Lush lawns will boost your garden’s appearance
It’s good to see that more gardeners are taking pride in their lawns. Autumn is the best time to sow a new lawn, because the autumn rains and cooler temperatures make it easier for the grasses to establish.
Spring-planted lawns do not have much time to establish before summer conditions arrive and, unless regularly watered, they can fail.
Gardeners who plan to sow a new lawn or rip up a tatty lawn for resowing should start preparations now.
The first thing is to determine what the soil is like in the area to be sown. Light, sandy soils need good friable top soil and compost mixed through the soil. Heavier clay-type soils need to be opened up by using ample gypsum, top soil and sand, incorporated.
Gardeners that are blessed with nice, friable soil need only incorporate more compost into it.
The first step would be to kill off whatever is growing in the area to be sown and then rotary hoe to a depth of at least 250mm. Then place a layer of the materials you are going to add to the area (about 40 to 60mm thick) and rotary hoe them in. Now, water the area regularly to germinate the weed seeds that are present.
Once these weeds are up, they can then be killed off. A further layer of introduced material may then be applied to the area and rotary hoed in also. Water and allow the weeds to germinate so you can kill them off while young.
We are trying to establish an area of friable soil to a depth of about 250mm that is free draining, with ample humus for moisture retention.
If the area is prone to flooding, you may wish at this stage to lay some nova-flow pipes for drainage.
It is also at this stage when a pop-up irrigation system can be laid. Complete these tasks and level off the lawn, allowing a fall for water runoff, to prevent ponding later. Once again, water to germinate any other weed seeds. The above will be done over several weeks, which should take us into autumn and the time to sow the new lawn.
The quality of lawn seed you buy will determine the result, so don’t buy cheap seed. Super Strike lawn seed is one I can recommend, as it comprises of only fine turf grasses and no brown top seed.
(Do not sow a mix with brown top in it, as the brown top is a grass that gives thatch problems and looks out of place in a fine rye and fescue mix.)
Super Strike has a fine coating on the seed that adds only 1 gram of weight per kilogram of seed. Most other coated seeds can add up to 500g of coating per kg, and you lose 500g of seed.
We will look at sowing and after care, later on in autumn.
For those gardeners who have a reasonable lawn that is prone to weeds and is not as thick a mat as you would like, then you can use another method for improving your existing lawn.
It is too early to start this, but when the soil becomes moist with autumn rains, hire a scarifier and run that over the lawn, northsouth and east-west. This rips up the thatch and makes grooves in the moist soil. Then spread a topquality lawn seed and gently water it into the grooves.
This method will greatly improve the lawn, thickening up the grasses, making it difficult for weeds to establish and creating a carpet of green. You can do the same again the following autumn until you have the lawn you want.