Homes and Gardens

Living Mid Kent

Grass does not die over winter, but it all but stops growing. Once the weather warms up (perhaps after the last frost) in early spring, you can start mowing.

The cutting height and frequency will depend on the purpose and look you want to achieve, whether it be a close-cut classic lawn or a longer wildlife look.

It’s best not to mow if you want to encourage wildowers for pollinating insects, but to create a short, green sward, there’s a few tasks.

Lawns need feeding for vigorous growth. Keep an eye open for weeds and deal with moss by simply raking. But don’t rake too hard, or you’ll pull up the grass roots you need to encourage.

This is a good time to over-seed any areas damaged by winter, or appear thin after you’ve raked.

A regular cut keeps a lawn in good health, deterring weeds and encouraging a thick coverage.

In spring, mow a conventional lawn just once a week. For the rst mowing, set the cutting height to the highest setting. Thereafter, gradually reduce the height of the cut until your desired height is reached.

Avoid excessive close mowing, as this can “scalp’’ the lawn, making it more susceptible to drought, weeds and moss. The general guideline is not to cut more than one-third of the leaf shoots.

A striped lawn looks impressive and isn't that difficult to achieve if your mower has a rear roller. l l Start by mowing around the edge of the lawn, and then back and forth. l l For square or rectangular lawns, work from the left side, mowing up and down the lawn using the straight lawn edge as a guide to get the line. l l For circular or irregular shaped lawns, line up the mower with a focal point to achieve an initial straight line across the widest point. This rst straight line can be your guide for subsequent stripes. l l At each turn, line up the mower so that the next mown stripe slightly overlaps the last. l l Empty the clippings box regularly. A full box can deposit clumps of clippings on the lawn, spoiling the nish and clogging the mower.

With a spectacular lack of imagination and the belief there is no point in growing anything you can't or won’t eat, I tried my hand at herbs. Albeit, two of the easiest – chives and parsley. It worked!

They are essentially cultivated weeds. They're also about the only vegetables I grow that chickens, slugs, cabbage whites or birds won't snaffle.

Here's a simple guide to some easy-to-grow garden herbs that will thrive here in Kent: Sage

Useful for making stuffing for roast chicken, it likes fertile soil in a sunny spot. Like most herbs, the more you harvest, the more it grows. Dry it in a jar to use in the winter. Chives

These have a strong onion taste and are great in salads, sprinkled over buttered, new potatoes, in stews and pasta dishes. There's not much to it –plant, water, pick. Don't forget to eat the mauve owers, which add avour and a dash of colour to salads. They like a decent soil in a sunny spot. Parsley

A versatile herb with many uses which you can plant in the garden or in a pot on the window sill. It's easy to grow most varieties of parsley from seed but there are pre-grown, faff-free and cheap starter pots in the garden centres and even some supermarkets. Needs well drained, fertile soil and plenty of sunlight. Rosemary

Fragrant, aromatic and avoursome, these leaves can be picked all year round. Buy the young plant in a pot, select a sunny spot in fertile soil and it should take off. Mint

There is nothing quite like the redolence of wild mint on the banks of an English chalk stream. But in the garden, it can grow like mad, so it's perhaps best cultivated in pots. Pinch the owers once in a while to accelerate leaf growth. Mint will grow in sunshine or in shade. Coriander

Coriander is a cook's favourite. Buy them in a pot as starters and plant in well-drained earth in full or partial sunlight. This herb can “bolt” if stressed and produce owers and seeds, rather than the leaves a chef prizes.

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What do a used toilet brush, a stained mattress and a dead car battery have in common? The answer is they've all been dumped at charity shops, as Doug Kempster discovered…

Because these questionable commodities, and so many like them, ended up in the council tip while the charities were forced to foot the bill for disposing of them.

Reuse and recycling is crucial in the battle to slash waste and the 10 million household items that are consigned to landfill every year.

Much of what we least need once it becomes broken or obsolete comes from the garden.

But it’s vital that, as the traditional spring clean approaches, we crack on with turfingout our unwanted shed stuff in an appropriate, as well as effective and sustainable way.

By far the biggest and most difficult possessions to shift are large items of furniture, such as sofas or garden tables, and which count as our least recycled household goods.

Some charity shops, like the British Heart Foundation, will take old tables, chairs and setees off your hands provided they have the proper fire safety ratings.

Others, like Dover’s Emmaus, employ homeless workers to upcycle second hand furniture for sale through its shops.

Clothes are an easier proposition when it comes to disposal.

If you’re looking to utilise your local charity shop, the simple rule is make sure your old glad rags are clean.

A blood-stained wedding dress or soiled underwear just don’t cut the mustard… and yes, there are horror stories of these being donated to worthy causes in the past.

Your cast-offs don’t have to be the height of fashion but if they’re in such a state that you wouldn’t buy them, don’t assume someone else will.

If the clothes you’re looking to clear out are rags, the alternative to giving them away is to reuse them as car or window cleaning cloths. The fabric could also be used to make patchwork quilts and blankets.

And animal shelters might take old jumpers and fleeces to use as bedding.

When it comes to human bedding, not all charities will accept old pillows and mattresses, so always check before taking it upon yourself to deliver them to your local store.

Meanwhile, if you’re shifting pre-loved toys, the most important consideration is safety. The wellbeing of youngsters trumps the need to recycle every time.

If the toy is broken and dangerous, bin it. Charity shops will only accept child-related goods that carry a CE mark.

Books are always a popular giveaway and worthy causes can find they are quite a money-spinner. But, again, make sure they’re appropriate. After the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon, charity outlets were inundated with boxes of erotic literature.

One, according to a business waste website, built a desk from old Fifty Shades copies and a reclaimed kitchen worktop… which is, you could argue, the ultimate example of recycling.

Around 80 per cent of mattress materials are recyclable but reclaiming them is a labour-intensive process. As a result, only 20 per cent are recycled in the UK.

The best advice is to research your local options online if you're looking to off-load bedding this spring.

The Furniture Reuse Network has links to more than 200 charities which distribute goods to families in need.

And the website Freecycle has just shy of 6,000 local groups that let you list the furniture you don’t want so that neighbours can pop round and pick it up for nothing.

Go to reuse-network.org.uk for tips and advice.