The biggest area of many gardens is the lawn and whether you want your lawn to look like a bowling green, use it for the kids to play or, or just want a splash of nice green grass outside your house, if you do a bit of work to it then you can make it look great – so now is the time to do some spring work on the lawn!

Some jobs to be getting on with this week;

• Firstly, clear the lawn. Remove all twigs and winter debris and rake out old moss and thatch – this can be done with a scarifier or a spring box rake. All the moss and weeds compete with the grass for nutrients, so it is essential to remove as much of this as possible.

• Follow this hard work by applying an ‘all in one’ lawn food such as Westland Aftercut or Evergreen Complete – this will feed your grass whilst also killing moss and weeds. Once the moss begins to show signs of dying, rake again and remove from your lawn.

• At this stage you will be left with some bare patches in your lawn – apply grass seed to these and they will quickly fill back in again.

• If your lawn is compacted – you will know this if it is rock hard or is slow to drain after rainfall – then you need to aerate it. This can be done by removing plugs of soil with a hollow tine aerator or alternatively by spiking with a garden fork.

By doing some spring preparation to your lawn it will keep it healthy and give better results all season long.

PLANT OF THE WEEK: PRUNUS ‘KANZAN’

Spring flowering cherries are looking fantastic at the moment, and one of the best varieties is the upright, double pink flowering variety known as ‘Kanzan’.

Prunus ‘Kanzan’ is an excellent garden tree. It grows to around 6 metres in ten years and has a similar spread. It is a deciduous tree with coppery brown foliage and it provides masses of double pink flowers every spring time – an absolutely beautiful start to the season!

Colin has been working in the gardening industry for over 30 years and owns 7 Garden Centres across central Scotland and is passionate about Scottish plants.