Toughen up your lawn and make it

WITH the recent cold snap, spring may seem a lifetime away, but before you know it, the children and grandchildren will be running up and down your lawn, and by summer, it may be a far cry from the bowlinggreen space you’d hoped for.

Any parent who’s invested in a goal for their footie-mad kids will know only too well the bare patches created by budding penalty scorers, the light-starved areas under the trampoline, and the sorry blades that have been covered by a portable sandpit or picnic blanket left out too long. But there are ways you can make your lawn more robust, says lawn expert David Hedges-Gower, founder of the Lawn Association (lawnassociation.org.uk).

CHANGE YOUR SOIL STRUCTURE

To rebalance the compaction caused by constant heavy traffic, and exacerbated by winter rains, you will need to change your soil structure by aerating your lawn – but use a hollow tine fork rather than a regular one, HedgesGower advises.

“If you take a solid metal lump (ie garden fork prongs) which you dig into an already solid lump (compacted lawn) you are pushing soil outwards so you are compacting the soil even more.

“Use hollow tine aeration (a type of fork with hollows in the tines that will lift and remove plugs of soil). By not filling the holes in, they will collapse in among themselves and create a new soil structure. It will allow your lawn to breathe again. That job can be done pretty much any time from now up until May, when it gets too dry. You can hire a hollow tine aerator to do the job or get hold of a hand aerator which can be used on a regular basis.”

DON’T FILL IN THE HOLES

“A lot of people fill the holes they’ve created for aeration with sand. I wouldn’t do that because sand is inert – it doesn’t do any good. Let the holes stay open for root development and improved drainage. You won’t notice them after a few weeks, when you start to mow your grass.”

MOVE THE GOALPOSTS

If you have obstacles such as goalposts, trampolines or sandpits on your lawn, move them if you have space, to stop specific areas from compacting due to heavy traffic, or suffering from lack of light, he

suggests.

TAKE EXTRA MEASURES ON WELL-WORN PATCHES

“Ultimately, if you have an area that’s wearing out, it’s because we

DO YOU NEED TO

RESEED?

“Scarify the lawn lightly just to clean some of the dead grass out and refresh the stronger grass to recreate more growth. Ideally use a mechanical scarifier,” says Hedges-Gower. “If you haven’t enough grass, you can overseed but you must create an environment to give it a good success rate.”

PICK THE RIGHT SEED

If you’re reseeding bald patches or part of your lawn that looks a bit thin, Hedges-Gower suggests using a lawn seed mix containing ryegrass, fescue and bentgrass. But he notes you have to have the right soil conditions for any seed to be robust. are walking on it and compacting it. If you can’t move the goalpost or other garden toys, look at the heavy wear areas and do some more intermediate aeration on them to prevent or slow down the process of the areas wearing out, if the weather suits,” says Hedges-Gower.

“Alternatively, prick the area with a garden fork to allow the moisture to penetrate the areas to get to the roots, using the fork to about a 2in depth. Feed your lawn in spring as the nutrients from rainfall will have leached through. By May you should be reaping the benefits.”

CREATE A WIDER LAWN ENTRANCE

“Remove a bit of pathway so that when you do walk on to the lawn, there’s a wider area to walk on. But if you know there are ‘pinch points’ that suffer, you have to look at prevention.”

HELP YOUR LAWN IN AUTUMN

“Do more to high traffic areas in autumn, which will prevent some of your problems the next spring.

You may want to topdress a muddy area with sandy loam to make it less muddy in future, but you need to do that in addition to hollow tine work and aeration. “It’s all about rebalancing the growing environment. Spring and autumn are essential times to reseed. Do it as a repetition, to build the strength of your grass year on year.”