-EP271 Portuguese Laurel Hedge Care, Rejuvenating lawns and More.

Spring has arrived in full force, bringing with it the perfect conditions for garden growth—and revealing some common problems that many gardeners face this time of year. Whether you're noticing patchy growth in your lawn or concerning symptoms on your prized hedges, this episode offers practical solutions to get your garden thriving.

I dive deep into two troubleshooting scenarios that appeared in my garden consultations this week. First, I explore the hidden causes of struggling lawns, particularly those established in new builds or recently landscaped areas. The culprit often lies beneath the surface—literally. Many modern landscaping practices create artificial soil conditions that prevent proper root development. I share my complete restoration protocol: deep aeration to bring oxygen to the roots, removing that suffocating thatch layer, strategic overseeding, and adding organic matter to build soil health naturally. These techniques address the underlying structural issues rather than just treating symptoms.

The second problem gaining momentum across gardens nationwide involves Portuguese laurel hedges. These beautiful, previously trouble-free hedges are now showing signs of fungal mildew after years of popularity. I describe the telltale symptoms to watch for and my three-part treatment approach using microbial sprays, seaweed extracts, and organic fertilizers to activate the plant's natural defense systems. I'm implementing this exact protocol in my own garden and will be tracking the results.

Between troubleshooting these garden challenges, I share updates on my spring planting progress, new arrivals in the henhouse, and upcoming garden events you won't want to miss. Connect with me at info@mastermygarden.com with your garden questions, and please take a moment to leave a review wherever you listen to help other gardeners discover these practical solutions.

Chapters

• 0:13 Introduction and Weather Update
• 1:53 Garden Progress and New Hens
• 5:43 Troubleshooting Lawn Problems
• 11:34 Portuguese Laurel Disease Issues
• 16:50 Treatment Solutions and Future Plans
• 19:24 Closing and Upcoming Features

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 271 of master and garden podcast. Now, this week's episode it's sort of covering a couple of topics and it's related to either a listener's question or a question that I've got or a job that I've had to do over the last week or two, and, yeah, just going to chat about those. They're probably things that are going to be relevant to a lot of people. So that's what we're going to cover. It's going to start troubleshooting two problems, two potential problems that people might have in their gardens. And, yeah, the weather has been fantastic since last week, so loads of clear days, bright skies, sunshine and lovely warm days. So, yeah, it's been really good nighttime. We're still getting a touch of frost pretty much every night here. So the growth is really starting because of the warm days, but it's been slightly held back, I guess, by two things at this stage the colder nights and, probably at this stage outside, the lack of moisture in the top kind of winter too, which is really strange, you know, given that it's not that terrible long since we were complaining about having too much. But, yeah, the growth has started, for sure, because of temperatures, but it's been slightly held back a little bit. We are due to get some rain next week and with that you're going to see a huge explosion of growth in pretty much everything. Perennials that are peeping out of the ground are going to take off Definitely, weeds are going to do their thing, going to come into their season and lawns, grass, everything is going to burst once they get that, that rain, it's actually needed at this stage, in that top inch, as I say, our top inch, or two, as I say. So, in in my garden over the last week, lots, lots happening and very, very busy. Actually it's extremely busy at the moment, just generally in the garden and elsewhere.

Speaker 1: 2:02

So, yeah, things are. Things are a little bit, a little bit hectic, but what is what I've been doing over the last week is all of my onion sets are now gone in, so that's pretty much. I have autumn onion sets, I have spring onion sets and probably in the next week I'll plant my plug plants of onions as well, and that'll be all my onion supply for the guts of 12 months and sort of covered with with those three separate, separate plantings. I did mention that one, one of my seed sowings of onions from pretty much from a pack of the seeds. All of them failed. So there was an issue with the seeds and I can't remember where I got them, so I had no no way of going back with them.

Speaker 1: 2:48

Um, but yeah, I still should have loads potatoes gone in, uh, cabbage planted, all of my first set of salads and, and spring onions all of my salad crops all gone in. So rocket, three different types of lettuce, spinach, spring onions all gone in. Some new strawberries gone in, um, ever bearing ones. So they're ones that will will have fruit pretty much over, you know, a lot longer period. So they're not like the traditional varieties. They don't taste as good as the traditional varieties as well, but they do give you fruit in year one and they do fruit over a longer period of time. So they're gone in.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Yeah, carrots and parsnips will be sowed this week. Peas are already planted out and I've been. I started all of my next batch of sowing to do. I do have to clear out my seed box a little bit. I am getting some patchy germination on certain things. Probably the seed is hanging around a little bit too long, so some of them will get cleared out, but there's loads going on. All of the beds are ready. Um, yeah, there's, there's lots done, lots done and and more to do. So, yeah, but it's been a brilliant time for getting work done.

