Get your lawn in order
Get outside and show some turf love, with a little weeding, feeding and mowing and your garden will pay you back right through the seasons
Autumn is well and truly here and as the weather cools down we may not feel so inclined to work in the garden as on those sunny summer days. But this is the ideal time to put in some groundwork to ensure your lawn puts on a marvellous display through winter and spring and into next summer.
SIMPLE JOBS
There are a series of easy tasks that can greatly improve your lawn’s performance and durability.
First, feed it during spring to generate high nitrogen and produce lush green growth. Then, in autumn, focus on supporting and boosting the root system, which is the real anchor for the lawn itself.
Buy feed in granular format from a garden centre. There are many different applicators available for spreading the lawn food, depending on the size of the area to cover.
FREE FROM WEEDS
The next thing to do at this time of year is sort out any weeds. You can actually buy lawn feed combined with weed killer, so you can boost the lawn while dealing with the most persistent weeds, such as dandelions.
With these, because they have got tap roots, you need to get out as much root as possible or they just regrow.
A really clever tool is the corkscrew weeder – get one from Kent and Stowe via most garden centres.
It’s literally a T-bar handle, with a corkscrew end that you screw into the soil where the dandelion is. Then you pull out the whole weed and root in one.
It’s quite satisfying once you get going and goes a long way to deter the weeds that compete with your lawn for nutrients and moisture.
SUN BLOCKS
After a year of fun, you may have to repair damaged spots – where the cricket stumps were, slides sat or paddling pools have been left out. And autumn is the best time for this.
I just cut out a square where the damaged grass is then take away some of the old turf, put in some fresh compost and mix in grass seed to water well in. Make sure you remove any piles of leaf deposits where there are wind traps in the garden, as it doesn’t do any good for the lawn at all.
The odd leaf here and there will be pulled down by the worms, but larger piles need to be removed as they stop the lawn getting any light.
This means the grass yellows and eventually dies, so make sure you
Deal with dandelions competing with your grass for nutrients
collect them up. Then the best thing you can do is to add them into the compost or buy a hessian leaf sack to store them all over winter.
Pop the leaves inside and leave the full sack around the back of the garden shed or garage for a year. It will make brilliant leaf mulch to dig into borders for next season.
PATCH UP THATCH
Give lawn treatments the best chance at being effective by getting your lawn ready to receive them.
Use a scarifying rake to pull out excess thatch from the turf. If left to grow densely, the soil finds it hard to keep up with the demand. This way you leave only strong growth in place.
So if it looks as if you are removing a lot of grass, remember it is actually dead or damaged and will only hinder water and fertiliser absorption.
A good bit of kit is a spring tine or leaf rake, which won’t damage the lawn but removes anything that doesn’t need to be there.
Another way to prep lawns ready to receive resources is to aerate. You can do this with a garden fork or buy a specialist aerating tool. Essentially, you want to take out cores of soil along the entire lawn to allow the roots better airflow and access to water. It can also prevent waterlogging.
CARE AND CUTS
Edging is key at this time of year. Where grass has grown into pathways or borders, take a turfing knife or edging shears and cut away turf to re-establish borders. It makes a real difference to the look of the lawn.
Though your mowing regimes relax towards the end of growing season, the height of your lawn cut is something else to consider. During winter, you do not have to have it too short – somewhere in the region of 1.5 inches high to allow the grass to be quite resilient and put some more energy into the root. A strong root system will help your lawn survive extreme cold and wetter periods too.
So with simple steps such as a little bit of repair, lawn feed, removing weeds, and mowing to the right height, your grass should look great all winter. And perform better for you next summer too.