RANGE REVIEW: OUTDOOR LIVING ECO-CONSCIOUS OUTDOOR LIVING


Johnsons Lawn Seed is keener than ever to extol the great environmental benefits of real living grass, which it claims is immeasurably more sustainable than man-made alternatives, enabling significant CO2 capture whilst creating oxygen, helping to lower temperatures and offering better control of surface water levels.


that Johnsons Lawn Seed’s Country Meadow Wildflower Mix grass seed is enjoying booming popularity, with sales doubling in the last 12 months alone. Johnsons’ broad and varied


B GA


portfolio of lawn seed also includes the top selling TuffGrass with Patch Resistance - incredibly popular thanks to the explosion in dog ownership amongst British consumers, which grew in tandem with their new gardening habit during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Tuffgrass with Dog Patch


GARDENING FOCUS TAMING THEHOSEPIPE Few things are more irritating in the garden than hosepipes, as gardening expert Graham Paskett explains… I


t’s true. They kink, leak and the spray head regularly works


spurting


loose water


all over me, so I


regularly look as though I’ve wet my trousers. My wife is convinced I’m incontinent!


Not only all of the above but when trailing the hose around the garden they will almost inevitably coil round a prize plant and hoick it out of the ground. But with global warming and changing weather patterns, learning to love the hose is something we will all have to get used to. Now help is at hand. I


recently visited the Glee


exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham and came across two products that are absolutely manna from heaven for a regularly soaked gardener like me. The first is a revolutionary hose connector that cannot pull free. As the photograph shows the Qwickhose


32 DIY WEEK AUGUST 2022


connector from Rivendale Products in Hampshire has a unique ‘winged’ clamping system that locks the hose in place and is secured by a nut. The inventor, Jason Wilkinson, demonstrated that once locked into position he was unable to pull the hose free from the connector. No more wet trousers, thank you Jason. The Qwickhose connectors are injection moulded in the UK using robust, UV stabilised, premium grade plastics. Jason told me that he sat down and invented


the product out


of “sheer frustration at the poor performance of existing connectors on the market.” It wasn’t only me who


was impressed because at the show Jason and his Qwickhose connectors won the GIMA Innovators’ Seed Corn Fund (pictured above right). Well done and he tells me there will be more new products to follow.


Right next door to Jason was the stand of Kinkout, an incredible product that simply clips onto a hose where it frequently kinks. Its inventor


is professional gardener


Racquel Milan and it is made in the UK from recycled plastic and its packaging is also fully biodegradable. “The idea came to me in a flash whilst I was watering in one of the gardens where I work,” says Racquel. “Literally miles of hose go to landfill each year because


of regular kinks


that eventually cause leaks. Kinkout just puts a stop to that and gives the hose a massively extended life.” It is UV resistant and available in yellow or grey. A pack of three retails at £8.99 including VAT and the trade price is £3.60 plus VAT.


Racquel kindly gave me two packs of Kinkout and they are incredibly successful


looming environmental consciousness amongst


increasing


numbers of British consumers means


Resistance has been developed to withstand the rigorous use, consisting of naturally tolerant grass species that won’t turn yellow when soaked with dog urine. Even if slight discolouration does occur, grass will recover so lawn-lovers can relax in the knowledge that their grass will remain lush, green and patch-free. Able to withstand long summer days of work and play from family life, lawns sown from Tuffgrass with Dog Patch Resistance also stand-up well to low temperatures and snow, with excellent drought-resistance. The in-house scientists at Johnsons Lawn Seed measure all their grass varieties for their Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE), selecting those which have a consistently high NUE rating. A lawn made of grasses


with a high NUE can do well with very small amounts of feeding and their root structures are so big and so dense they can survive on considerably less water - good news during hot summer months when the threat of hosepipe bans is always looming.


Johnsons Lawn Seed also benefits


from new digitalised packaging designed to help the new generation of tech-savvy gardeners choose the variety of lawn seed which best suits their requirements.


All customers have to do is snap the ‘How to Chose Your Lawn Seed’ QR code on the front of the box with their smartphone or tablet, for access to information that will help them find the best lawn seed for their specific requirements. A second code


for ‘Hints and Tips’ is on the back of all boxes, enabling customers to access invaluable advice on preparing ground for seeding and sowing grass seed for optimum results. Different lawn mixtures are colour-coded according to type and feature simplified instructions and a handy lawn sowing calendar.


• To find out more about Johnsons Lawn Seed products please visit the website - www. johnsonslawnseed.com/product- range


and so simple to attach. They just clip over the kink to produce a permanent remedy to the problem and the packs are happily decomposing on my compost heap. These two products help make watering with a hosepipe a pleasure and they keep me dry.


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