April 11, 2025 • 21 mins
Spring has arrived in full force, bringing with it the perfect conditions for garden growth—and revealing some common problems that many gardeners face this time of year. Whether you're noticing patchy growth in your lawn or concerning symptoms on your prized hedges, this episode offers practical solutions to get your garden thriving.
I dive deep into two troubleshooting scenarios that appeared in my garden consultations this week. First, I explore the hidden causes of struggling lawns, particularly those established in new builds or recently landscaped areas. The culprit often lies beneath the surface—literally. Many modern landscaping practices create artificial soil conditions that prevent proper root development. I share my complete restoration protocol: deep aeration to bring oxygen to the roots, removing that suffocating thatch layer, strategic overseeding, and adding organic matter to build soil health naturally. These techniques address the underlying structural issues rather than just treating symptoms.
The second problem gaining momentum across gardens nationwide involves Portuguese laurel hedges. These beautiful, previously trouble-free hedges are now showing signs of fungal mildew after years of popularity. I describe the telltale symptoms to watch for and my three-part treatment approach using microbial sprays, seaweed extracts, and organic fertilizers to activate the plant's natural defense systems. I'm implementing this exact protocol in my own garden and will be tracking the results.
Between troubleshooting these garden challenges, I share updates on my spring planting progress, new arrivals in the henhouse, and upcoming garden events you won't want to miss. Connect with me at info@mastermygarden.com with your garden questions, and please take a moment to leave a review wherever you listen to help other gardeners discover these practical solutions.
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know.
Email: info@mastermygarden.com
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
how's it going, everybody, and welcome to
episode 271 of master and gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode it'ssort of covering a couple of
topics and it's related toeither a listener's question or
a question that I've got or ajob that I've had to do over the
last week or two, and, yeah,just going to chat about those.
They're probably things thatare going to be relevant to a
(00:33):
lot of people.
So that's what we're going tocover.
It's going to starttroubleshooting two problems,
two potential problems thatpeople might have in their
gardens.
And, yeah, the weather has beenfantastic since last week, so
loads of clear days, brightskies, sunshine and lovely warm
days.
So, yeah, it's been really goodnighttime.
(00:55):
We're still getting a touch offrost pretty much every night
here.
So the growth is reallystarting because of the warm
days, but it's been slightlyheld back, I guess, by two
things at this stage the coldernights and, probably at this
stage outside, the lack ofmoisture in the top kind of
winter too, which is reallystrange, you know, given that
(01:16):
it's not that terrible longsince we were complaining about
having too much.
But, yeah, the growth hasstarted, for sure, because of
temperatures, but it's beenslightly held back a little bit.
We are due to get some rainnext week and with that you're
going to see a huge explosion ofgrowth in pretty much
everything.
Perennials that are peeping outof the ground are going to take
off Definitely, weeds are goingto do their thing, going to
(01:39):
come into their season and lawns, grass, everything is going to
burst once they get that, thatrain, it's actually needed at
this stage, in that top inch, asI say, our top inch, or two, as
I say.
So, in in my garden over thelast week, lots, lots happening
and very, very busy.
Actually it's extremely busy atthe moment, just generally in
(02:01):
the garden and elsewhere.
So, yeah, things are.
Things are a little bit, alittle bit hectic, but what is
what I've been doing over thelast week is all of my onion
sets are now gone in, so that'spretty much.
I have autumn onion sets, Ihave spring onion sets and
probably in the next week I'llplant my plug plants of onions
(02:24):
as well, and that'll be all myonion supply for the guts of 12
months and sort of covered withwith those three separate,
separate plantings.
I did mention that one, one ofmy seed sowings of onions from
pretty much from a pack of theseeds.
All of them failed.
So there was an issue with theseeds and I can't remember where
(02:44):
I got them, so I had no no wayof going back with them.
Um, but yeah, I still shouldhave loads potatoes gone in, uh,
cabbage planted, all of myfirst set of salads and, and
spring onions all of my saladcrops all gone in.
So rocket, three differenttypes of lettuce, spinach,
(03:08):
spring onions all gone in.
Some new strawberries gone in,um, ever bearing ones.
So they're ones that will willhave fruit pretty much over, you
know, a lot longer period.
So they're not like thetraditional varieties.
They don't taste as good as thetraditional varieties as well,
but they do give you fruit inyear one and they do fruit over
(03:29):
a longer period of time.
So they're gone in.
Yeah, carrots and parsnips willbe sowed this week.
Peas are already planted outand I've been.
I started all of my next batchof sowing to do.
I do have to clear out my seedbox a little bit.
I am getting some patchygermination on certain things.
