Fish, blood and bone replenishes lost nutrients, invigorating grass growth for a lusher lawn (Image: Getty)
Garden lovers will know all too well that summer brings a wealth of jobs to tackle, from tending to flowering plants in hanging baskets and borders, to ensuring those in pots thrive and produce abundant fruit. While lawn care is a year-round necessity, it becomes particularly crucial during spring and summer.
Despite the rising popularity of ‘no-mow May’ as a way to encourage biodiversity through wildflowers, gardening legend Alan Titchmarsh chose not to embrace the movement. He stated: “All gardens should have a bit of long grass, but it’s how you garden that matters. If you’re organic, as I have been for 40 years, and have a garden with lots of flowers, all types of wildlife will be happy.” This philosophy also underpins his low-effort lawn care approach.
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Writing in Country Life magazine, the much-admired British horticulturalist revealed the secrets behind his straightforward lawn maintenance routine, which he keeps to “weekly mowing and fortnightly edging in spring and summer”.
However, come June, he dedicates himself to one essential task to encourage strong, healthy grass growth — a technique that many gardeners can easily replicate.
Alan remarked: “I feed with the ubiquitous blood, fish and bone in April and again in June, and extract any large rosettes of plantain or dandelion with a daisy grubber.”
This well-regarded fertiliser, fish, blood and bone, replenishes depleted soil nutrients, promoting vigorous grass growth and ultimately delivering a far healthier lawn. The nutrient-rich nitrogen present in organic lawn feed is gradually absorbed by plant roots, making it a superb fertiliser for leafy vegetation such as grass, lettuce and brassicas.
Instructions for using organic lawn feed recommend that for mature lawns, a spreader should be used to apply it uniformly at 70g/m2 as a top dressing.
Alan Titchmarsh shares gardening tip which means he never has to do any weeding (Image: Getty)
After application, it is advised to water the lawn immediately with a hose set to a gentle spray.
The product is equally valuable for flowering plants, as specialists highlight. Prior to planting, Fish Blood and Bone Meal should be incorporated into flower bed soil at a rate of 140g/m2.
Alan, who is also a presenter of ‘Love Your Garden’, revealed that he stopped using chemical-based lawn feed and weed killers “years ago”, resulting in greater wildlife presence in his garden.
Alan removes dandelion clusters with a daisy grubber (Image: Getty)
He describes his delight at watching blackbirds extracting worms from his chemical-free lawn to nourish their chicks, satisfied that no herbicides are involved.
Regarding weed management, employing a daisy grubber can effortlessly extract large clumps without them looking conspicuous among the diverse plants flourishing in Alan’s own lawn.
Despite his inclination towards an organic lawn care approach, Alan still values the appearance of a striped lawn. Explaining his method, he commented: “My rotary mower has a rear roller that produces the stripes I love, but, mercifully, the botanic-garden mixture of close-mown plants that constitutes my lawn offends my sensibilities not one jot.”
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