Personally, I wouldn't try to eradicate it. It doesn't do any harm to the grass and the small toadstools are easily mown off when you cut the grass.

Thankyou for your answer but this is NOT the simple easy sweep away fairy ring. I am fast losing the surrounding grass which turns yellow then brown and finally dies off completely. The soil beneath smells awful (fungus smell) and is reduced to an infertile sandy mixture. The toadstalls incidentally are not the harmless white ones but those small bulbous ochre colour ones. Any further help please

There is no solution to this problem other than what you've already done, and certainly no product on the market which acts like a magic bullet, so to speak. It's recommended that all soil and turf is removed to a depth of a foot, and a width of at least a foot beyond the affected area. It's also useful to dig down deeper once the topsoil and grass is gone to see if you can find any pieces of wood in the ground, which should also be removed.This soil and grass should be carefully removed so that none drops on other areas of grass, and then, much as you've done already, new topsoil and the area seeded or grassed again. You should have effectively two rings of green grass with a gap in the middle which forms a ring of first yellow grass, then bare earth, and which expands yearly, if it is a Grade 1 ring caused by Marasmius oreades. In the meantime, this area should be mown separately and the cuttings disposed of separately.

Sorry, India, I didn't realise that your problem was so serious. I have never heard of anything like that before and have no idea of what else you could do.

Increasing the complexity of the soil ecology will reduce the problem, because the fungus will have more competition, and sometimes you can get lucky, and get a fungus that eats the pest one--such as Streptomyces lydicus, or one of it's kin. To do that, apply some good compost--not raw forest products--twice a year. Better yet, arrange for someone to apply well aerated, 48 hour old compost tea a couple times a year.

Thankyou Tugbrethil, Bulbaholic, Bamboo for your kind assistance. I have today rang my local radio station as they have a gardening question programme on Sunday mornings. They had no permanent solution but listener has suggested one pound of Sulphate of iron with 3 gallon of water. Does anyone have any further comments on the use of S of Iron on my lawn. Thankyou.

Good soil acidifier, good for killing moss, from what I hear, and good for iron deficiencies in chalky soil--what we use it for here in the desert. I've never heard of it being used for fairy rings. A few of the old garden geezers that I have talked to here, tell me than manganese sulphate or zinc sulphate can reduce fairy rings, but I have not seen any documentation on this. I note that two of the chemicals that we used to prescribe for the problem--since taken off the market--were organic (in the chemical sense) salts of manganese and zinc.

Although i agree that trying to erradicate a grade 1 fairy ring is nigh on impossible without removing all the soil, i am currently trying a method out at present. I have taken large cores from from the fairy ring and disposed of them. I have then used a wetting agent and water conserver and applied this to the fairy ring. I water the lawn every night making sure the soil does not dry out. After one week i will repeat the process with the wetting agent and water conserver. I will then apply a fungicide treatment to the lawn. Hopefully then i can rake out all the dead grass/thatch from the surface, refill core holes with top soil and reseed. Only time will tell if i have been sucessful or not,but i will keep you posted.

Interesting, Mythumbs... look forward to hearing back.