Angela Lambert of QLawns, one of the UK's premier Lawn Turf companies offers her advice for getting the best from your grass lawn this summer.

More and more of us are using the garden as an extension of our living space. Al Fresco eating, entertaining, relaxing, growing fresh vegetables and creating safe, healthy play areas for our children.

Traditionally, British gardens, no matter how large or how small incorporate a grassed area and with good reason. The aesthetic qualities are obvious; a well maintained lawn provides the perfect backdrop to garden features and planting. But don’t forget that a natural grass lawn will absorb rainfall far better than decking and paving thus reducing the risk of flooding. Grass also acts as a natural air conditioner, helping to keep the garden at a more comfortable temperature in the summer.

To get the best from your lawn – and remember, a well-kept garden can increase the value of your home by up to £5,000 – it needs a simple, low-cost maintenance regime.

Mowing: regular mowing is vital – it helps to keeps the lawn’s texture nice and thick and velvety. Keep the mower blades really sharp and don’t cut the lawn too short – 2.5cm is a good height for a family lawn. As summer approaches, lift the mower blades up a bit –longer grass keeps its colour better in a drought. If possible, remove the clippings. Great clods of clippings on the surface look ugly and can encourage disease.

Feeding:  Mother Nature wants grass plants to grow tall and produce seed then have the leaves and stalks dry out, returning stored nutrients to the roots and crown of the plant. The gardener, wants to keep the grass short, so he overrides Mother Nature by mowing, which puts stress on the plant and steals it’s food supply. Stressed plants get sick easily, they lose their colour and they thin out. Keep the lawn in good shape by replacing stolen nutrients with a good lawn feed. A granular lawn feed such as Nutrifusion from Q Lawns turf growers just needs to be sprinkled onto the lawn every 6 weeks or so between March and September. In October, apply an autumn/winter feed to help the roots prepare for next year’s growth season. Never use summer feed in autumn – it’s too rich and could encourage fungal diseases – yuk!

Weeding:  If your lawn is well fed and regularly mown, it’s very difficult for weeds to invade it, but there will always be the odd dandelion or daisy that sneaks in there. Garden centres and supermarkets sell spot weed treatments for lawns that you just spray on to the invader and let nature take its course. If you’re not a fan of sprays and chemicals, just dig the weed out (making sure you get all the root), if it leaves a bit of a bald patch, the grass will soon fill in the space.

A lush green lawn is an invitation to come outside and enjoy the garden. It needn’t be hard to achieve personally, I find a spot of lawn mowing to be really relaxing. It burns off calories, releases endorphins, and the noise from the mower means that I can’t hear my husband and kids talking at me. Bliss!