Probably the seed is hangingaround a little bit too long, so
(03:50):
some of them will get clearedout, but there's loads going on.
All of the beds are ready.
Um, yeah, there's, there's lotsdone, lots done and and more to
do.
So, yeah, but it's been abrilliant time for getting work
done.
New arrivals in the last kind oftwo weeks as well 10 new new
hens have arrived here andthey're, yeah, they're doing
(04:14):
really well.
So they they're point of laywhen they came and they're
they're laying lots of eggs and,yeah, they seem to have settled
in quite well, they're matchedin and happily living alongside
the existing hens.
So, yeah, all going, all goingwell there.
But again, that's another,another little thing that kind
of had to be done.
(04:34):
Over the last few weeks, my, myolder hens were laying very,
very few eggs.
So now new ones coming onstream, so back up to a steady
and constant supply, possiblyeven too many, but yeah, no,
it's, it's, it's good and yeah,they're doing really well.
So there's loads going on,loads going on here.
Um, some new perennial borders,sort of ready to be planted,
(05:00):
hoping to get to nursery overthe next couple of weeks.
Definitely want to get down toCatter Hurley nursery this year
before it closes later on theyear, and by the looks of their
posts, I need to get down soonerrather than later because they
seem to be.
You know lots of, lots ofpeople going and lots of people.
You know the fact that they'reclosing, people are going down
and trying to gather up bits, soI suspect that certain things
(05:23):
might run low.
But anyone planning to visitCairnhurley who were on the
podcast, you know whatever itwas about six months ago,
definitely you're kind of thisspring and early summer is is
your time to do that.
So, yeah, that's somewhere Iwant to do to fill out a couple
of perennial beds.
But to get to the questions, the.
The first one is actually I hadtwo to do, two little jobs on
(05:48):
lawns recently and the twosimilar ish situations, but the
and I suppose what was needed onboth is kind of the same.
So the first one was a lawnthat was sowed two years ago,
just in the autumn time before.
It was kind of the last windowor the last possible time you
(06:09):
could sow and it was.
You know it was a little bit ofa chance taken as to whether it
would do well or not.
It was a new build and it was ina in an area really good,
really good soil, so it was asilty type soil, a little bit of
sand through it.
It was a really good open side.
(06:30):
But what had happened was itwas getting tracked as the as
the ground was being leveled, itwas getting tracked by heavy
machines.
Certain areas were compactedand then there was this light
fluffy layer put on top of it,but it was a very silty layer
and the lawn didn't thrive there.
So it has done well pretty mucheverywhere, but it didn't
(06:51):
thrive in this particular spotand it's happens to be the spot
that's right outside the window.
So what was needed therebasically is because, yeah, you
see this a lot if you have sortof ground that's rooted up and
you have machines tracking on it, and then there's a layer of
(07:11):
topsoil spread on top of it.
Sometimes that layer canactually be too good and it's
the.
The natural layers that youshould see in a soil are just
not there and what ends uphappening is that topsoil on top
can compact and it can be veryair deprived, so the root zones
of the of the lawn don't reallyget gone, and that's hugely
important.
So to remedy that, it gotreally well aerated, and it was
(07:37):
aerated with a broad fork downto, with spikes down to four and
six inches.
There was organic matter addedto it.
It was scarified as well totake out a small bit of touch
that was in it.
It was slightly reseeded oroverseeded on top and then it
got lots of organic matter feedon top.
(07:58):
So feed that's going to feed itover a long period of time, but
also add organic matter.
Another good thing to do withthat lawn is to not always take
the grass off it, so allow thatyou mulch the grass a little bit
so you're getting some organicmatter starting to go into that
top layer of of of ground.
Now it is going to need to beaerated again.
(08:20):
Just by the nature of that, itwas sandy, it was fine, and so
when that that can compact up inthe top layer and again it
doesn't leave much, roots of ofgrass or roots of any plant need
air, so it doesn't get thechance to put out proper strong
roots and hence it gets weak ontop.
So that that that was the firstone.
(08:42):
Second one was a similar issuewas actually a friend of mine
who has a front lawn, gets sunbut not for a huge amount of the
day.
Again, it was a lawn that wasredone a few years ago and it
was there was topsoil put in.
Now the topsoil wasn't veryclean.
So there is you know kind ofscotch grass in it and things
like that and that looks poor.
(09:02):
But again the same thing hashappened.
It's essentially the thetopsoil was put in and it
doesn't.
It doesn't replicate you know,the levels or the layers of a
proper functioning soil and soit has compacted as well.
It's it's sort of holding on towater.
There isn't good aeration inthe ground.
