Gardening experts share their tips for bringing back lush greenery in your backyard amid summer's harsh temperatures and scant rainfall.
Chris says keeping the grass in tip-top condition can be a challenge with summer's extreme temperatures and little rainfall. (Getty Images/Westend61)
Gardening experts have revealed four tips to keep your backyard lush and green, even during harsh summer temperatures that mean little rain for parched lawns.
Chris McIlroy, gardening expert at The Grass People, highlights four key steps to keeping your lawn healthy and shares his tips for restoring it to its former glory. Speaking to The Express, he explained the challenges of summer: “Keeping your lawn looking its best during the summer can be tricky with high temperatures and little rain. During heatwaves, it's normal for your grass to wilt, become patchy and brown as it goes dormant, but all is not lost.”
“The first step I recommend is to rake the surface and remove any visibly dead grass,” Chris advised. “Then it's important to aerate the soil and allow it to breathe, and you can use an aerator or rake to poke holes in the ground so water and nutrients can reach deeper,” he added.
Chris also highlighted the importance of grass seeding, which may seem counter-intuitive but is effective in helping to grow a healthy, weed-free lawn. Once the temperatures drop, Chris recommends fertilising your lawn to encourage grass growth. Leicestershire lawn expert Jack Skilling shared his views on TikTok, highlighting the transformative power of watering every day for four weeks. He said: “The same process can absolutely be done with your lawn, so in four weeks you can see how much grass there is left in the ground.” [it] It could be something like this.”
Daily watering is essential to keep the soil from drying out, which will stunt and ultimately slow grass growth. These expert tips will quickly get your lawn looking lush and vibrant again, perfect for summer gatherings. Jeff Stonebanks, 71, is a Gardening Media writer and owner of several award-winning gardens. He shared his best tips for making your garden look bigger and more manageable.
He named his garden “Driftwood.” Scale was very important to him – it was 100 feet long and 40 feet at its widest point at the back. To make the garden appear larger than it was, he set up “garden rooms” with different themes and plants, including a central gravel garden, a summerhouse patio and a beach garden.
“For me, the concept of no small spaces or rooms worked well. On the left side of the garden are three little rooms, each with a different theme and plants,” says Jeff, who had no gardening experience before moving to the house in 2004 and taught himself everything he knows.
He said: “I created a little space at the back of the house as a writer's corner, complete with a vintage typewriter, a bistro set, a floor rug and a playful terrier. Lots of potted plants add foliage, but as they're movable I feel free to move them around from time to time. A foldable screen helps separate the room, and a rusty old garden gate also doubles as a divider.”
