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So you’ve decided to take the plunge, start saving the environment, make your lawn easy to maintain, green all year round and invest in an artificial lawn. Far from Astroturf, good quality artificial grass is now almost indistinguishable from real grass. The difference is that you never have to cut it, trim it, water it or feed it. Ever. The only maintenance that it requires is the occasional hose down or hoover. Nowadays, you can choose the ultimate in artificial grass and go for a lush spring grass with three different colours in it and the feel of real grass.

How to Install Your New Lawn
What you need:
Spade
Hand Roller/Vibrating Plate
Hammer
Nails
Wood for the border
Spatula

When you receive your new lawn, you can begin the installation process straight away.

For Gardens:
First, you need to prepare your garden. Remove any vegetation and any rocks, so that only soil remains. Then, a layer of sand must be installed. Spread the sand as evenly as possible, either by using a hand roller or a vibrating plate. You should wet this layer a day before you lay the artificial grass. Then, nail a textile weed barrier to this base (having a border of wood helps this part of the process).

If your grass has direction, then make sure that every roll faces the right way. When you’ve laid out your rolls of grass, fold the edges in on themselves. Use the seaming tape to secure the rolls together. First nail the seaming tape to the base, making sure that it is laid centrally between two rolls. Apply adhesive to the seaming tape with a spatula and fold the edges of the grass rolls down and press together so they bond. For the borders, nail the edges to the wooden beams.

For Hard Surfaces:
If you’ve decided to install artificial grass on a hard surface, then all you have to do is give the surface a good clean and remove any surface imperfections. The rolls can be laid loose or secured with a small amount of adhesive.

Brush the grass so it looks its best and sit back and admire your work. Artificial grass can last up to twenty years, so though artificial grass prices may seem a lot up front, they will actually give you great value for money for very little effort.

Image from the RHS

National Gardening Week starts next week (15-21 April). To celebrate we have have created a calendar for you to do something garden-oriented every day.

The lighter evenings means hopefully you have some time after work to dedicate to your garden, and a little time spent regularly is the best way to get great results form your gardens.

Monday
Browse through seed catalogues or search online and get planning for a riot of colour and a bountiful vegetable plot this year. Make a list of what seeds and plants you want to grow this year, if you have time you can place your order today too, and then things should arrive ready for the weekend.

Tuesday
Turn over the compost in your compost heap if you have one, if you don’t have a compost heap why not invest in a wormery – which will compost household waste quickly and easily for you, and can be kept in the smallest garden, or in the garage if you prefer.

Wednesday
Wage war on slugs and snails. The milder wet weather is ideal for breading slugs and snails so you want to make a concerted effort to get rid of them now, before they multiply.

You can lay orange skins around the flower beds to encourage them to cluster in one place to make collecting them easier. Place a layer of dishwasher salt in an empty can and drop the creatures in.

If you are squeamish about killing slugs you can just collect them and release them into open ground, but deposit them well away from other people’s gardens.

Remove all garden debris and dead leaves as these are places slugs and snails love to lay their eggs.

Thursday
Before planting vegetables you should dig over your vegetable beds, removing spent tubers, stones and weeds, and adding well rotted compost. If you were very orgainsed you may have already done this in the autumn, in which case you are good to go.

Plan your planting for the growing season, using your list from Mondays wish list. Decide what you are going to grow and where . If you have your vegetable seeds you can start planting them today. See our growing plants form seeds project.

Friday
Pop into your local garden center or nursery to stock up on potting compost, moisture retaining granules, containers, hanging baskets and liners.

If you live in milder parts of the UK you may be confident to buy frost tender annuals, although it may be a bit early in many areas, unless you have a greenhouse to keep them insulated should the temperatures drop again. However you can keep plants covered with garden fleece in at night if you live in a milder areas.

Saturday
Rather than spend a full day in the garden ease yourselves into physical activity spend half the day digging, planting and sowing in line with your plan. You may even want to mow the lawn if it needs it, and the ground isn’t too wet, set the blades high to avoid damage to the early growth.

Spend the rest of the day visiting a local open garden – there are lots of events happening around the country that you may like to get involved with. Start out by seeing what the Royal Horticultural Society are doing.

Sunday
Like Saturday, do some physical work in the garden, you may want to aerate your lawn to encourage growth, now is also a good time to prune wisteria and some other flowering climbers. Gardeners World always has a list of jobs to do each week.

Spend the rest of the time visiting a garden event, pick up some ideas on what plants thrive in your area. Make sure you carry a small notebook to take notes, or take photos of plants and their labels using your camera or mobile phone.

On Sunday evening stay home and put your feet up – catch up with your favourite gardening programmes and feel proud of yourself for getting started.

The year ahead
DIY Doctor has opened a new gardening section, and we will be adding projects throughout the year, please go and see what we have there already and let us know what else you want to see.

National Garden week starts next weekend just as we are launching our new DIY Doctor gardening section

As you know we really enjoy sharing our knowledge with you on all things DIY, and we have asked some good friends in the gardening world to give us the benefit of their knowledge, to bring you some great tips on everything to do with the garden and gardening; including landscaping, planting, lawn maintenance and many other garden related projects.

Our new gardening section is split into easy to navigate sections, so you can find what you are looking for quickly and easily.

We will be building up the section by adding new projects throughout the coming year. If you can’t find a project that you think we should include, then please write to us at office@diydoctor.org.uk.

15-21 April 2013 is National Gardening week

The theme this year is wildlife and diversity in the garden, which helps to encourage wildlife and provide a natural balance within the garden.

