In last week's article about garden pests, entitled, - Are you at risk of holding an inflexible attitude? -- I shared with you a professional mishap of my own, caused by my own inflexibility. I pointed out how my reluctance to use pesticides led me to ignore the need to apply a granular pesticide on recently laid turf, in order to prevent serious attack by moth caterpillars prevalent at this time of year in my country. I also emphasized that young lawns have been particularly vulnerable to lawn grubs, while my well cared for established lawns, remain virtually unaffected. So here are some lawn care tips for the middle of the summer, which can help you maintain a healthy green lawn, whilst keeping off the dreaded poisons as well!

* Many turf diseases, such as fungi, develop under humid and warm conditions. Avoid sprinkling the lawn in the early evening, as this means that the turf grass will be in almost 100% humidity till the morning. Watering should be timed for the early morning, - just before day break, in order to minimize these highly humid conditions. By the way -- this shows that an automatic timer is a lot more than a just a luxury or convenience.

* Many damaging lawn insects also thrive in constantly moist conditions. One way of reducing their populations is to adopt an irrigation regime, whereby the interval between waterings is as spaced out as possible, quantities of water being increased accordingly. This also has the benefit of encouraging deeper root growth, which in turn makes the turf hardier to pests, disease and drought. Most perennial lawn varieties in use in dry climates, are of the deep rooting type, such as Zoysia and Kikuya grass.

* Applying fertilizer, particularly those that are nitrogen rich, also encourages various fungi. Avoid fertilizing therefore in the middle of the summer, and wait till the autumn. Personally, I use slow release fertilizers, just twice a year, in the spring and the autumn with excellent results.

* If you hire a gardener to mow your lawn, ask him or her to wipe the mower blades with some sterilizing agent, before working on your grass. Many pest and disease organisms are carried from garden to garden on tools and equipment.

Enjoy your garden, and try to keep off the pesticides as much as you can!

About the author - Jonathan Ya'akobi I've been gardening in a professional capacity since 1984. I am the former head gardener of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden, but now concentrate on building gardens for private home owners. I also teach horticulture to students on training courses. I'd love to share my knowledge and experience with you. So you're welcome to visit me on www.dryclimategardening.com