May has quickly arrived and many people up and down the UK will be looking to get into their garden over the coming weeks to make sure it’s ready for the summer months. An expert has issued a warning to gardeners this month, urging them to avoid making one common mistake.
According to Peter Dowdall, who is known as the Irish Gardener, a lot of people choose to buy a “best-selling product” that will actually “blanket bomb” their lawns at this time of year. He has issued an important warning to gardeners considering buying triple action products, including lawn feed with moss killer and weed killer, as they can be very damaging.
Peter, who has spent 30 years working across all types of gardens, told the Irish Mirror: “When it comes to the lawn, I would imagine that one of the best-selling products in garden centres at this time of year is what is called the triple action products – which are bags of lawn feed with the moss killer and the weed killer built in.
“They are very ecologically damaging. It is like blanket bombing your lawn. So, you are feeding the grass which is grand, but you are also applying chemical moss killers and chemical weed killers to the lawn, many in areas that don’t need it. They don’t have weeds or moss – so you are just blanket bombing it.”
He added: “That has a huge ecological disadvantage impact to it, you are applying loads of chemicals to the biggest part of your garden which might not be necessary -and then you want kids to go out and roll in it and play in it and things like that. So that’s a product I certainly wouldn’t recommend people to use.”
The expert also advises against buying brightly coloured summer bedding plants and immediately planting them out in your garden. Although they may seem pretty, they are unlikely to cope well with the current temperatures.
However, he does recommend scarifying your lawn to remove moss. Peter added: “Once you have done that then, you try and improve the soil structure by erasing it so erasing it really is just creating many tiny tiny little holes in the top two inches of the soil and you can either leave those holes open or you can push grit or sand into them to help with drainage – this will certainly help.”
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