A lawn is not one plant but a crowd of thousands, each with its growing point tucked down at soil level, out of reach of the mower. Grass is one of the few garden plants that thrives on being cut, provided it is cut properly. Most of what goes wrong comes from asking it to do something it was never built for, and most of what goes right comes from a handful of sensible habits done at the right time.

This book explains those habits plainly. It starts with how a grass plant grows and which grass suits your climate, then works through soil, sowing and turfing, and the regular round of mowing, watering and feeding. After that come the problems you are likely to meet, from moss and dandelions to chafer grubs and dog urine, and what can reasonably be done about each.

What you’ll find inside

• How grass grows, and a simple field exercise to work out what is actually in your lawn
• Cool-season and warm-season grasses compared, with the buffalo and couch name trap explained
• New lawns from seed, turf, plugs and sprigs, with sowing and laying times by climate
• Mowing heights for UK, New Zealand and North American lawns, and the one-third rule
• Watering deeply and infrequently, the tin-can and screwdriver tests, and hosepipe bans
• Feeding by season and region, with no doses given: the label on your pack decides
• Scarifying, aerating, top-dressing and overseeding, plus an autumn renovation sequence
• Weeds, moss, worm casts, pests and diseases, including nematodes for chafer grubs and leatherjackets
• What home gardeners may legally use on lawns in the UK, EU, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
• Shade lawns, repairs, mower safety, clover and bee lawns, No Mow May, meadows and a clear look at artificial grass

Who it’s for

It is written for beginners first, so terms are explained as they come up and jobs are set out in steps. Experienced gardeners will still find plenty to chew on, from thatch thresholds to the arguments over No Mow May and clover in dry summers.

The approach

There is no single right lawn. A fine, close-cut sward, a hard-wearing family lawn that shrugs off football, a flowering lawn full of bees and a patch of meadow mown once or a few times a year are all treated as honourable choices.

Lawns