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It's autumn, so that means we need to get those bulbs in the ground ready
for all that wonderful spring colour your looking forward too. If you haven't thought about this or don't
know what you can have, give us a call for ideas and prices. You might also need leaves cleared - we do that
too. It may be November, but most Daffodils and some Tulips can go into the ground as late
as January! |
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Gritting & snow clearance |
We've had some amazing weather recently but but the MET Office is warning of possible
snow in the next month! We have a tonne of grit ready and waiting. Each year we clear roads,
paths and driveways and use about 2-3 tonnes of grit. Call us now to book you in for Priority
clearance (6 places have already gone). Contact us now for further details on 0800 093-0194 |
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Do you have a real Christmas tree each year. We hand pick
our non-drop Nordic trees for our customers for delivery at the beginning of December. Prices are now available
from our dowloads page. Our suppliers regularly have between 35,000 and 60,000 trees.
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12 November,
2011 7 Simple
Steps to a Beautiful Lawn next Summer If you take pride in your lawn, give itthe best possible start this springtime Although no two lawns are the same, basic care of any lawn does
not change. Those who take pride in the appearance of their garden and those who want it to look better
than next doors, look for the same results in their lawn: - Neat & tidy
- Healthy
- Little or no visible weeds
- Little
or no moss
- Traditional English Garden
stripes
We are introducing a new service to our spring
line. GREEN START. The opportunity to give you’re lawn the very best chance to
shine through this summer. There are a total of 7 steps to Green Start; however, some of these can be done
independently. This is what GREEN START does. 1
1st cut of the year Too many
people place too little importance on the first cut of the year. Cut too high and it will take too long
to obtain the final result of a crisp tidy lawn. Cut it too short and late frost could cause the same delays
and possibly cause damage to the base of the grass blades. Extreme cases can cause large patches of lawn
to die off (from scalping), however, this is rare. We evaluate
the condition of your lawn, its quality, the seed mix and the macro and microclimate of your garden’s environment.
We then cut the grass to the appropriate length. We follow on from this over the next 4-6 weeks
by reducing the height of cut on a weekly basis until we reach a suitable height for the topography of the ground, the make
up of your lawn and what you find aesthetically pleasing. 2
Trim the edges It is very easy to underestimate how quickly
and how great an impact a simple trim on the edges of your lawn can make to the overall appearance and finish of your garden.
This does not just apply to the edge of borders but also pathways, patios, brick edgings, walls, fences and stepping
stones. If, however, the growth is excessive, we would take care of this in the next step. 3
Re-edging Part of our renovation work is to re-cut the
edge of the lawn to redefine a neat and tidy edge. If this has been unattended for many years, most likely
the entire lawn could benefit. This will transform your garden in the same way as a well attended lawn
just having the edge trimmed. We use either a square or bevelled cut. This can be your
preference or if you are unsure, we will make the best choice to match your garden and borders. 4 Moss Treatment Moss build up on any lawn is mainly due to 3 factors: Excessive shade
Poor drainage
Heavy traffic (children playing) There are other causes
less often seen; high water table, badly laid lawn, ‘smearing’, ‘compaction’ (excessive use of the
lawn when it is sodden or soaking wet). Killing moss is a
simple process. Applying a mix of iron sulphate, ammonium sulphate and fine sand, commonly known as ‘Lawn
Sand’, ‘burns’ the moss and under the influence of the correct weather conditions will the turn the moss
black in a period of 4 days. There is no need to worry about damage to
your grass. The Lawn Sand has very fine particles which ‘slide’ off the side of grass blades.
Moss grows horizontally and has a much larger surface area to catch these particles. How effective the treatment is, depends largely on how serious your moss problem is. Some
species and varieties have a very prostrate growth habit (thin and wide) and may be less than 1cm thick. Others
reach a height of 4cms or more. It is very difficult with one application to completely kill all of the
moss when it is this deep and may take 2 or 3 treatments to obtain the required result. A further treatment can be made in the autumn. Please note, moss treatment does not affect
weeds! 5
Remove dead moss Unless the dead moss you are left with is
removed, your lawn will have gained no further advantage in prospering. The root systems of ‘dead
moss’ will still draw water from the soil. If the moss problem is large enough, it can starve the
grass of water, especially if the spring season only has short light showers as we had last year. To remove the moss, we must ‘scarify’. This is simply vigorous, heavy raking
that will rip out the dead moss and other unwanted bulky grasses. The finer lawn grass is generally unaffected
by this process because of its growth habit as a monocotyledon (tall, thin blades). In slight to moderate cases, there is very little visible difference in the appearance of your lawn, when
looked at from your home. Look closely before and after at one area of your lawn, it will show a marked
difference. On seriously affected lawns, the difference will be very noticeable. There
may be many bald patches created from where moss has been removed. Do not worry about this.
