How to stop your lawn from going to seed
IF YOUR GRASS IS LOOKING A LITTLE BIT WORSE FOR WEAR, AFTER MONTHS OF NEGLECT, NOW IS THE TIME TO GIVE IT A NEW LEASE OF LIFE
WHEN was the last time you took a good look at your lawn? Is it in a bit of a state?
Well, chances are it’s had a hard time this winter, with heavy rain and possibly snow and frost, depending on where you live.
So it’s not surprising if it looks a bit tatty. Be honest, if it were on the floor of your lounge you’d pull it up and sling it in a skip. Alas, it’s not so easy to dispose of a lawn in that way, but it is possible to rejuvenate it without dispensing with it altogether.
With so much mechanical equipment available to hire nowadays, revitalising a lawn need not be the chore it once was. Hire a powered lawn raker and you can make short work of it. The process is known as “scarifying” and it involves tearing out moss and dead grass so that air and moisture can get to the roots and encourage growth of the more vigorous tufts.
Take care not to set the machine at too low a setting or it will tear out the youthful, living grass as well as the dead stuff and the moss. Just practise in an inconspicuous corner before marching out across the main part of the lawn. You can make one pass lengthways then go over it again at a right angle to the first pass for a thorough job.
When this is done, spike the lawn at 6in intervals with a garden fork, pushing the implement in 4in or so and wiggling it about. This will ease compaction and, if your soil is poorly drained, sweeping sharp sand into these holes will improve matters. A week later mow the lawn, and a week after that, give it a combined weedkiller and fertiliser dressing applied evenly with a wheeled distributor.
I garden organically but I occasionally allow myself one bash at killing lawn weeds and revitalising the grass in spring.
The rest of the time I use a daisy grubber to prise out daisies, plantains and dandelions.
After this series of treatments you should find that your lawn is well on the road to recovery and, with any luck, you will still be in a fit state to enjoy it.
With so much mechanical equipment available to hire nowadays, revitalising a lawn need not be the chore that it once was... Hire a powered lawn raker and you can make short work of it.