So the same thing there thatgot detached, overseeded,
(09:25):
aerated and organic matter addedto it.
And again that's going to bemulched, probably once a month.
Mulch it, allow that, you know,that grass matter to break down
and go into the top layer andcreate a humic layer in there,
which is really important andthat'll get the grasses going.
So again, all of that work,remedial work, is kind of being
(09:47):
done at the moment.
Definitely there's a lot,there's a lot of moss kind of in
lawns.
You, you know some people don'tmind it at all and are happy to
leave it there.
I'm actually one of those.
I don't overly worry too muchabout moss.
I don't have that much of it asit happens, but don't overly
worry about it.
But some people like to keeptheir lawn really good and
(10:07):
definitely if, if you have moss,detach it at the moment,
overseed it, aerate it so getthat air down into the root zone
of the grasses and thenfertilize, you know, with
something that's going to be alonger term fertilizer,
something like you know anorganic fertilizer, giving you
up to kind of two months, threemonths of feeding, and do it
(10:27):
again then probably at the endof June or early July and that's
going to strengthen up thatlawn all summer.
But the aerating is a huge part.
The detaching is a huge part.
So detaching for anyone thatdoesn't know, is basically where
you get that kind of dead grassat the base of a, of a, of a
grass plant.
It's those yellow kind ofstringy stems.
(10:48):
They kind of smother out thetop of the ground and what you
need to do is detach it so youbasically scratch those out.
You can do that with a machine,you can do it, you know, on a
smaller scale with a little bitof a rake Just gather up that
patch, take it off and thenoverseed so that you get new
seeds germinating into the kindof bare patches.
It'll also take out mosses ifthere's any there, also take out
(11:12):
mosses if there's any there,and it just allows the grass
then to thicken up and tiller,which basically means that the
grasses grow sideways and fillout that space.
So that's kind of an important.
If you're interested in keepingyour lawn into, you know, a
really fine looking lawn,perfect looking lawn, then
that's kind of the things thatyou need to be doing at the
moment.
(11:32):
The other one is an interestingone.
I've spoke about it on thepodcast before.
So the other question that Igot this week was I have a
Portuguese laurel hedge and it'snot thriving.
It's showing signs of havingsome form of disease and I
mentioned this before that youknow when you see hedges that
(11:53):
are really really popular at aparticular time and you know
everybody is planting them.
So Portuguese laurel has beenthat way for a few years.
Everybody's planting it.
They're in huge demand.
They're a beautiful hedge,absolutely beautiful hedge.
I have kind of two lengths of ithere myself, planted at
different stages, and Imentioned previously on the
(12:15):
podcast that I've never had anissue with this hedge.
It looks and is very, veryhealthy, doesn't show any signs
of picking up any kind ofdiseases.
But I did caveat that at thetime, talking about the best
hedges, that potentially downthe line.
Something could start comingand attacking you know, or the,
the hedge could becomesusceptible to something or
(12:36):
other and it might start tocause issues.
That seems to be happeningaround the country now because
only recently I was talking tothree different nurseries who
are not selling any stock at themoment because they got a
mildew at the back end of lastyear, again probably down to the
fact that we had such a wetyear last year sustained wet so
(13:00):
they're getting this mildew onthe leaf and essentially it's
it's a.
It looks like a browning aroundthe edge of the leaf and right
where the brown meets the greenyou're seeing this kind of white
, really white kind of layer andthat's basically a mildew.
And the, the hedge, the sec, thefirst hedge that I planted here
(13:23):
, got that.
I suppose I only noticed thatjust at the back end of the year
when I was cutting the hedge.
The hedge had been flying allyear, looked really good, but it
got a good cutting in thewintertime and it looks really
really sorry for itself at themoment.
So, and the other hedgeactually adjoins that.
But it was planted much laterand that was perfectly clean
(13:45):
when I looked last sort of backend of the year october,
november but now I see that thatthat fungal disease or the
bacterial disease, whatever itis, is starting to travel up
along that hedge as well.
It's only at the moment goingup a little bit of the way, but
it is there and it is spreading.
So that's something that.
That's something that I noticedhere and at the same time, um, I
(14:08):
have somebody who contacted mesaying that their hedge
portuguese laurel as wellplanted.
Now they did admit that theyhaven't minded it at all.
They did allow grasses to growup between it.
They didn't mind it very wellin terms of watering over the
first 12 months, and so it hasgot no care.
But they have spent a good bitof money on it and they want to
(14:29):
basically make sure that theythey get it going well.
So, and when they sent thepictures, it's it is the same
thing.
So they have this mildew on theleaf and it's causing.