The BBC’s series of programmes called “Bees, butterflies and blooms” deals with this idea and you might like to click through to see their programmes here.

We have a project in our new wildlife section called wildlife gardens, and you can visit it here.

If you are a garden writer, or blogger and you would like to contribute to our gardening section please contact us.

This time last year we were basking in a mini heat-wave, this year we are sheltering from ice wind and the snow is falling.

We could just moan about the snow and the cold but rather than be pessimistic I wondered if we could pull out some benefits to snow, to make us all feel a bit better about the unseasonal cold.

Image source

Snow on your roof means it’s well insulated
Look up at the roofs in your street, any that don’t have good loft insulation will have little or no snow on them, and they may also be covered in birds who are taking advantage of the heat that is rising through the roof tiles. If this house belongs to you, it is time to increase your loft insulation. See how to insulate your loft in our projects section.

Snow insulates the ground
While this seems counter-intuitive, snow actually protects the root systems of plants and trees from freezing solid. As the weather gets colder the soil will freeze, and the colder it gets the deeper underground that freezing will go, without the insulating benefits of the layer of snow. Bulbs and perennials benefit from snow because it helps to regulate the temperature, protecting the plants from freeze thaw cycles. The action of freezing and thawing can be very destructive to plants, because as the water thaws it expands, this constant freezing and expansion can rupture plant cells.

Incidentally you can help to create the same insulating effect by mulching around plants in the autumn, which is much more reliable way for protecting plants in the UK, where temperatures can fluctuate wildly, and we cannot be guaranteed to get snow at the right time and in the right quantities to protect our plants.

Snow looks pretty
One final benefit of snow is visual: Everything looks pretty and clean in the snow. Your garden is instantly transformed into a winter wonderland. Bare branches of dogwoods and other decorative species really sing out against the snow, and evergreens look greener and more attractive.

So look out of the window and enjoy the snow this weekend knowing it is protecting your garden.

DIY Doctor is working on a new gardening section at the moment – we plan to publish the first in the series this April, and as always we will be adding new content regularly. We would be happy to hear your suggestions if you have a particular gardening subject you want to hear about. Nip over to our Facebook page and leave you messages there, leave a comment on this blog or email us.

You may not be able to actually get out into the garden today, but you could spend a few minutes over coffee or at lunchtime making a list of jobs to do in the garden this weekend.

St. David’s Day marks the end of winter for me, and while true Spring is a few weeks away, the 1st of March is a time for getting out into the garden for an hour or two, to get it ready for those longer, warmer days.

The symbol of St Davids Day, the Daffodil, is one of the main markers of spring for me. The ones outside my window are still green, but they are poised ready to burst into life, which is how I think of the whole season of Spring: Its promise of bounty to come, and the hope that ‘this year we will get a proper Summer’.

In readiness for those long hazy summer days in the garden here a a few seasonal suggestions to keep your garden in great shape this year:

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Lawn
You probably haven’t even looked at your lawnmower since you stashed it away at the beginning of winter, but it is worth just getting it out and cleaning it – if you didn’t do that before storing it away.

If it is electric check the cables are in good condition, not split and not damaged by rodents. If you don’t already have one you should buy an RCD – residual current device, to prevent electrocution in case something does go wrong when you are using your electric lawn mower.

If it is a petrol mower check that the spark plugs and air filter are clean, check the fuel level, and make sure the wheels run freely, start your mower now so you can be sure it will be in working order when the grass needs cutting, and if you do find there is a problem you can beat the rush at the lawnmower repair center by getting it in now.

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Borders
Weeds will already have started their life cycle so wander around the borders hand weeding any you know to be weeds, if you have a large garden you may choose to do this using a garden hoe, but they are less discriminating so you might inadvertently uproot something you didn’t mean to. You also don’t get any of those welcome surprises – when something has self-seeded, that you actually want.

Work around the edges of the borders with a half-moon edger, to give your garden a crisp and well maintained look, this will also help prevent the creep of grass into the flower borders.

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Pruning
Several trees respond well to a hard prune at this time of year, including willows and Eucalyptus, as do shrubs such as Buddleia.

You can also trim Winter Flowering Jasmine into shape, although there is no need of a drastic prune here. Roses should be have been pruned already, but if not you can get in quick and do it now. Late flowering clematis should also be pruned now, as it will flower on the new shoots each year.

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Divide and rule
Lift and divide large clumps of Hostas so that they can become established before the slugs set on them in earnest.

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The Herb Garden
Some herbs will survive the winter, particularly if they are in a well drained position, others should be sown or bought each year. You can sow parsley, basil and corriander on a windowsill now ready to transplant into the garden later.

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The Vegetable Garden
You can sow root crops such as carrots and beetroots outside now, as well as brassicas, broad beans, and peas. Salad crops like lettuce, radish and spinach can be sown under cloches.

As it is St Davids Day we should also make special mention that leeks can be sown now. You can also plant onion sets under cover, although personally I don’t grow onions. I must admit to buying them as they are so cheap, but anyone who wants to win prizes at the county show will surely be clutching their head in their hands now!

Pay attention to fruit netting which may have become dislodged or damaged by wind over the winter.

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Feed and mulch
Dig compost into borders, the compost should be well rotted now having spent the winter maturing, but be aware that  this is quite hard work. If you have not been terribly active recently, do it in sections, take breaks or mix it in with other less strenuous tasks.

Feed spring bulbs in flower beds by sprinkling granular fertiliser around the clumps.

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Now the best bit
Go back into the warm (maybe have a bath) then sit with a cuppa, and browse through the seed and bedding plants catalogues and websites to plan a fabulous summer display!