Greenkeeper Alan Dugdale, a motorbike engineer by trade, has worked on the bowling green at Pennaenmawr Bowling Club at Conway, near Llandudno, for 10 years.

“Last year we had a terrible moss problem on the green so in February I tried MO Bacter on half the green for a trial run,” he says. “We noticed half way through the season that the moss on that side of the green had completely gone.

“Next spring we are planning to do the other half, but in the meantime I am applying Viano Bio Lime as an autumn treatment to improve the pH of our acid soil.”

Alan thinks the terrible winter and the length of time the green was under snow and ice was a significant factor in the increase in moss.

“We have all been amazed at the results on the half of the green that has been treated.

“There is no doubt that MO Bacter does what is says it will.”

Alan heard about MO Bacter from a friend while on holiday in Malta. “He was just an amateur gardener but he had used the product with great success on his lawn and gave me a leaflet,” he says.

“I’m very glad he did. We will carry on using Viano products if this is the result.”

Is moss ruining your lawn?

A COUPLE in Surrey who have worked on the same large lawn since the Seventies have at last found a solution to their moss problem.

“We tried everything but nothing worked until we discovered MO Bacter,” said Angela Tidy from her home on Epsom Downs, close to the famous racecourse.

“My husband Maurice and I have been in this house since 1978 and the lawn has been a real disappointment for most of that time because of the moss. But in March we bought MO Bacter from DJ Turfcare in Dunsfold and applied it at the recommended rate.

“The results were fantastic and the moss just went brown and disappeared with no raking.

“Moss is a real problem round here and our neighbour, who recently died, spent most of his retirement years trying to beat it. Sadly if he had discovered MO Bacter he would have been a lot happier with his garden.”

Angela said they have just applied a second dressing in September to try and keep the moss at bay.

Their garden is on rough soil overlying chalk and they take a real pride in their garden.

“The lawn has always been in poor condition because I think it was laid on pretty poor soil,” says Angela. “Now the moss has gone the grass has come back and we are able to look at the lawn with new pride.”

David Jenkins with the New Plugger at Saltex 2011

This tough aeration machine features hydrostatic-drive and uses both solid and hollow tines.

It is highly manoeuvrable and is ideal for superior grass maintenance in more difficult areas, and is easy to transport and handle.

The Plugger PL855 is particularly useful for large areas of fine turf, and cricket clubs have found the Plugger invaluable in reviving compacted squares.

With a unique crank-powered design the Plugger PL855  punches cleaner, deeper holes in tough soil conditions and is easy to maintain.

This aerator performs where others cannot. On slopes, plug depth is maintained on both sides of the machine. Grades up to 20degrees or more can be traversed safely either up or down without major impact on plug depth.

Optional Tine Sizes and Styles
The Plugger PL855 aerator is supplied with 5/8″ diameter tubular tines.

Other tines available: 3/8″ solid, 7/8″ solid, 3/8″ hollow, 5/8″ solid.

PLUGGER PL855 PRO HD at a glance

*Width of pass: 30 inches (75cms)

*Core spacing: 2.25 inches (5.5 cms) and 8 inches (20cms)

*Number of tines: eight

*Engine: Honda 6.5HP OHV

*Overall width: 34inches (85cms)

*Hydrostatic drive.

David Jenkins at Saltex 2011

DAVID JENKINS, managing director of DJ Turfcare, used IOG SALTEX to reveal a real success story of the year – and added to this by selling four machines on the stand.

“Despite gloomy predictions in the industry we have had our best trading year ever,” he says. “Since last year’s Saltex we have had remarkable results.

“This year’s Saltex has been tremendous for us and we have had a good number of high-quality inquiries to follow-up.”

Launching a new Plugger aerator (the PL855 Pro HD), one was immediately sold off the stand together with two other Plugger models and an Atom Bunker Edger.

Introducing a new smaller 7.5 kilo bag of MO Bacter,  David  announced at Windsor that he will for the first time be using selected independent garden centres in 2012 to sell the organic lawn fertiliser which eliminates moss without raking and has been highly acclaimed by professional users.

“This is a particularly buoyant time for us and even prior to Saltex we sold several machines through pre-show publicity,” says David.

“Our manufacturers in Australia and the US seem to hold less stock these days, which may be a sign of the economy in those countries, but we are delighted that sales are going so well here in the UK.

“While we enter every trading year with optimism we could not have forecast this year’s results with so much talk of recession in the air.”

David Demonstrating Bushranger Edger

DJ Turfcare used IOG Saltex 2010 to launch the Bushranger Edger (aimed primarily at local authorities) and the Veg-Table, a British-built timber growing container for gardening at a convenient height.

Managing director David Jenkins said they sold three machines during the show and dealt with almost 100 enquiries.

“IOG Saltex was a very good show for us,” said David. “We were delighted at the quality of our visitors and are busy following up all the new contacts made.

Veg Table at IOG Saltex

“Once again I have to thank the IOG for excellent organisational skills and coping well with the first day of wet weather.

“We look forward to Windsor every year and this year the show has been very successful for us, despite all the gloomy predictions.”