It's causing leaves to turnbrown and and the plants to
generally not thrive.
So that's sort of the second.
The second question so it's aboth.
Both of them are, strangelyenough, have come all in the in
(14:53):
the last week or two and they'reessentially the same thing in
in just in two differentlocations.
So this one, I have it here and, as I say, somebody else has it
in their garden.
So what I'm doing, and whatI've recommended that this
person does, is I'm I've justgot from probiotic carbon.
(15:13):
Karen ohanlon was on the podcast.
Dr karen ohanlon, she producesthese products and she was on
the podcast on episode 83talking about biochar.
But she produces this productthat was featured on homegrown a
couple of weeks ago and thatproduct is called cran and it's
a microbial mix and I've justpurchased that and essentially
(15:33):
what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to spray it on the hedge
and it's it's.
It's a natural fungicide,firstly, but it also strengthens
the plant and it kickstartsdifferent hormones, different
chemicals within the plant toallow it to to push out its own
antifungal, antibacterial, umtraits that the plant would have
(15:55):
and essentially juststrengthens the plant and means
that it's able to push throughany kind of diseases it has.
On homegrown, it was shown tocure buxus blight, which
obviously is is a big is a bigthing and, yeah, there was,
there was great results on that.
Now I actually haven't seen theactual episode of homegrown yet
(16:16):
, but just listening to peopleand I've heard karen talking
about previously that they youknow it had really successful
results on bucks's blight.
So that's what that's what I'mdoing with this hedge.
So this weekend it's getting aspray of the microbial mix, it's
getting a spray of fee weed, ofseaweed, and it will also get
(16:36):
some granular feed, poultrymanure, just to really push out
that growth over the next fewweeks and allow it to grow
itself out of this little stuntthat it has.
And it's a perfectly good hedge.
It just needs a little bit oftlc at this stage.
And, as I mentioned, that'skind of what happens when a
hedge becomes, or that type ofhedge becomes, really popular,
(16:57):
sometimes after a number ofyears, when you know these
hedges are grown so in so manyplaces around around the country
that what happens is there's,you know, a build-up of diseases
and they just start to presenton the hedge or on the tree or
on the plant or whatever it is.
But that's that seems to be thecase now with portuguese laurel
(17:18):
, fantastic hedge still is stillnot, still one I would be
highly recommending.
But now it just seems to bethat you have to kind of mind it
a little bit as well.
And yeah, that's, that'ssomething that has come up.
So that's kind of the the twoquestions that have come up this
week.
It's, as I say, it's been areally busy week.
I also done online coaching fora company who wanted to train
(17:42):
their staff how to grow theirown food.
So that was going on this weekand, yeah, loads, loads going on
and really brilliant timebrilliant time to be gardening.
There's loads of interestingepisodes coming up.
So a couple of open gardenfeatures I mentioned they were
starting.
There's three or four opengardens who are.
There's one recorded.
(18:03):
There's a couple in thepipeline over the next couple of
weeks, so they'll be all addedin over the next few weeks.
As I mentioned before, opengardens kind of give inspiration
to home gardeners, so that's agood, you know, it's a good
thing to do.
You go visit, you see something, you take it home to your own
garden.
So it's inspirational and, yeah, that's a big feature over the
(18:23):
next couple of weeks.
There's also some really goodgarden festivals on the horizon,
really good gardening talks onthe horizon and my chat about
those.
In the next week or two as well.
There's, yeah, obviously, thefestivals of garden and nature.
That's coming up.
Loads brilliant speakers ofthat.
I just need to have a lookthrough it and maybe get talking
(18:44):
to somebody there, but there'sa phenomenal guest to speak, a
list of guest speakers at that,and obviously bloom is on the
horizon, garden show ireland ison the horizon, clear garden
festival is on the horizon.
So there's loads going on, butwe might chat about some of
those in in the next week or twoas well, but for this week
that's the.
The two one that the two kind ofproblems or troubleshooting we
(19:07):
have possible, or issues onlawns, on two separate lawns,
but essentially the same thinglack of air in the root zone,
lack of a thriving lawn.
So what we're doing is aeration, we're detaching, overseeding
and feeding, and that might,might need to be done again
later, later on deer.
And then the second one is justlooking after and giving
(19:29):
Portuguese laurel a bit of TLC,as it suffers from mildew at the
moment, but it will grow out ofit and, yeah, I might show you
before and after picturesactually.
But, yeah, looking, lookingforward to getting it back
looking lush and green again anduh, yeah, questions like this.
