Keeping a healthy and verdant lawn can be a real challenge. Collins Practical Gardener Lawns looks at all imaginable aspects of starting and maintaining a lawn. Whether your lawn is mainly for your family or intended as a show piece, Lawns will provide all the know-how you need to design, prepare for, create and keep a lawn tailored to your needs. All the technical info is covered from ground roots up, including advice on sowing seeds, laying turf, buying equipment and making repairs. Individual design features are suggested, ranging from creating a wildflower meadow to planting bulbs through your lawn in eye-catching patterns and shapes. Each listing in the A-Z directory of grass types features a visual chart listing the best varieties and optimum sowing times. Quick-access care charts provide a hit list of care requirements and the troubleshooting chart tells you how to identify and solve many common problems. Also featured is a directory of pests, diseases and how to treat them, which means when something does go wrong you have all the information at your fingertips to help put it right. Full of information, advice and practical tips, this no-nonsense guide to lawns is the most informative reference of its kind! Contents include: / History of Lawns / Types of lawn / Designing a lawn / Site/aspect / Soil types / Drainage / Preparing for a new lawn / Seed sowing techniques / Laying turf / Aftercare of newly laid lawn / Lawn Maintenance - tools, irrigation / Lawn repairs / Other lawn features / A-Z Lawn Grasses / A-Z Lawn Weeds and Broadleaved Weeds / Troubleshooting / Pests and diseases / Common name plant index and subject index