Veg Table on display at Saltex

It has given us a chance to keep on top of problems like moss and an application of MO Bacter twoi weeks ago is starting to pay dividends. We watered a couple of times because our Sussex Greensand dried out to such an extent that we wanted the bacterial action to kick in.

I am pleased to report that the moss has gone light brown and is starting to disappear. The ground is at last starting to warm up, giving the bacteria even more chance to do its work.

I’ve been able to give the lawn edges a good touch up with the Atom Edger and everything is neat and tidy, ready for the bedding plants to go in. Too many heavy frosts this week have prevented us from making a start - and one or two friends have lost early beans and potato tops because of the severity of the cold.

But it looks like we are on the turn with cherry blossom out and the leaves on the horse chestnut fully green with bunches of flowers in abundance.

In fact the hayfever season seems to have started with a vengeance and the nasal sprays and inhalants are working overtime as pollen counts seem to have reached an all-time high with the lateness of spring.

The good thing about our harsh winter is that there seem to be less pests around and Pippa Greenwood, the BBC Gardener’s Question Time panellist who gave us a talk last week, says there are definitely less slugs and snails.

One less problem to worry about as the bedding plants go out. But it will be a week or two before we risk any beans in the ground here in West Sussex – unless they are under cloches.

Weeds seem to have been just a slow to germinate, which is another blessing – but keeping the hoe going to be on the safe side.

Off to see my son’s garden in London now – he has a stray cat which has kittens in the shed, the so the grandchildren will be over the moon.

And no worries at all about the lack of plant and grass growth.

And an application of MO Bacter has turned the moss brown, so it is just a question of time before it all vanishes with no tedious raking to do.

Container-grown plants have needed extra watering because of hot sun during the day and icy blasts on the leaves.

This is going to be a year of strange conditions for gardeners, with such a late spring. Leaves are only just starting to thrust out of buds on the trees – the latest most of us can remember for years.

But challenge is the name of the game and at least we can set the mower blades  a little higher  than usual to encourage strong growth of grass.

The slow-release fertilser in MO Bacter has given us some good green grass – helped along by a sprinkler, because we have virtually no rainfall for a fortnight.

A moss-free lawn with MO Bacter from DJ Turfcare

Bank holiday weekend started with glorious sunshine and dissolved into rain by Saturday night and into Sunday.
But it didn’t stop me getting the mower out and giving the lawn it’s third cut of the season.
Moss has been a big problem this year but using MO Bacter a week ago I am now starting to see the moss go brown and I am waiting for it to go completely brown and then disappear – just as it has for many of my friends, including Tim (the reluctant gardener) who wants a perfect lawn without any raking.
He used MO Bacter last year and, because he and his wife Catherine are both heavily into organic products, was delighted to see the moss gone within six weeks. And he never had to lift a rake!
MO Bacter is a good general fertiliser for lawns, so as well as eliminating moss it feeds the grass and gives a brilliant green look – much improved when the moss has gone.
The Daily Telegraph writer Bunny Guinness is also trying
MO Bacter out at the moment, so it will be interesting to see how she gets on.
For the time being I am waiting for the rain to finish (good for keeping the MO Bacter granules working) so I can have a gin and tonic on the lawn.
Happy bank holiday – and here’s to a Monday with sunshine!

He was tough, fought baddies and had a strong family around him, including Litttle Joe and Hoss.

The same could be said about some of our lawn products, and MO Bacter is just one that springs to mind in the battle against moss.

As the spring gardening regime begins moss has become the main problem after a long cold winter in which lawn problems have developed.

MO Bacter is organic, boosts grass growth, kills moss and has bacteria within it which digests the browning moss debris.

Friends who have tried it over the last two years swear by the results and have repeatly bought bags (at incredibly reasonable prices for the area covered) and so they have persuaded me to give it a go.

Now the weather is warm enough for the bacteria to take action I have applied the first treatment – and within weeks there should be results (so my friends say).

And I have been smarteninjg up the edges of the lawn with my new Atom Edger (from DJ Turfcare in Surrey) which has given the whole garden a remarkably finished effect.

If you have a good lawn you want it to look its best and some of the products from DJ Turfcare are proving to have great results.

Last year we tried Green Comfort, which really gave the entire lawn a spectacular effect, containing all the essential nutrients for perfect grass. And after a terrifically cold and wet period Recovery gave the lawn a complete feed.

I’ll keep you posted on the results but from what I’ve seen and heard these organic products seem to be just what the serious lawn gardener needs.

Spring flowers gladden the heart

This morning dawned bright and sunny with leaves bursting out on the trees and birds singing their heads off against a blue sky.

A letter in The Times referred to the “first mower sounds of the year” as if they were somehow related to cuckoos.

Understandable as in Britain we tend to think of the lawn as integral to the typical garden – and the smell of newly-mown grass is evocative of all that is British.

There is nothing as delightful as a bed of nodding flower heads in a border against the green of a well-groomed lawn.

Whether it’s in the garden or the park the sight of grass and flowers in the sunshine is a sight to gladden the heart.

Beautiful edges, pristine gardens and sublime green grass are the cement that holds our gardens together.

Oh to be in England (Wales, Scotland and Ireland too) now that spring is here.

The spade is in my hand, the seeds are ready for sowing and a new gardening year beckons.

What bliss.