I often get calls from Friends, Friends of Friends, Relatives and more often than not complete strangers who are responding to our adverts asking me to pop over and have a look at a problem on their lawn which they fear will take it over and kill the whole lot.

Quite often, especially at this time of year these problems are caused by a lack of water..."But David" I hear you say..." it hasn't stopped raining this summer"

Well that is right, it has rained a lot recently, but up until a month ago it had been reasonably dry, with frequent light showers, although not enough to really give the ground a good soaking.

But never underestimate the power of the wind, a light wind can dry out the ground quicker than the sun, so the warm(ish) temperatures the lack of heavy downfalls and the windy conditions can cause a large percentage of the lawn problems.

The next most popular reason is your common pests, grubs, leather jackets...all a problem, all very treatable.

There are others, such as fungal issues, but these are less common but are just as treatable with the right know how.

But a few weeks ago I was called to a property in the Teddington area and I was stumped. A perfectly right angled patch of grass had died in the middle of the front lawn of this property. My initial thought was that the customer has left his Green recycling box on the lawn for a few weeks and it had created a perfect rectangle of dead lawn under it. Ironic?

He insisted that this was not the case, in fact all his waste accoutrement were kept down a side alleyway.

The only suggestion I could come up with was that I dig out the dead patch, replace the soil underneath just in case and then put a nice new fresh piece of turf down.

All was agreed, I came a few days later to carry out my plan. I started to cut out the dead patch, first slicing all the way around it ready to lift out. New soil at the ready.

BANG!!

Well, this was a first, I remember that the client had told me the lawn had been laid new about a year ago. Well who ever had done it had for some reason had TURFED OVER A MANHOLE COVER!!!!

The perfectly rectangular patch of dead grass all of a sudden made perfect sense.

Now what to do with an ugly drain cover in the middle of the lawn?  A portfolio of pot plants have been sent over to the client to see if any of them take their fancy to cover the offending metal area.

It goes to show, as I have always said, every day is a school day.

Article written by David Salisbury