Daniel Hibbert, who owns Britain’s best lawns, has told the Mirror three tips gardeners should take if they don’t want their lawns ruined by diseases and microclimates at this time of year
An award winning lawn expert has reminded gardens to do three key things to keep their lawn healthy and stop it from being ruined by diseases and microclimates throughout the autumn and winter months.
Daniel Hibbert has been working with lawns for over 30 years and has spearheaded his very own lawn maintenance YouTube channel to share his lawn expertise with people online. The 46-year-old lawn expert, who won Britain’s Best Lawn in 2016, has revealed a number of things gardens should do to ensure their lawns were in good health throughout the autumn and winter months.
Speaking to the Mirror, Daniel said: “The most important things at this time of year now are keeping the leaves off the lawn as much as you can.” He added: “If you don’t keep the leaves off, basically, you’re going to create a canopy of leaves which is going to get hot underneath.
“You’re going to get disease and you’re going to get worm cast coming up underneath.”
He added worm casts the animal create have the potential to cover lawns in soil if no removed. He added: “[If you] mow over them, it’s quite a big soil deposit, it squashes like you’re rolling an egg out on a lawn so you got a massive patch of soil with no grass on it.”
The lawn expert also added another step gardeners could make to ensure their lawn stays healthy in the winter months was to remove morning dew from their lawns. Daniel explained the excess dew on the lawn could result in the formation of microclimates on a lawn that creates a greenhouse effect and could cause a disease outbreak.
The expert gardener said: “So the water creates a greenhouse and then the light shines through it and it gets hot underneath and then you get a disease outbreak. So you create a microclimate under there.” He added: “Diseases and worms. That’s like the arch nemesis of this time of year.”
Daniel also added gardeners could apply 5-ALA, amino levulinic acid, to their lawns to help gardens that struggle to get enough sunlight as product helps boost photosynthesis.
Daniel sells his very own formula lawn liquid containing amino levulinic acid dubbed “Winter magic” that helps lawns stay health during the winter months.
He added: “It just increases photosynthesis in low light level conditions. So in the winter your plant’s going to be able to absorb a bit more light than it would be able to normally.”
Daniel told the Mirror in brain tumour surgery amino levulinic acid is also used to doctors locate and operate on cancerous cells. Spearheading his own fundraising efforts, Daniel has decided to donate one pound to a brain tumour charity for each bottle of “Winter Magic” he sells to support people currently battling brain tumours and to help experts fund research into fighting the condition.
The lawn expert said: “I donate a pound to a brain tumour charity just because there’s a correlation between the two.” He added the causes of helping people fight against brain tumours was a cause close to him personally due to his late nan having passed away during her early 80s from a brain tumour.