the characteristic signs of fasciation. If the growing point is damaged (for instance by insects or weather) instead of growing in a circle, it can grow in a line. Technically a daisy isn’t a single bloom but a compressed collection of lots of tiny flowers; here they’ve formed an interesting crescent shape. On ‘cockscomb’ celosias, the fasciation is genetic and highly sought after.