Speaker 1: 4:04

New arrivals in the last kind of two weeks as well 10 new new hens have arrived here and they're, yeah, they're doing really well. So they they're point of lay when they came and they're they're laying lots of eggs and, yeah, they seem to have settled in quite well, they're matched in and happily living alongside the existing hens. So, yeah, all going, all going well there. But again, that's another, another little thing that kind of had to be done. Over the last few weeks, my, my older hens were laying very, very few eggs. So now new ones coming on stream, so back up to a steady and constant supply, possibly even too many, but yeah, no, it's, it's, it's good and yeah, they're doing really well. So there's loads going on, loads going on here. Um, some new perennial borders, sort of ready to be planted, hoping to get to nursery over the next couple of weeks.

Speaker 1: 5:04

Definitely want to get down to Catter Hurley nursery this year before it closes later on the year, and by the looks of their posts, I need to get down sooner rather than later because they seem to be. You know lots of, lots of people going and lots of people. You know the fact that they're closing, people are going down and trying to gather up bits, so I suspect that certain things might run low. But anyone planning to visit Cairnhurley who were on the podcast, you know whatever it was about six months ago, definitely you're kind of this spring and early summer is is your time to do that. So, yeah, that's somewhere I want to do to fill out a couple of perennial beds.

Speaker 1: 5:41

But to get to the questions, the. The first one is actually I had two to do, two little jobs on lawns recently and the two similar ish situations, but the and I suppose what was needed on both is kind of the same. So the first one was a lawn that was sowed two years ago, just in the autumn time before. It was kind of the last window or the last possible time you could sow and it was. You know it was a little bit of a chance taken as to whether it would do well or not.

Speaker 1: 6:15

It was a new build and it was in a in an area really good, really good soil, so it was a silty type soil, a little bit of sand through it. It was a really good open side. But what had happened was it was getting tracked as the as the ground was being leveled, it was getting tracked by heavy machines. Certain areas were compacted and then there was this light fluffy layer put on top of it, but it was a very silty layer and the lawn didn't thrive there. So it has done well pretty much everywhere, but it didn't thrive in this particular spot and it's happens to be the spot that's right outside the window.

Speaker 1: 6:56

So what was needed there basically is because, yeah, you see this a lot if you have sort of ground that's rooted up and you have machines tracking on it, and then there's a layer of topsoil spread on top of it. Sometimes that layer can actually be too good and it's the. The natural layers that you should see in a soil are just not there and what ends up happening is that topsoil on top can compact and it can be very air deprived, so the root zones of the of the lawn don't really get gone, and that's hugely important. So to remedy that, it got really well aerated, and it was aerated with a broad fork down to, with spikes down to four and six inches. There was organic matter added to it. It was scarified as well to take out a small bit of touch that was in it. It was slightly reseeded or overseeded on top and then it got lots of organic matter feed on top. So feed that's going to feed it over a long period of time, but also add organic matter. Another good thing to do with that lawn is to not always take the grass off it, so allow that you mulch the grass a little bit so you're getting some organic matter starting to go into that top layer of of of ground. Now it is going to need to be aerated again. Just by the nature of that, it was sandy, it was fine, and so when that that can compact up in the top layer and again it doesn't leave much, roots of of grass or roots of any plant need air, so it doesn't get the chance to put out proper strong roots and hence it gets weak on top. So that that that was the first one.

Speaker 1: 8:42

Second one was a similar issue was actually a friend of mine who has a front lawn, gets sun but not for a huge amount of the day. Again, it was a lawn that was redone a few years ago and it was there was topsoil put in. Now the topsoil wasn't very clean. So there is you know kind of scotch grass in it and things like that and that looks poor. But again the same thing has happened. It's essentially the the topsoil was put in and it doesn't. It doesn't replicate you know, the levels or the layers of a proper functioning soil and so it has compacted as well. It's it's sort of holding on to water. There isn't good aeration in the ground. So the same thing there that got detached, overseeded, aerated and organic matter added to it. And again that's going to be mulched, probably once a month. Mulch it, allow that, you know, that grass matter to break down and go into the top layer and create a humic layer in there, which is really important and that'll get the grasses going. So again, all of that work, remedial work, is kind of being done at the moment.

