Seasonal lawn care made easy.

Seasonal lawn care, watering and cutting tips.

Summertime Care:

Watering
The most important thing we can do is give it a much deserved drink. Water at times when the moisture is likely to soak in rather than evaporate, early morning or late evening is the best. Try to avoid giving your lawn a light sprinkling every day, as this can cause the roots to grow shallow and be prone to drying out. When it’s dry, a good soaking once or twice a week is much more beneficial for your lawn.
It’s worth noting that a well fed and maintained lawn will have a stronger and deeper root system, enabling it to withstand and recover from long dry periods.

Mowing
Try to mow your lawn at least once a week, keeping the height of the grass to about 1 inch. Ensure all clippings are collected and composted, but avoid cutting too short as this will encourage weeds and moss to enter your lawn. In really hot, dry weather your lawn will become stressed and it is advisable to reduce the amount of mowing, and allow your grass to grow longer.


Springtime Care:

A simple lawn care programme will give you a lawn to be proud of, keep it in perfect condition and make friends and neighbours green with envy.
The secrets of success to a great looking lawn are:
Regular and correct mowing
Feeding with a spring and summer lawn fertiliser
Treating weeds and moss
Dealing with bare patches

Mowing
The most important lawn care job for a fantastic lawn is correct and regular mowing. You need to cut the grass whenever it is growing – which is likely to be weekly or even more frequently as the weather warms up in spring.
The aim should be to keep it at the same height all through spring. For most lawns this should be about 2.5-4cm (1-1.5in) high. For lawns that take a lot of wear and tear the height is better raised to 5cm (2in). For very shaded areas, mow at a height of 7.5cm (3in).
Mowing too short and, as a consequence weakening the grass, is the quickest and easiest way of allowing weeds and moss to become established and spoiling the lawn.


Autumn Care:

Keep the surface clear
If fallen leaves are a problem in your garden try to remove them from the lawn as regularly as possible. If you wait until all the leaves have dropped, your grass will be fighting for survival under a cold damp blanket of moist, rotting vegetation. Try to do the job at least weekly throughout autumn to avoid any problems of disease. A rake, besom broom or mechanical collector will help you collect the leaves for your compost heap. Alternatively choose a lawn mower, which will do the job quickly and easily.
Rake the surface

If you have left the grass box off the mower during the summer or you have a hover machine which doesn’t collect the grass cuttings, then a layer of thatch will have formed on the soil surface. Not only does this layer prevent rain water getting through but it prevents grass plants from spreading and encourages diseases.
There are plenty of tools which can be used to remove this thatch – a spring-tine rake, ordinary garden rake or a mechanical raker. A couple of weeks before you carry out this scarifying, check for moss invasion and treat this with a product that contains a mosskiller such as Autumn 2 in 1. If you don’t treat the moss with a suitable mosskiller before raking it out, you may inadvertently spread the spores around the lawn and make the problem worse.
Help the water penetrate

Compaction is one of the biggest problems with lawns. But aeration in autumn will quickly help to strengthen the grass by improving drainage. Drive a fork or other spiked instrument into the top few inches of soil will allow rain and air to penetrate more deeply and at the same time relieve any compaction.
Without help, vital rainwater may run off a dry lawn and be wasted. A hollow-tine fork is ideal for the job because it takes out several plugs of earth to a depth of about four inches. These wide air channels not only relieve the packed-down effect created by pathway walking or children’s feet playing, but also aerates the soil. September is the best time to practice this deep spiking, followed in the spring with shallow pricking with a slitter aerator or solid-tine aerator.


Watering lawns:

Most lawns need regular rain to replace the moisture that grass draws from the soil. Grass can survive a couple of weeks without rain, but after this period you will notice symptoms of stress. Grass may turn silvery blue and turf will look flat as the grass wilts and loses its natural springy nature.
To avoid these problems, here’s what to do…

Prick the surface.
If the lawn is baked hard then water will tend to run off the surface rather than soak into the soil. To prevent this from happening prick the surface all over with a garden fork.

Keep to the law
Hose pipe bans restrict watering potential, even if you are not metered. Stay within the law as fines can be heavy. Resourceful gardeners have water butts to store rain water and use bath water and other waste sources to keep lawns looking good.

Water thoroughly.
During a drought water the lawn thoroughly once a week rather than giving light sprinklings every day. Water at a cool time of the day, either late at night or early morning.

Adding nutrients while watering.
lawn care products that feed, weed or kill moss can be added to your watering can and applied at the same time as you water your lawn. As they are diluted with water.

Lawns are one of the most intensive and time consuming areas of maintenance in a garden, but the rewards of a well kept lawn are great. In the summer months healthy grass grows vigorously and will need cutting at least once a week, and care must be taken not to cut the length too short. Following the simple rules below can help bring out the best in your lawn and help keep work to a minimum.

Cut regularly.
Cut the grass as often as you are able to. Mowing encourages thicker growth, the development of fine grasses, eliminates coarse grasses, and deters flowering and seeding of weeds. The chart below is a good indication of the schedule of grass cutting you should adhere to under normal seasonal conditions.
Month Recommended Mowing Frequency
March Every 2 weeks
April Every 10 days
May – August At least once a week
September to October Every 10 days
November to December Top off if weather is mild

Adjust the height.
Never give the lawn a close shave. It should be long enough to remain healthy but short enough to be visually pleasing. Here are some optimum heights for different lawn types. Do not mow more than a third of the height of the grass in one cut.
Lawn type Early spring, autumn, periods of drought Late spring and summer
Multi Purpose Lawn
3cm (1.5”)
2.5cm (1.0”)
Ornamental Lawn
2cm (0.75”)
1.5cm (0.5”)

Trim the edges.
Trimming around the lawn gives a sharp edge that is very pleasing to the eye. You can buy a half moon edging iron that should only be used once or twice a year. At other times use long-handled edging shears to maintain a neat appearance every time you mow.

Sharpen the blades.
Have the blades of your mower sharpened at least once a year. Blunt mower blades are very damaging to your lawn because they rip the grass instead of cutting it. This results in blades of grass that turn white at the tips and become more prone to lawn diseases.