Secrets of lustrous lawns

•  Lawn tonics

Some highly successful lawn growers achieve great results with lawn tonics made from the most ordinary items. Add any of the following ingredients to the reservoir of a 12-16-litre garden sprayer and water your lawn with the mixture every three weeks or so. Adding 1 cup (250ml) washing-up liquid each time will help to spread the solution more evenly and make it stick to blades of grass. Try some of the following lawn tonics:

1.  A 330-ml can of non-diet cola or beer. The sugar in both stimulates microbes that help to break up the soil.
2.  A 1-cup (250-ml) dose of golden syrup or molasses. (See note on sugar, above.)
3.  A 1-cup (250-ml) dose of household ammonia. This will add nitrates, the primary ingredient in most fertilizers.
4.  A ½- cup (125-ml) dose of mouthwash. The alcohol in mouthwash kills bacteria and spores and helps to deter some pests.

•  Recycle your grass

Take a cue from public parks and golf courses and ‘grass cycle’ when you mow your lawn, which means leaving clippings on your lawn when you finish. Just mow often enough to make sure that only a third of the length of the grass blades is chopped off each time. The resulting clippings serve as beneficial mulch and keep garden waste out of landfill sites.

•  Three temporary tree-trunk protectors

If you are growing a number of fragile tree saplings that would suffer badly if they were accidentally rammed with your mower, wrap them up before you mow. Wrap slender trunks in bubble wrap or several sheets of newspaper secured with masking tape or gaffer tape. An old towel pinned with two or three large safety pins will also work. All three wraps are easy to put up and take down.

•  Oil your mower blades

Spraying lawnmower blades and the underside of the lawnmower housing with olive oil cooking spray or WD-40 will help to keep cut grass from building up in your mower, so whip out a can and spray away thoroughly before you use your mower.

•  A pair of pantihose for a power mower?

Believe it or not, yes. A few layers of old pantihose (or two fabric-softener sheets) will protect the air-intake opening on your power mower — specifically, the carburettor intake horn. Just cut the material to size and secure it to the horn with gaffer tape.

•  Coat-hanger topiary for ground covers

If you take the low-maintenance route and choose a decorative ground cover in preference to a grassy lawn, you can ornament the expanse with a mini topiary or two. Turn wire coat hangers into frames in the shape of your choice: a circle, a heart, animals and birds — even someone’s initials. Anchor the frame into the soil and train strands of the plants to cover it, using clippers to neaten the growth as necessary.