Speaker 1: 9:48

Definitely there's a lot, there's a lot of moss kind of in lawns. You, you know some people don't mind it at all and are happy to leave it there. I'm actually one of those. I don't overly worry too much about moss. I don't have that much of it as it happens, but don't overly worry about it. But some people like to keep their lawn really good and definitely if, if you have moss, detach it at the moment, overseed it, aerate it so get that air down into the root zone of the grasses and then fertilize, you know, with something that's going to be a longer term fertilizer, something like you know an organic fertilizer, giving you up to kind of two months, three months of feeding, and do it again then probably at the end of June or early July and that's going to strengthen up that lawn all summer.

Speaker 1: 10:34

But the aerating is a huge part. The detaching is a huge part. So detaching for anyone that doesn't know, is basically where you get that kind of dead grass at the base of a, of a, of a grass plant. It's those yellow kind of stringy stems. They kind of smother out the top of the ground and what you need to do is detach it so you basically scratch those out. You can do that with a machine, you can do it, you know, on a smaller scale with a little bit of a rake Just gather up that patch, take it off and then overseed so that you get new seeds germinating into the kind of bare patches. It'll also take out mosses if there's any there, also take out mosses if there's any there, and it just allows the grass then to thicken up and tiller, which basically means that the grasses grow sideways and fill out that space. So that's kind of an important. If you're interested in keeping your lawn into, you know, a really fine looking lawn, perfect looking lawn, then that's kind of the things that you need to be doing at the moment.

Speaker 1: 11:32

The other one is an interesting one. I've spoke about it on the podcast before. So the other question that I got this week was I have a Portuguese laurel hedge and it's not thriving. It's showing signs of having some form of disease and I mentioned this before that you know when you see hedges that are really really popular at a particular time and you know everybody is planting them. So Portuguese laurel has been that way for a few years. Everybody's planting it. They're in huge demand. They're a beautiful hedge, absolutely beautiful hedge.

Speaker 1: 12:10

I have kind of two lengths of it here myself, planted at different stages, and I mentioned previously on the podcast that I've never had an issue with this hedge. It looks and is very, very healthy, doesn't show any signs of picking up any kind of diseases. But I did caveat that at the time, talking about the best hedges, that potentially down the line. Something could start coming and attacking you know, or the, the hedge could become susceptible to something or other and it might start to cause issues. That seems to be happening around the country now because only recently I was talking to three different nurseries who are not selling any stock at the moment because they got a mildew at the back end of last year, again probably down to the fact that we had such a wet year last year sustained wet so they're getting this mildew on the leaf and essentially it's it's a. It looks like a browning around the edge of the leaf and right where the brown meets the green you're seeing this kind of white, really white kind of layer and that's basically a mildew.

Speaker 1: 13:18

And the, the hedge, the sec, the first hedge that I planted here, got that. I suppose I only noticed that just at the back end of the year when I was cutting the hedge. The hedge had been flying all year, looked really good, but it got a good cutting in the wintertime and it looks really really sorry for itself at the moment. So, and the other hedge actually adjoins that. But it was planted much later and that was perfectly clean when I looked last sort of back end of the year october, november but now I see that that that fungal disease or the bacterial disease, whatever it is, is starting to travel up along that hedge as well. It's only at the moment going up a little bit of the way, but it is there and it is spreading. So that's something that.

