While the summer is the perfect time to have friends over for a garden party and fire up the barbecue, your lawn could pay the price.

Thankfully, a gardening expert has shared his top tips on how to return your lawn to top condition.  

Chris Mcllroy, from lawn experts The Grass People said that there are four important steps to take when it comes to caring for your garden's grass. 

And his first piece of advice requires a little bit of effort.

Speaking to The Express, Mr McIlroy said: 'It's not easy to keep your lawn in top shape during summer as higher temperatures and less rainfall take their toll.

'It's normal for grass to become wilted, patchy and brown during heatwaves as it goes into its dormant state, but all is not lost.

'The first step I would recommend would be to rake the surface and remove any visibly dead grass.'

'Next, it's important to aerate the soil to allow it to breathe, and you can do this by using an aerator tool or pitchfork to create holes in the ground so water and nutrients can reach deeper.'

The gardening expert's third tip that he recommends for horticulturalists is to overseed their lawns.

While this step might seem counter-intuitive, overseeding a lawn is known to be an excellent way of growing a healthy lawn without weeds. 

Finally, once temperatures have cooled and no additional hot weather is forecast, the expert recommends fertilising your lawn.

if your garden is currently looking dull there is no need to fret - as you still have enough time to transform your backyard - thanks to the advice of lawn expert, Jack Skilling, from Leicestershire, who took to TikTok to share how you can bring your lawn back to life.

Jack shared that amongst the other steps a key element of bringing his green space back to life was watering it daily for four weeks.

'The same process is entirely possible with your lawn so in four weeks [it] could be looking like this too,' he said. 

Watering your lawn each day is an important step because - if the soil in your backyard is left to go dry for several days - it can impact the ability of the grass to grow, which could eventually result in it slowing down if left unwatered.