KM Lawn Care

02/07/2025

28 year old American icon,
No not a film or rock star but my John Deere 14SB mower!
Originally a silver deck model I purchased new in July 1997 for £650, which seemed like a lot of money then but it was streets ahead of anything else on the market at that time and the dealer was offering a free picnic basket with every order so I decided to take a chance on it as a replacement to a 24” Webb cylinder mower that wasn’t suitable for a lot of the work I was doing.
The 14SB has been amazing, the only expensive repair has been a new blade clutch around 15 years ago, apart from that just routine service items.
It will cut almost anything and the height adjustment is higher than any of my other mowers.
I still use it professionally and apart from it being noisier than the modern machines it is the best mower I have ever owned.
At 45kg it is at least 10kg lighter than any of my Weibangs and if the transmission ever fails I will keep it as a push mower
I’ve got a shelf full of spares, which I’ve snapped up as I’ve come across them but John Deere no longer make walk behind mowers so I know that eventually parts will dry up and something will go wrong that I can’t fix and that will be the end of it.
But until then I will continue to enjoy using it and wondering whether I’ve got the oldest mower in the UK still in regular use

26/06/2025

We may have enjoyed the hot, dry Spring but your lawn will not have, as you can see from the photo of my lawn below.
UK lawn grasses are cool climate plants so they are happiest in the earlier or later months of the year.
During hot spells they tend to go dormant, the last thing they want is us trying to wake them up so delay any harsh treatments and take a break from the mowing.
On a large lawn it is very unlikely that irrigation will have any impact so unless it’s a newly laid or young lawn it’s probably best to let nature take its course and wait for the rain to return.
Grass is very resilient and will more than likely green up again once moisture levels increase.
When the rain returns you can help the lawn to recover by following a few lawn care best practices.
Raise the cutting height and make sure the blade is sharp.
Cut the lawn in different directions, this not only avoids wheel ruts forming but also strengthens the grass blades.
If you have a mulching mower use that instead of collecting the clippings and taking away moisture and nutrients, if you don’t have a mulching mower you can leave the collector off if the grass is dry and leave the clippings on the lawn.
Once recovery is underway you can apply a gentle
bio-stimulant such as liquid seaw**d or mint to provide a whole range of nutrients.
To help prevent future issues you should follow a regime of regular feeding to build up grass strength, together with scarification and aeration at the appropriate times and w**d and moss control to eliminate competition.
Applications of wetting agent will help the lawn retain what moisture it gets and avoid dry patches, making the appearance more uniform.
If your lawn is particularly susceptible to drought you might consider checking the depth of soil under it is adequate for the roots to have fully established or getting a soil test to confirm that the soil has the required nutrients to promote strong grass growth.

16/06/2025

If you’re a keen fan of lawn care then you’ll probably know how to stripe your lawn.
This example showcases a chequer board design with triple width stripes
I was very pleased to have the opportunity to create this, the lawn itself was flat and had space all the way around it for me to be able to run the mower off the end of the stripe to give a clean finish.
The client commissioned me to complete a full lawn renovation including w**d and moss control together with both granular and liquid feeding to achieve a strong and healthy lawn prior to producing the design for a special event.
I used the Weibang Legacy Pro roller mower which is a superb machine, and finished the edges using the Atom professional lawn edger and Husqvarna battery strimmer.
Triple striping takes a bit of skill but once you get the hang of multiple lawn striping it’s just a matter of losing yourself in the mp3 music and going up and down and up and down, for quite a long time really, then starting all over again to create the crossing stripes, if you want to achieve a chequerboard design.
I’m going to do a post on double and triple striping later but I’m happy to give tips and advice if you message me.

26/12/2024

28/05/2023

It’s time to get the sprinkler out!!
After such a wet Spring it seems incredible but 2 weeks without rain and the grass is losing it’s colour.
Best to water either early morning or evening during sunny days and set a reminder on your phone so you don’t forget to turn it off
Apart from irrigating raise the blade height on the mower to leave the grass longer and protect the roots against scorching and remember “No lawn treatments while the grass is under stress”

15/05/2023

Thank goodness the weather has finally caught up with the season!!
Hopefully the lack of rain in the weather forecast will slow down grass growth and enable a decent finish to be obtained,
the rate of growth over the past few weeks has been exceptional and this has meant mowing for necessity rather than being able to achieve that perfect vision we all strive for.