Speaker 1: 14:03

That's something that I noticed here and at the same time, um, I have somebody who contacted me saying that their hedge portuguese laurel as well planted. Now they did admit that they haven't minded it at all. They did allow grasses to grow up between it. They didn't mind it very well in terms of watering over the first 12 months, and so it has got no care. But they have spent a good bit of money on it and they want to basically make sure that they they get it going well. So, and when they sent the pictures, it's it is the same thing. So they have this mildew on the leaf and it's causing. It's causing leaves to turn brown and and the plants to generally not thrive. So that's sort of the second. The second question so it's a both. Both of them are, strangely enough, have come all in the in the last week or two and they're essentially the same thing in in just in two different locations. So this one, I have it here and, as I say, somebody else has it in their garden. So what I'm doing, and what I've recommended that this person does, is I'm I've just got from probiotic carbon.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Karen ohanlon was on the podcast. Dr karen ohanlon, she produces these products and she was on the podcast on episode 83 talking about biochar. But she produces this product that was featured on homegrown a couple of weeks ago and that product is called cran and it's a microbial mix and I've just purchased that and essentially what I'm going to do is I'm going to spray it on the hedge and it's it's. It's a natural fungicide, firstly, but it also strengthens the plant and it kickstarts different hormones, different chemicals within the plant to allow it to to push out its own antifungal, antibacterial, um traits that the plant would have and essentially just strengthens the plant and means that it's able to push through any kind of diseases it has. On homegrown, it was shown to cure buxus blight, which obviously is is a big is a big thing and, yeah, there was, there was great results on that. Now I actually haven't seen the actual episode of homegrown yet, but just listening to people and I've heard karen talking about previously that they you know it had really successful results on bucks's blight. So that's what that's what I'm doing with this hedge.

Speaker 1: 16:27

So this weekend it's getting a spray of the microbial mix, it's getting a spray of fee weed, of seaweed, and it will also get some granular feed, poultry manure, just to really push out that growth over the next few weeks and allow it to grow itself out of this little stunt that it has. And it's a perfectly good hedge. It just needs a little bit of tlc at this stage. And, as I mentioned, that's kind of what happens when a hedge becomes, or that type of hedge becomes, really popular, sometimes after a number of years, when you know these hedges are grown so in so many places around around the country that what happens is there's, you know, a build-up of diseases and they just start to present on the hedge or on the tree or on the plant or whatever it is. But that's that seems to be the case now with portuguese laurel, fantastic hedge still is still not, still one I would be highly recommending. But now it just seems to be that you have to kind of mind it a little bit as well. And yeah, that's, that's something that has come up. So that's kind of the the two questions that have come up this week.

Speaker 1: 17:36

It's, as I say, it's been a really busy week. I also done online coaching for a company who wanted to train their staff how to grow their own food. So that was going on this week and, yeah, loads, loads going on and really brilliant time brilliant time to be gardening. There's loads of interesting episodes coming up. So a couple of open garden features I mentioned they were starting. There's three or four open gardens who are. There's one recorded. There's a couple in the pipeline over the next couple of weeks, so they'll be all added in over the next few weeks.

Speaker 1: 18:08

As I mentioned before, open gardens kind of give inspiration to home gardeners, so that's a good, you know, it's a good thing to do. You go visit, you see something, you take it home to your own garden. So it's inspirational and, yeah, that's a big feature over the next couple of weeks. There's also some really good garden festivals on the horizon, really good gardening talks on the horizon and my chat about those. In the next week or two as well. There's, yeah, obviously, the festivals of garden and nature. That's coming up. Loads brilliant speakers of that. I just need to have a look through it and maybe get talking to somebody there, but there's a phenomenal guest to speak, a list of guest speakers at that, and obviously bloom is on the horizon, garden show ireland is on the horizon, clear garden festival is on the horizon. So there's loads going on, but we might chat about some of those in in the next week or two as well, but for this week that's the.

Speaker 1: 19:03

The two one that the two kind of problems or troubleshooting we have possible, or issues on lawns, on two separate lawns, but essentially the same thing lack of air in the root zone, lack of a thriving lawn. So what we're doing is aeration, we're detaching, overseeding and feeding, and that might, might need to be done again later, later on deer. And then the second one is just looking after and giving Portuguese laurel a bit of TLC, as it suffers from mildew at the moment, but it will grow out of it and, yeah, I might show you before and after pictures actually. But, yeah, looking, looking forward to getting it back looking lush and green again and uh, yeah, questions like this. If there's any questions like that that you want answered for your own garden, shoot them across to me at info at mastermygardencom anybody who listens to the podcast if you could leave a review wherever you listen, whether you listen on spotify or you listen on on apple podcast, leave a review of the podcast, please, like and share it.

Speaker 1: 20:05

The podcast also goes out every week on youtube. It is literally just a recording of of me at the desk recording the podcast, but some people like to like to watch on youtube, so it's on youtube. But wherever, wherever you're listening, if you could leave a review, that'd be brilliant and share it as much as possible. And yeah, let's keep keep the podcast podcast growing. As I mentioned, open gardens are coming up and next week's episode will be an open garden feature and uh, yeah it's. It's going to be a good one. So that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and I'll tell the next time. Happy gardening, thank you.