If there's any questions likethat that you want answered for
(19:49):
your own garden, shoot themacross to me at info at
mastermygardencom anybody wholistens to the podcast if you
could leave a review whereveryou listen, whether you listen
on spotify or you listen on onapple podcast, leave a review of
the podcast, please, like andshare it.
The podcast also goes out everyweek on youtube.
It is literally just arecording of of me at the desk
(20:12):
recording the podcast, but somepeople like to like to watch on
youtube, so it's on youtube.
But wherever, wherever you'relistening, if you could leave a
review, that'd be brilliant andshare it as much as possible.
And yeah, let's keep keep thepodcast podcast growing.
As I mentioned, open gardensare coming up and next week's
episode will be an open gardenfeature and uh, yeah it's.
(20:34):
It's going to be a good one.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
Thanks for listening and I'lltell the next time.
Happy gardening, thank you.
how's it going, everybody, and welcome to
episode 271 of master and gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode it'ssort of covering a couple of
topics and it's related toeither a listener's question or
a question that I've got or ajob that I've had to do over the
last week or two, and, yeah,just going to chat about those.
They're probably things thatare going to be relevant to a
(00:33):
lot of people.
So that's what we're going tocover.
It's going to starttroubleshooting two problems,
two potential problems thatpeople might have in their
gardens.
And, yeah, the weather has beenfantastic since last week, so
loads of clear days, brightskies, sunshine and lovely warm
days.
So, yeah, it's been really goodnighttime.
(00:55):
We're still getting a touch offrost pretty much every night
here.
So the growth is reallystarting because of the warm
days, but it's been slightlyheld back, I guess, by two
things at this stage the coldernights and, probably at this
stage outside, the lack ofmoisture in the top kind of
winter too, which is reallystrange, you know, given that
(01:16):
it's not that terrible longsince we were complaining about
having too much.
But, yeah, the growth hasstarted, for sure, because of
temperatures, but it's beenslightly held back a little bit.
We are due to get some rainnext week and with that you're
going to see a huge explosion ofgrowth in pretty much
everything.
Perennials that are peeping outof the ground are going to take
off Definitely, weeds are goingto do their thing, going to
(01:39):
come into their season and lawns, grass, everything is going to
burst once they get that, thatrain, it's actually needed at
this stage, in that top inch, asI say, our top inch, or two, as
I say.
So, in in my garden over thelast week, lots, lots happening
and very, very busy.
Actually it's extremely busy atthe moment, just generally in
(02:01):
the garden and elsewhere.
So, yeah, things are.
Things are a little bit, alittle bit hectic, but what is
what I've been doing over thelast week is all of my onion
sets are now gone in, so that'spretty much.
I have autumn onion sets, Ihave spring onion sets and
probably in the next week I'llplant my plug plants of onions
(02:24):
as well, and that'll be all myonion supply for the guts of 12
months and sort of covered withwith those three separate,
separate plantings.
I did mention that one, one ofmy seed sowings of onions from
pretty much from a pack of theseeds.
All of them failed.
So there was an issue with theseeds and I can't remember where
(02:44):
I got them, so I had no no wayof going back with them.
Um, but yeah, I still shouldhave loads potatoes gone in, uh,
cabbage planted, all of myfirst set of salads and, and
spring onions all of my saladcrops all gone in.
So rocket, three differenttypes of lettuce, spinach,
(03:08):
spring onions all gone in.
Some new strawberries gone in,um, ever bearing ones.
So they're ones that will willhave fruit pretty much over, you
know, a lot longer period.
So they're not like thetraditional varieties.
They don't taste as good as thetraditional varieties as well,
but they do give you fruit inyear one and they do fruit over
(03:29):
a longer period of time.
So they're gone in.
Yeah, carrots and parsnips willbe sowed this week.
Peas are already planted outand I've been.
I started all of my next batchof sowing to do.
I do have to clear out my seedbox a little bit.
I am getting some patchygermination on certain things.
Probably the seed is hangingaround a little bit too long, so
(03:50):
some of them will get clearedout, but there's loads going on.
All of the beds are ready.
Um, yeah, there's, there's lotsdone, lots done and and more to
do.
So, yeah, but it's been abrilliant time for getting work
done.
New arrivals in the last kind oftwo weeks as well 10 new new
hens have arrived here andthey're, yeah, they're doing
(04:14):
really well.
So they they're point of laywhen they came and they're
they're laying lots of eggs and,yeah, they seem to have settled
in quite well, they're matchedin and happily living alongside
the existing hens.
So, yeah, all going, all goingwell there.
But again, that's another,another little thing that kind
of had to be done.
(04:34):
Over the last few weeks, my, myolder hens were laying very,
very few eggs.
