Every picture tells a story and this one says “He’s given up on the lawn”

It’s not like me to give up but bearing in mind it is only 4 years since we put the turf down and I have applied weed & feed each year, cut the grass regularly, scarified in spring and autumn, even applied top dressing eighteen months ago, it looks dreadful. Full of thatch, threadbare, a sickly pale green colour and full of weeds including a patch of clover the size of a dustbin lid.

So last week I held a beauty parade of “Professional Lawncare Specialists” and TruGreen won. In fact, Rob Edwards who operates the Cheltenham TruGreen franchise won. It’s a people business and if you don’t like the person you won’t like the business. I have to trust the people I give my hard fought pension to. It’s a northern thing. So on Thursday Rob sprayed the weeds and today he came back to aerate and feed with a high nitrogen pellet.

There’s a small part of me which is slightly embarrassed at bringing in the professionals for a job like this. After all, I could do it all myself. But the maths just don’t add up. TruGreen can do the job cheaper and better than me and in half the time. The aeration machine can be hired but it would cost more than TruGreen charge. The weed & feed can be bought anywhere but a) it’s not as good as the stuff the professionals use and b) It costs more per sq.m than TruGreen charge for applying it.

So, according to Rob, there is nothing wrong with the lawn he can’t sort out. All the weeds will be gone and the lawn will be lush, green and healthy by September. However, he then plans to “deep scarify” (sounds like a cosmetic surgery treatment), top dress with a sand/loam mix, over-seed and apply a high Potassium feed in early October which will make the lawn look like the Somme for a month or so.

For me, the one big benefit is I will have someone else to blame if it doesn’t work!

Good luck Rob.