The summer months are when everyone makes the most of their gardens, spending time outdoors and enjoying the colourful flowers that have come into bloom. But while it’s great to soak up some sunshine, the hot weather can lead to problems in gardens with high temperatures causing grass to become stressed, particularly when there is little or no rainfall. This can result in the blades turning brown and stop growing, resulting in temporary patches in your lawn. But it’s not just dry weather that can result in brown patches as fertiliser can also cause the problem,

Lawns grow faster in warm weather but while experts say using a fertiliser can help to promote strong and healthy growth, if you get the dosage wrong you could actually be scorching your grass and causing it to turn brown. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) says an overdose of fertiliser can result in brown stripes or patches, so it’s important to apply it very carefully. But if you treat your lawn with coffee grounds instead, you can avoid this problem altogether.

According to gardening experts, coffee grounds can help to stimulate healthier and greener grass as they are rich in nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, which are beneficial for growth – and they won’t burn your lawn.

Gardening Know How explains: “Improper synthetic fertiliser applications often result in lawn burn as well as contaminating our water via ground run off. Using coffee grounds as lawn fertilizer is an eco-friendly method for nourishing the lawn and it can be free or darn near so.”

Unlike most fertilisers, coffee grounds release nutrients into your lawn slowly so it has a longer period of time to absorb these, helping it to stay healthy for longer.

Plus, cats generally don’t like the smell and taste of coffee grounds so it can be a useful deterrent to keep them off your lawn so they’re less likely to pee on it, which can also be the cause of pesky brown patches on your grass.

Explaining the benefits of using coffee grounds on lawns, Turf technologies says: “Being small, fine and a dark brown in colour they’re unnoticeable once spread amongst the grass.

“They’re a slow release fertiliser, the opposite of most synthetic products. This allows your lawn to benefit from the nutrients for a longer period of time, ensuring stronger turf for longer.

“Unlike synthetic fertiliser, where incorrect application can have disastrous effects like burning the lawn or contaminating water via run off, coffee grounds have no such adverse effects. Worms like them. Earthworms eat the coffee grounds and in return aerate your lawn and encourage beneficial microbial activity.”

To apply coffee grounds to your lawn, experts recommend scattering them across your grass and using a rake to help spread them out and avoid large clubs. This can be repeated ever few weeks, or as needed.