This is a good thing. Your lawn is now a partially completed canvas. All we need
do is fill in the blanks. 6
Seeding and over-seeding At this stage we
look very carefully at the seed mix of your lawn. We also take into consideration the topography and the
macro and microclimate. These enable us to match the seed mix we put down to gain the best match with your
existing lawn (type and colour) and the best growth potential. There
are three types of grass; clump-forming, stoloniferous and rhizomatous. The proportions will vary from
one garden to the next. Even between neighbours. We seed the bare areas and ‘over-seed’
into existing areas of grass to blend the new with the old. IMPORTANT:
ONCE SEEDED, YOU MUST WATER THE LAWN EVERY DAY IT DOES NOT RAIN, FOR A PERIOD OF 1-2 WEEKS. FAIL
TO DO THIS AND MOST OF THE SEED CAN DIE. To speed the result,
we can pre-germinate the seed beforehand. 7
Feed and weed treatment Last but not least,
we need to feed the grass, new and old. At the same time we try to kill off as much of the ‘plantains’
(broadleaf ) weeds in your lawn. Any plant feed has 3 major soil-derived nutrients;
Nitrogen (N):Phosphorous (P): Potassium (K). This is why all plant foods quote an N:P:K ratio.
A balanced feed will have 7:7:7. A spring feed for your lawn will have higher levels of Nitrogen.
This is the part of the food that makes your grass grow greener. A typical example of this is Levington
Evergreen Extra 14:2:4. The weed killer is ‘systemic’
or ‘translocated’. This enters through the leaf and kills from the root up. We will apply the right mix of feed and weed at the correct rate to maximise growth potential and weed reduction. Later n the year we can apply an autumn feed that strengthens the root system
over the winter. IMPORTANT There is a limited window for carrying out this work. Seeding needs to take place by the
end of the 1st week of May. This in turn needs to be approximately 6 weeks after the moss treatment
has gone down. Simply, ALL MOSS TREATMENTS MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE THE 3RD WEEK OF MARCH. GENERALLY,
WE START AT THE BEGINNING OF MARCH. Book your garden in now to avoid disappointment! There is a lot of information to take in here and we are here to help and advise. Choosing
which level of service you want is very simple. Below are details and when you have told us what you would
like us to do for you, we will come and give you a no obligation free quotation.
| | GOLD – 7 stagesAs SILVER, plus - Moss
treatment
- Scarify lawn
| | | | | | | | | | | SILVER – 5 StagesAs BRONZE, plus - Seeding and over-seeding
- Feed and weed treatment
| | | | | | | BRONZE
– 3 Stages
- 1st cut
- Re-cut
edges
- Trim edges
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Our offer – Book before the end of February - Cost of seed included
- 50% off autumn lawn treatment
- Go for GOLD and have your lawn cut at HALF the 1st cut price - for the
rest of the year
This is a
limited offer.
We have 17 time slots available for this service and these will be filled quickly so don’t delay in replying.
If you want to discuss any of the above or have any questions, please call us free and our horticultural adviser will
be happy to help you. One more thing. It’s
important. We want you to be 100% satisfied with our
high quality services. If, for any reason, you feel that: - The volume of moss in your lawn has not been significantly reduced
- The number of weeds in your lawn has not been significantly reduced
- Your lawn does not have more vigour
- Your grass is not
greener and thicker
by the summer (assuming good weather), simply let us know and we will come back in the autumn and redo the work completely
free of charge. Obviously, in offering you this no-quibble
guarantee we are confident that every aspect of our service is of the highest quality, reliable and thoroughly tested.
If we didn’t insist on giving you the highest quality of service, we wouldn’t dare offer you this guarantee. Call our FREEPHONE number - 0800-093-0194 now to arrange a free, no obligation appointment to discuss your garden and what we can do for you.
You can always E-mail us at nick@lawnandborder.co.uk Warmly Nick BarbanGarden Coach & Horticultural Adviser P.S.
These are not the only service we provide for your lawn or the rest of your garden. The list is
too long for this letter. Call us free for details on our services. P.P.S. Remember
– only 17 time slots available. DON’T DELAY – BOOK TODAY. P.P.P.S. Introduce a friend who
takes up our service and receive a £15 voucher – check the referrals page for further details FREEPHONE
0800-093-0194
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TO BOOK YOUR APPOINTMENT, CLICK HERE
TRANSFORM YOUR GARDEN
What would you like to do in your garden?
