A potted guide to...
Reviving your lawn
Like hair, lawns need a good brush once in a while to rid them of knotty bits. The grass will be perfectly OK without you fussing over it with a rake, but if you find yourself with a spare hour on a bright autumn morning, you could do much worse than to scarify it. Besides being beneficial for your lawn, it’s a jolly good workout.
You’ll need to mow first. Once that’s done, take a spring-tined rake and, starting in one corner, pull it over the grass, pushing down firmly as you do so. Masses of moss, dead grass and other stuff will magically appear in great clumps. It’s best to work in patches, picking up the detritus bit by bit. It’s also a good idea to keep everything going in roughly the same direction — once you’ve done the whole lawn, and if you’ve still got some puff, you should make a quarter-turn and repeat the process.
Don’t be alarmed by the scraggy-looking mess you end up with – those bald spots are normal and the grass will soon grow back. If you end up with bare patches, you can repair them by sowing grass seed. Your lawn will thank you for its annual brush by displaying renewed vigour next year.
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We dig this
As the nights draw in, you can fight against the dying of the light and keep the chill off in the garden with this Cor-Ten steel fire pit. Just the thing for toasting marshmallows at Halloween, it naturally weathers to a chic rusty finish and comes in five sizes, from a 60cm-wide model (£64) to a 150cm giant (£360). roundwood.com
Be inspired
It is Apple Day at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden next Sunday, 10am-4pm. Tickets cost £3, in addition to the £5 garden entry fee (botanic.cam.ac.uk).
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The RHS Shades of Autumn show is at the Horticultural Halls, London SW1, on Friday and Saturday, 10am-5pm. Entry costs £8, RHS members free (rhs.org.uk).