A lawn is the garden background to everything from starter homes to huge country estates.
Depending on the style of the garden, a lawn can be a major element of the design, or a foil to show off glorious borders.
But, however you use it, grass needs care to keep the cultivated look.
Classic striped lawn The traditional idea of a perfect garden lawn is one that is beautifully green, cut very short and striped.
This bowling-green finish takes the sort of time and attention that only a professional greenkeeper could afford to spend.
To have well-defined stripes you need a fine lawn; the sort you were always told to keep off.
This type was once popular for smart front gardens people looked at but never set foot on.
You can get a stripy look in a normal, family-type lawn, though the effect won't be quite as pronounced, because this sort of lawn is made up of coarse textured grass.
The trick is to use a cylinder lawnmower with a roller at the back, and mow the lawn from end to end.
The stripes are created by the roller flattening the grass down in opposite directions so that alternate strips appear light and dark.
Contemporary 'designer' lawn Today's designer garden needs a more modern-looking lawn, so traditional oblong shapes are out in favor of circular, half-moon or overlapping geometric shapes.
Although this may sound a bit strange and often look slightly odd when you see them on a garden plan, they actually look very good indeed when they are in place in a garden, surrounded by plants.
A circular shape is very quick to mow, as you just start at the edge and keep going around in circles until you reach the middle.
You won't get a striped effect, but the lawn will look nice and velvety if it is well cared for.
The thing to avoid at all costs is a lawn with a fussy shape.
Lots of tight, fiddly corners and small beds cut out of the grass make it difficult to mow, and edging a lawn like this can be a nightmare.
Neglected lawns Lawns that have been left to do their own thing for a long time look decidedly run down.
The worst are those that were not laid properly in the first place, or have had a lot of hard wear without regular care.
Moss and weeds creep in and bald patches appear.
The quickest solution is to kill off the old lawn with a glyphosate-based weedkiller, then dig it up and start again with seed or turf.
But this is not always necessary.
The cheapest and easiest option is to improve the old grass instead.
You can do this gradually, by regular feeding and mowing, re-seeding or turfing bald patches and treating problems like weeds or moss.
Play lawns Lawns that are playgrounds for children and pets get especially heavy wear, but even they can be kept looking good if you give them a bit of extra attention.
The smaller the lawn, the more help it needs.
Regular feeding is vital to keep grass growing under the pressure of all those feet.
Modern lawn feeds that use slow-release fertilizer are the easy answer.
A single dose in late spring means that nutrients are released little and often throughout the season.
Don't mow too short, especially in dry weather, so the grass is not put under stress.
Set the mower blades about 3-4cm, and grass will stay green and stand up to wear very much better.
In autumn, treat it to a special care program designed to rejuvenate both the soil which has been trodden down hard during the summer and the turf which has accumulated all sorts of crushed dead stems.
By spring the lawn will be fully recovered.
Depending on the style of the garden, a lawn can be a major element of the design, or a foil to show off glorious borders.
But, however you use it, grass needs care to keep the cultivated look.
Classic striped lawn The traditional idea of a perfect garden lawn is one that is beautifully green, cut very short and striped.
This bowling-green finish takes the sort of time and attention that only a professional greenkeeper could afford to spend.
To have well-defined stripes you need a fine lawn; the sort you were always told to keep off.
This type was once popular for smart front gardens people looked at but never set foot on.
You can get a stripy look in a normal, family-type lawn, though the effect won't be quite as pronounced, because this sort of lawn is made up of coarse textured grass.
The trick is to use a cylinder lawnmower with a roller at the back, and mow the lawn from end to end.
The stripes are created by the roller flattening the grass down in opposite directions so that alternate strips appear light and dark.
Contemporary 'designer' lawn Today's designer garden needs a more modern-looking lawn, so traditional oblong shapes are out in favor of circular, half-moon or overlapping geometric shapes.
Although this may sound a bit strange and often look slightly odd when you see them on a garden plan, they actually look very good indeed when they are in place in a garden, surrounded by plants.
A circular shape is very quick to mow, as you just start at the edge and keep going around in circles until you reach the middle.
You won't get a striped effect, but the lawn will look nice and velvety if it is well cared for.
The thing to avoid at all costs is a lawn with a fussy shape.
Lots of tight, fiddly corners and small beds cut out of the grass make it difficult to mow, and edging a lawn like this can be a nightmare.
Neglected lawns Lawns that have been left to do their own thing for a long time look decidedly run down.
The worst are those that were not laid properly in the first place, or have had a lot of hard wear without regular care.
Moss and weeds creep in and bald patches appear.
The quickest solution is to kill off the old lawn with a glyphosate-based weedkiller, then dig it up and start again with seed or turf.
But this is not always necessary.
The cheapest and easiest option is to improve the old grass instead.
You can do this gradually, by regular feeding and mowing, re-seeding or turfing bald patches and treating problems like weeds or moss.
Play lawns Lawns that are playgrounds for children and pets get especially heavy wear, but even they can be kept looking good if you give them a bit of extra attention.
The smaller the lawn, the more help it needs.
Regular feeding is vital to keep grass growing under the pressure of all those feet.
Modern lawn feeds that use slow-release fertilizer are the easy answer.
A single dose in late spring means that nutrients are released little and often throughout the season.
Don't mow too short, especially in dry weather, so the grass is not put under stress.
Set the mower blades about 3-4cm, and grass will stay green and stand up to wear very much better.
In autumn, treat it to a special care program designed to rejuvenate both the soil which has been trodden down hard during the summer and the turf which has accumulated all sorts of crushed dead stems.
By spring the lawn will be fully recovered.
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