New Lawn, New Plants, New Patio, New
Decking, New Fencing, New Water Feature
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NEW LAWN
Every once in a while we feel the need to
update our garden. Our lawns may look a bit old or tired, maybe worn out from the kids playing
football or just running around through sprinklers in the hot summer sun - beautiful to watch and enjoy but not very goos
for your lawn. Just like other living orgasisms in your garden, grass can
get worn out die and worst of all, be taken over by moss, lychens, clover,
comfrey, plantains and a whole other host of nasties that can ruin your lawn
grass. Although we can over-seed, sometimes our impatience can drive us to quicker results
and thats why TURF is a brilliant alternative to seed. We use Medallion TURF
which has the advantage of being cut square, is cut to a consitant depth, has consitant width, the soil
has a consitant part-clay base which is slightly alkaline (can sustain a better quality of grass). To the right is one
example of the dozens of new lawns we've laid - this one is only 100 square meters. As you can see, it
was in a pretty bad state to begin with. No matter how bad you think your garden may be, I can pretty much
guarantee, I've seen worse.
NEW PLANTS
Injecting
new colour to your garden with new plants is the best and quickest way to bring your garden
to life. There are so many trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals,
bi-annuals, bedding plants, bulbs and grasses that you
could introduce to your garden, we could have a dozen pages on this website full of pictures and not even
scratch the surface. Each garden is different and each plants is different; size,
shape, form, texture, colour, growth rate,
flower heads, leaves, buds, catkins; the list is practically
endless.
We can look at your garden in depth, discuss the practicalities of what will and won't
work in your garden; what colours you like and don't; what favorites have you got or
would like; is there a theme that you have considered - tropical, mediterranean, cottage
garden, new age, modernistic, formal, informal,
hard landscaped, soft landscaped, minimalist. Some ideas work and
some don't. Call us now to book yourself a FREE, NO OBLIGATION appointment to discuss your needs are and lets see what
we can do for you.
NEW PATIO
Any garden landscaping can benefit from the addition
of a patio. It adds a new dimension and new texture to the make up of your garden. As there
are so many variations to the materials that can be used, whatever type of patio you want to create, a new
landscaped outlook can be achieved. Typically, most patios will comprise of 300x300 or 600x600
slabs. There are manu more exotic and interesting variation that can be used; cobbles, slate,
sets(slabs of varying sizes), york stone, conrete, rivens
and many more.
Choosing the position of your new patio can change how your garden will
look. A lot will depend on the aspect of your garden, where the main doors open our into
your back garden, where the sun sets and where the light falls in your garden.
We can also wire in lighting that will illuminate your patio area for evening dining and
you can also have mood lighting from LEDs embedded into the patio. You can even have these
on a remote control system which will work from inside the house rather than having external switches.
NEW DECKING, fencing, sheds
One of the newest innovations for landscaping
your garden is the introduction of decking. Generally made from softwood(mostly
Redwood from Northern Europe) and all FSC registered(all timber from sustainable/renewable
resources), even treated decks will have a lighter finish. Hardwood is available but is
a lot more expensive but is much more durable.
Due to the versatility of timber decking, there are so
many variations of decking design that can be created, your only limitation is your imagination.
We
have built many decks. Small decking to create an eating area and larger decking
for partying. Our favorite was a 25 square meter raised deck with standard lights and built in mood lighting.
Butting the new decking up against an existing conservatory, we were told that that they
had breakfast on the new decking every day for the rest of the summer. That made us smile. A beautiful a
functional deck is a goal fulfilled and a job well done.
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TOO TIRED?
TOO BUSY?
TOO MUCH LIKE HARD WORK? |
Wouldn't it be nice to
just sit
and enjoy? |
We all love our gardens. Sun bathing, relaxing, BBQ's, listening to children play
or just enjoying how wonderful our gardens are.
Unfortunately, we sometimes don't have the
energy, time or inclination to get out there and do what needs to be done. We are all very good at finding something else
to do first or just getting side-tracked and running out of time, after all, we only have "2 days off" each week.
Life manages to allow this to happen all year round.
At Lawn & Border, we are never too tired or too busy and
we love the hard work - the results are always worth it.
Nick Barban, Garden Coach
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We are the #1 independent garden services supplier, with the widest range
of
services available to the Residential and Commercial markets in Croydon,
Reigate, Banstead, Epsom, Tadworth, Ashtead,
Sutton and the South London Boroughs
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