Hold the water! Your scorched brown lawn will recover by itself
That’s what you call a weather warning...
GARDENERS worried that the heatwave has left their lovingly tended lawns looking like barren wastelands were yesterday urged not to panic.
The Royal Horticultural Society revealed it had seen a sharp increase in the number of inquiries about drought damage, receiving more calls on the issue in the past 30 days than in the whole of last year.
But it said a brown lawn should not be seen as a failure as it would quickly begin to regenerate with the showers that swept in over the weekend and that are expected to hit most parts of the country throughout the rest of week.
RHS chief horticultural advisor Guy Barter said the hot weather was ‘a challenge for the great British lawn which, after plenty of sunshine but little rain, is probably looking a little brown’.
He added: ‘In extended periods of summer drought, turf grasses turn brown and stop growing. This often looks a lot worse than it actually is, and the lawn will usually recover rapidly with renewed rainfall. It would take an extremely severe drought to kill off the lawn.’
Meanwhile, the hot weather has also kept down many of the common diseases faced by garden plants. Mr Barter added: ‘Many of the most common and troublesome diseases thrive in moist to wet conditions, especially fungal leaf diseases. The dry mild weather we’ve experienced over the past few weeks has kept these diseases under control and restricted the activities of slugs and snails.’
The Gardeners Guild, a trade network for qualified gardeners, agreed that brown patches on lawns will quickly recover in the rain. It recommends that grass is allowed to grow longer than usual, as this has the benefits of retaining moisture during dry spells and helping it cope better in gardens used by children and pets.
Gardeners Guild member Nicola Hendry also suggested the scourge of brown lawns could be a regional problem. Miss Hendry, who runs Middle Ground Gardening Services in Barford, Warwickshire, said: ‘Another explanation could be that the issue is confined to areas such as the South East, where there has been prolonged hot weather. In my part of the country we have had hot periods but also plenty of showers.’
Yesterday forecasters said that respite is on the way for worried gardeners and their parched lawns.
Gareth Harvey of MeteoGroup said it would remain warmer in the South through the early part of the week, but that most areas could expect drizzle or showers.
He added: ‘ I can imagine there are plenty of brown lawns in parts of Kent, which even during the heavy thunder storms of last weekend were hit with less than a millimetre of rain. My own lawn is certainly looking a bit dusty.
‘There is respite on the way, but although there will be showers across the North and South, there will not be bouts of prolonged, heavy rain.’
He said that early indications suggested the return of heatwave conditions of about 27C (80.6f) in the South East on Thursday and Friday, while an area of deep, low pressure could move in across the North, bringing heavy rain and strong winds on Friday.
‘Looks a lot worse than it is’