Doncaster pensioner and Britain’s best lawn owner says this one mistake could ruin your grass in the heat

Green-fingered Stuart Grindle, 82, has no intention of letting his prized labour of love end up with burned patches as the nation sizzles.

Stuart warns other gardeners should not cut their lawn too short ahead of the scorching weekend - but says you need to be doing it at least once a fortnight for a top notch garden, during normal conditions.

He says those reaching for their sprinkler this weekend shouldn't overwater and says "20 minutes is quite sufficient".

Stuart, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, said: "Don't cut it too short.

"If you cut it too short you could stress the lawn out and if you let it grow too long and then cut it short, you can cut into the stem rather than the leaf of the grass, which is why it goes a brown colour.

"If you haven't cut your lawn for a couple of weeks, just take a little bit off just to keep it in OK condition."

And when it comes to keeping up a luscious lawn in hot and sunny conditions, he said gardeners should start by watering their grass in the evening or night.

He said: "When you put your sprinkler on, it doesn't need a lot.

"20 minutes is quite sufficient - it's no good putting the sprinkler on and then watching Corrie.

"You don't need to overwater. If the coverage is OK, 20 minutes is fine. The best time is to do it in the evening or at night because otherwise during the day the evaporation in the hot sunny afternoon, so my advice is to water it in the late evening preferably."

He said homeowners should have already raked their lawns to get any moss out by this time of year.

Stuart said: "By this time of the year you should have already scarified, raking the lawn to get all the thatch and moss out.

"You can get various aeriation tools, you can get some which are manual or a machine. This helps break any compaction which puts sand into clay soil which is good for aeriation and drainage. That helps with drainage, which helps root growth.

"Mine has been fed twice already this year, and I usually do it four to give times a year. I use Scotts Lawn Builder which doesn't burn the lawn, but it's got to be washed in though - you've got to irrigate.

"It's no good it just being sat there on top. You really you don't want to be doing a lot when it's a really hot day. Try and do your work in the evening when it's cooler."

Stuart says looking after your grass also all depends on the type of lawn you want.

He said: "If you want a showpiece lawn, you need to use thin grass.

"Grass doesn't like shade. It's very difficult to grow good grass in total shade.

"The thing is it depends what you want, if you're going out at 7am, and coming back at 7pm, then you have two children, and one is playing football, it's difficult to manage.

"You have to spend a lot of time if you want a good lawn. It's amazing the more you cut it the better it will be. I cut my lawn at least once a fortnight. I was cutting my lawn twice a day every other day.

"You're encouraging fine growth, you're not allowing the stem of the grass to be growing. You're cutting the leaf off and it's replaced by another stem leaf.

"I never allowed my child to play football or cricket on it. It's time and dedication.

"Cutting your lawn once a week will keep it reasonable. If you want a lawn getting towards a golf green, you need to spend a lot of time and a lot of money.

"When I was opening the garden years ago, people used to say what's the hardest plant to grow and I said 'you're stood on it'.

Stuart won the prize for best lawn in 2017.

He used to mow his lawn up to six times a week for 40 years to ensure it had a snooker table-top-like finish.

He said: "I'm still the champion by default because they didn't do it again after I won it. It was a good accolade and it helped because we opened the garden every year [to the public]."

In recent years, Stuart's ill health has reduced the amount of time he's been able to spend on his garden - but his decades of knowledge remain invaluable.