Carrying on from last month, we will continue with lawn maintenance: The next job is aeration, which aids drainage and enables air to get to the grass. If you have a small lawn, you can do this by pushing a fork around 15cm deep into the soil creating holes and spacing them regularly every 15cm also. For those of you with larger lawns, mechanical scarifiers can be hired out. Here’s hoping for a better looking lawn for next year….

Don’t forget to rake up leaves from lawns and borders regularly. Leaves left on the lawn for a few days will cause the grass to die off, as well as giving slugs and snails a good hiding spot. Also remember to remove leaves from around roses as this prevents blackspot spores from wintering in the soil. Once removed don’t place these dead rose leaves in your own compost heap, as this could potentially spread the blackspot!