So now new ones coming onstream, so back up to a steady
and constant supply, possiblyeven too many, but yeah, no,
it's, it's, it's good and yeah,they're doing really well.
So there's loads going on,loads going on here.
Um, some new perennial borders,sort of ready to be planted,
(05:00):
hoping to get to nursery overthe next couple of weeks.
Definitely want to get down toCatter Hurley nursery this year
before it closes later on theyear, and by the looks of their
posts, I need to get down soonerrather than later because they
seem to be.
You know lots of, lots ofpeople going and lots of people.
You know the fact that they'reclosing, people are going down
and trying to gather up bits, soI suspect that certain things
(05:23):
might run low.
But anyone planning to visitCairnhurley who were on the
podcast, you know whatever itwas about six months ago,
definitely you're kind of thisspring and early summer is is
your time to do that.
So, yeah, that's somewhere Iwant to do to fill out a couple
of perennial beds.
But to get to the questions, the.
The first one is actually I hadtwo to do, two little jobs on
(05:48):
lawns recently and the twosimilar ish situations, but the
and I suppose what was needed onboth is kind of the same.
So the first one was a lawnthat was sowed two years ago,
just in the autumn time before.
It was kind of the last windowor the last possible time you
(06:09):
could sow and it was.
You know it was a little bit ofa chance taken as to whether it
would do well or not.
It was a new build and it was ina in an area really good,
really good soil, so it was asilty type soil, a little bit of
sand through it.
It was a really good open side.
(06:30):
But what had happened was itwas getting tracked as the as
the ground was being leveled, itwas getting tracked by heavy
machines.
Certain areas were compactedand then there was this light
fluffy layer put on top of it,but it was a very silty layer
and the lawn didn't thrive there.
So it has done well pretty mucheverywhere, but it didn't
(06:51):
thrive in this particular spotand it's happens to be the spot
that's right outside the window.
So what was needed therebasically is because, yeah, you
see this a lot if you have sortof ground that's rooted up and
you have machines tracking on it, and then there's a layer of
(07:11):
topsoil spread on top of it.
Sometimes that layer canactually be too good and it's
the.
The natural layers that youshould see in a soil are just
not there and what ends uphappening is that topsoil on top
can compact and it can be veryair deprived, so the root zones
of the of the lawn don't reallyget gone, and that's hugely
important.
So to remedy that, it gotreally well aerated, and it was
(07:37):
aerated with a broad fork downto, with spikes down to four and
six inches.
There was organic matter addedto it.
It was scarified as well totake out a small bit of touch
that was in it.
It was slightly reseeded oroverseeded on top and then it
got lots of organic matter feedon top.
(07:58):
So feed that's going to feed itover a long period of time, but
also add organic matter.
Another good thing to do withthat lawn is to not always take
the grass off it, so allow thatyou mulch the grass a little bit
so you're getting some organicmatter starting to go into that
top layer of of of ground.
Now it is going to need to beaerated again.
(08:20):
Just by the nature of that, itwas sandy, it was fine, and so
when that that can compact up inthe top layer and again it
doesn't leave much, roots of ofgrass or roots of any plant need
air, so it doesn't get thechance to put out proper strong
roots and hence it gets weak ontop.
So that that that was the firstone.
(08:42):
Second one was a similar issuewas actually a friend of mine
who has a front lawn, gets sunbut not for a huge amount of the
day.
Again, it was a lawn that wasredone a few years ago and it
was there was topsoil put in.
Now the topsoil wasn't veryclean.
So there is you know kind ofscotch grass in it and things
like that and that looks poor.
(09:02):
But again the same thing hashappened.
It's essentially the thetopsoil was put in and it
doesn't.
It doesn't replicate you know,the levels or the layers of a
proper functioning soil and soit has compacted as well.
It's it's sort of holding on towater.
There isn't good aeration inthe ground.
So the same thing there thatgot detached, overseeded,
(09:25):
aerated and organic matter addedto it.
And again that's going to bemulched, probably once a month.
Mulch it, allow that, you know,that grass matter to break down
and go into the top layer andcreate a humic layer in there,
which is really important andthat'll get the grasses going.
So again, all of that work,remedial work, is kind of being
(09:47):
done at the moment.
Definitely there's a lot,there's a lot of moss kind of in
lawns.
You, you know some people don'tmind it at all and are happy to
leave it there.
I'm actually one of those.
I don't overly worry too muchabout moss.
I don't have that much of it asit happens, but don't overly
worry about it.
