Your action plan to get a great lawn!

It can make such a difference to your garden – follow these seven steps to get your grass growing to perfection

Now’s the time to give your lawn some care and attention, before the onset of summer. It doesn’t have to require too much physical work, but if you follow these seven steps you’ll have a pristine lawn before the warmest weather really arrives – and then you can sit outside and really enjoy it, too!

1 Rake off thatch and debris

It’s natural for your lawn to accumulate a layer of dead material at the bottom, so perform some light scarifying to lift and clear this out (leave any heavy-duty scarifying until autumn). When you rake the grass, it has the added benefit of lifting its leaves upright so it can be cut more easily. A spring-tine rake is the ideal tool, then afterwards mow over the grass with the blades set high, which will give it a trim, rim, and collect the resulting debris in the box.

2 Clear out moss

Spring’s the ideal time to address any moss growth in your lawn ( see step 7 for recommended treatments). Once it has turned black and died after treatment, rake the dead moss out and re- seed any bare patches if needed (see step 4). Follow up the treatment with a good lawn feed, because when it’s growing strongly it will be better able to resist further moss growth. Reduce the height of trees and shrubs if they’re casting shade on to the lawn, because this can encourage moss.

3 Eliminate weeds

Nuisance lawn weeds such as plantain and dandelions need to be eradicated! Take them out with a hand fork or grubber. If you’ve got a larger invasion, you can get weedkilling products that spot-treat individual weeds, or use a specialist lawn weedkiller across the turf. These are designed to kill broad-leaved weeds, while leaving narrow-leaved grass unharmed.

4 Fix bare patches

If your lawn’s left with bare patches after moss or weed treatment, repair it by re-seeding the area. Lightly fork the soil, add a little compost to improve it, then scatter the seed over. If your lawn has become patchy due to shade from trees, opt for a special grass seed mix formulated for shady areas. Keep hungry spring birds away from your newly-seeded lawn by covering with taut netting.

5 Mow regularly

Your grass should be growing strongly by now, so try to mow once a week, increasing to twice a week in summer.summer The key is to cut little and often, which helps the grass grow strong to resist weed or moss invasion. Most lawns are fine to be cut to around 3cm (1¼in) at this time of year. Use the grass box, or rake up the clippings when you’ve finished, so debris doesn’t accumulate.

6 Make edges neat

For a perfect green frame to your beds and borders, use a half moon cutter to stop grass encroaching into them, then trim the sides regularly with edging shears. For a more permanent solution, put steel or strong plastic edging along the edge of the grass. The edging is very discreet, it can be bent around curves, and you can safely mow right over it without damage.

7 Feed your lawn and kill moss

As you walk through your garden – blooms bursting open for spring and the first crops growing steadily – is your lawn letting the side down? For many of us, lawns are the hallmark of a great garden, but due to the high rainfall recently, you may find yours is being marred by moss. If you use Maxicrop’s Moss Killer & Lawn Tonic, containing its famous seaweed extract plus moss-killing ferrous sulphate, you can defeat the spread, as well as give your lawn an extra boost so it grows as strongly as possible. The tonic has recently gone through pesticide re-registration and is fully authorised under the Plant Protection Products Regulation. Many people use granular fertilisers with moss killer added, but it takes time for the granules to dissolve into the soil before killing the moss. Because Maxicrop Moss Killer & Lawn Tonic is a liquid, applied by watering can or sprayer, you get more immediate and better contact with the moss than granules – you’ll see it starting to die in as little as a day. A 2.5 litre bottle costs between £13-£14 and has a brand-new more economical application rate of 1.5 litres per 100sq m of lawn (compared with 3.1 litres per 100sq m previously).