But some people like to keeptheir lawn really good and
(10:07):
definitely if, if you have moss,detach it at the moment,
overseed it, aerate it so getthat air down into the root zone
of the grasses and thenfertilize, you know, with
something that's going to be alonger term fertilizer,
something like you know anorganic fertilizer, giving you
up to kind of two months, threemonths of feeding, and do it
(10:27):
again then probably at the endof June or early July and that's
going to strengthen up thatlawn all summer.
But the aerating is a huge part.
The detaching is a huge part.
So detaching for anyone thatdoesn't know, is basically where
you get that kind of dead grassat the base of a, of a, of a
grass plant.
It's those yellow kind ofstringy stems.
(10:48):
They kind of smother out thetop of the ground and what you
need to do is detach it so youbasically scratch those out.
You can do that with a machine,you can do it, you know, on a
smaller scale with a little bitof a rake Just gather up that
patch, take it off and thenoverseed so that you get new
seeds germinating into the kindof bare patches.
It'll also take out mosses ifthere's any there, also take out
(11:12):
mosses if there's any there,and it just allows the grass
then to thicken up and tiller,which basically means that the
grasses grow sideways and fillout that space.
So that's kind of an important.
If you're interested in keepingyour lawn into, you know, a
really fine looking lawn,perfect looking lawn, then
that's kind of the things thatyou need to be doing at the
moment.
(11:32):
The other one is an interestingone.
I've spoke about it on thepodcast before.
So the other question that Igot this week was I have a
Portuguese laurel hedge and it'snot thriving.
It's showing signs of havingsome form of disease and I
mentioned this before that youknow when you see hedges that
(11:53):
are really really popular at aparticular time and you know
everybody is planting them.
So Portuguese laurel has beenthat way for a few years.
Everybody's planting it.
They're in huge demand.
They're a beautiful hedge,absolutely beautiful hedge.
I have kind of two lengths of ithere myself, planted at
different stages, and Imentioned previously on the
(12:15):
podcast that I've never had anissue with this hedge.
It looks and is very, veryhealthy, doesn't show any signs
of picking up any kind ofdiseases.
But I did caveat that at thetime, talking about the best
hedges, that potentially downthe line.
Something could start comingand attacking you know, or the,
the hedge could becomesusceptible to something or
(12:36):
other and it might start tocause issues.
That seems to be happeningaround the country now because
only recently I was talking tothree different nurseries who
are not selling any stock at themoment because they got a
mildew at the back end of lastyear, again probably down to the
fact that we had such a wetyear last year sustained wet so
(13:00):
they're getting this mildew onthe leaf and essentially it's
it's a.
It looks like a browning aroundthe edge of the leaf and right
where the brown meets the greenyou're seeing this kind of white
, really white kind of layer andthat's basically a mildew.
And the, the hedge, the sec, thefirst hedge that I planted here
(13:23):
, got that.
I suppose I only noticed thatjust at the back end of the year
when I was cutting the hedge.
The hedge had been flying allyear, looked really good, but it
got a good cutting in thewintertime and it looks really
really sorry for itself at themoment.
So, and the other hedgeactually adjoins that.
But it was planted much laterand that was perfectly clean
(13:45):
when I looked last sort of backend of the year october,
november but now I see that thatthat fungal disease or the
bacterial disease, whatever itis, is starting to travel up
along that hedge as well.
It's only at the moment goingup a little bit of the way, but
it is there and it is spreading.
So that's something that.
That's something that I noticedhere and at the same time, um, I
(14:08):
have somebody who contacted mesaying that their hedge
portuguese laurel as wellplanted.
Now they did admit that theyhaven't minded it at all.
They did allow grasses to growup between it.
They didn't mind it very wellin terms of watering over the
first 12 months, and so it hasgot no care.
But they have spent a good bitof money on it and they want to
(14:29):
basically make sure that theythey get it going well.
So, and when they sent thepictures, it's it is the same
thing.
So they have this mildew on theleaf and it's causing.
It's causing leaves to turnbrown and and the plants to
generally not thrive.
So that's sort of the second.
The second question so it's aboth.
Both of them are, strangelyenough, have come all in the in
(14:53):
the last week or two and they'reessentially the same thing in
in just in two differentlocations.
So this one, I have it here and, as I say, somebody else has it
in their garden.
So what I'm doing, and whatI've recommended that this
person does, is I'm I've justgot from probiotic carbon.
(15:13):
Karen ohanlon was on the podcast.
Dr karen ohanlon, she producesthese products and she was on
the podcast on episode 83talking about biochar.
But she produces this productthat was featured on homegrown a
couple of weeks ago and thatproduct is called cran and it's
a microbial mix and I've justpurchased that and essentially
(15:33):
what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to spray it on the hedge
and it's it's.
It's a natural fungicide,firstly, but it also strengthens
the plant and it kickstartsdifferent hormones, different
chemicals within the plant toallow it to to push out its own
antifungal, antibacterial, umtraits that the plant would have
(15:55):
and essentially juststrengthens the plant and means
that it's able to push throughany kind of diseases it has.
On homegrown, it was shown tocure buxus blight, which
obviously is is a big is a bigthing and, yeah, there was,
there was great results on that.
Now I actually haven't seen theactual episode of homegrown yet
(16:16):
, but just listening to peopleand I've heard karen talking
about previously that they youknow it had really successful
results on bucks's blight.
So that's what that's what I'mdoing with this hedge.
So this weekend it's getting aspray of the microbial mix, it's
getting a spray of fee weed, ofseaweed, and it will also get
(16:36):
some granular feed, poultrymanure, just to really push out
that growth over the next fewweeks and allow it to grow
itself out of this little stuntthat it has.
And it's a perfectly good hedge.
It just needs a little bit oftlc at this stage.
And, as I mentioned, that'skind of what happens when a
hedge becomes, or that type ofhedge becomes, really popular,
(16:57):
sometimes after a number ofyears, when you know these
hedges are grown so in so manyplaces around around the country
that what happens is there's,you know, a build-up of diseases
and they just start to presenton the hedge or on the tree or
on the plant or whatever it is.
But that's that seems to be thecase now with portuguese laurel
(17:18):
, fantastic hedge still is stillnot, still one I would be
highly recommending.
But now it just seems to bethat you have to kind of mind it
a little bit as well.
And yeah, that's, that'ssomething that has come up.
So that's kind of the the twoquestions that have come up this
week.
It's, as I say, it's been areally busy week.
I also done online coaching fora company who wanted to train
(17:42):
their staff how to grow theirown food.
So that was going on this weekand, yeah, loads, loads going on
and really brilliant timebrilliant time to be gardening.
There's loads of interestingepisodes coming up.
So a couple of open gardenfeatures I mentioned they were
starting.
There's three or four opengardens who are.
There's one recorded.
(18:03):
There's a couple in thepipeline over the next couple of
weeks, so they'll be all addedin over the next few weeks.
As I mentioned before, opengardens kind of give inspiration
to home gardeners, so that's agood, you know, it's a good
thing to do.
You go visit, you see something, you take it home to your own
garden.
So it's inspirational and, yeah, that's a big feature over the
(18:23):
next couple of weeks.
There's also some really goodgarden festivals on the horizon,
really good gardening talks onthe horizon and my chat about
those.
In the next week or two as well.
There's, yeah, obviously, thefestivals of garden and nature.
That's coming up.
Loads brilliant speakers ofthat.
I just need to have a lookthrough it and maybe get talking
(18:44):
to somebody there, but there'sa phenomenal guest to speak, a
list of guest speakers at that,and obviously bloom is on the
horizon, garden show ireland ison the horizon, clear garden
festival is on the horizon.
So there's loads going on, butwe might chat about some of
those in in the next week or twoas well, but for this week
that's the.
The two one that the two kind ofproblems or troubleshooting we
(19:07):
have possible, or issues onlawns, on two separate lawns,
but essentially the same thinglack of air in the root zone,
lack of a thriving lawn.
So what we're doing is aeration, we're detaching, overseeding
and feeding, and that might,might need to be done again
later, later on deer.
And then the second one is justlooking after and giving
(19:29):
Portuguese laurel a bit of TLC,as it suffers from mildew at the
moment, but it will grow out ofit and, yeah, I might show you
before and after picturesactually.
But, yeah, looking, lookingforward to getting it back
looking lush and green again anduh, yeah, questions like this.
If there's any questions likethat that you want answered for
(19:49):
your own garden, shoot themacross to me at info at
mastermygardencom anybody wholistens to the podcast if you
could leave a review whereveryou listen, whether you listen
on spotify or you listen on onapple podcast, leave a review of
the podcast, please, like andshare it.
The podcast also goes out everyweek on youtube.
It is literally just arecording of of me at the desk
(20:12):
recording the podcast, but somepeople like to like to watch on
youtube, so it's on youtube.
But wherever, wherever you'relistening, if you could leave a
review, that'd be brilliant andshare it as much as possible.
And yeah, let's keep keep thepodcast podcast growing.
As I mentioned, open gardensare coming up and next week's
episode will be an open gardenfeature and uh, yeah it's.
(20:34):
It's going to be a good one.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
Thanks for listening and I'lltell the next time.
Happy gardening, thank you.
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