With warmer weather starting to approach, well hopefully. It is time to get back out into the garden and give your lawn some TLC so that it can be in the best possible shape come spring and summer. This is especially important if you haven’t already prepared your lawn for the winter and it is looking patchy.
Tidy up
The first step if the ground is not to water logged is to remove any debris that may have fallen in the autumn or the recent storms that we have had. It is also a good time to clear out any borders and around the fence lines of piles of leaves that may have collected over winter. A quick tidy now will save you the hassle of trying to do it once the garden has really come to life.
By clearing leaves from the lawn you allow more oxygen and light to reach each plant and prevent them from dying off. By clearing them from borders you prevent them from blowing around and settling on the lawn later whilst also improving the visual appearance of the lawn and garden.
Aeration
Once the weather is warmer and your lawn is growing nicely take some time to aerate your lawn. Aeration is of huge benefit to your lawn and will really help relieve any compaction from the previous year whilst allowing more oxygen, water and nutrients into the soil. This will in turn help bring the soil ecosystem to life along with helping your lawn develop nice strong roots promoting good growth and drought tolerance in the summer.
Depening on your lawns condition you can use a manual aerator, hire a petrol one or contact us where we can survey your lawn before carrying out the works. There are 3 popular types of aeration, solid tine, hollow tine and also fracture tine aeration. Where the lawn is in reasonable condition you may opt for solid tine via a machine or using a garden fork. This is fairly quick and easy for a home owner wanting a bit of a workout.
Hollow tine can be carried out manually with a tool like this one from Landzie. We have one of these and there are now numerous versions of these out there for you to use if you have a small lawn. If you have a larger lawn get in touch with us or you may consider the hire of a petrol machine, these are heavy and you will then need to clear the cores that are produced up.
Fracture tine aeration is currently our preferred method of aeration depending on the condition of your lawn. It use a blade with a twist to cut tiny slits, the twist then acts like a small spade fracturing the soil and adding air. It doesn’t remove any soil and does not leave cores behind. We prefer this as it is a more cost effective method for a lot of lawns and their owners.
Fertilising
If you haven’t already fertilised your lawn before Christmas now might be the time to get an autumn/winter fertiliser down, the lower nitrogen content will not encourage rapid flushes of growth in warmer spells as we move towards spring. If you are going to fertilise it is important to wait until the soil is not frozen and ideally soil temperatures are around 5°C.
They also tend to contain Iron(Fe) which can help harden your turf, restore colour and deter moss in the sward. Iron helps with chlorophyll production which what gives grass the green colour along. Chlorophyll is vital to photosynthesis.
Another fantastic macronutrient that is often overlooked is Magnesium, this is another great nutrient that helps boost the lawns health and growth of the grass. This is due to being crucial building block of Chlorophyll. If there is a Magnesium deficiency there can be Interveinal yellowing in the leaves of the grass plant. Here is a good article on how plants use light written by the RHS
Scarification
It is important to review thatch levels in your lawn, some thatch is absolutely fine and normal, but if you have excessive or moss in your lawn this is not good. Excessive thatch layers will prevent nutrients and water getting to the roots of your lawn.
Thatch occurs naturally but as with many plants, over time old grass leaves and stems die away and are replaced with new ones. As the dead material can be slow to decay it sits in a spongy layer under the green sward of the lawn. Having some thatch under the top surface of your lawn is not necessarily a bad thing as it acts as a protective layer, shielding both soil and grass plants from the elements. In addition, the correct amount can also give the surface of your lawn a firmer, thicker look and feel.
Scarification can be carried out manually with a spring rake, with a pedestrian machine or on very large lawns with a ride on machine. Ideally scarifying with a pedestrian machine you would do this in two directions with the second pass at 90 degrees to the first. All debris should then be collected and disposed of. This can produce a lot of waste. Ideally this would be carried out in autumn but sometimes this may be something to consider in spring especially if dealing with moss issues.
Over seeding
As we move more towards March and onwards it would be a great time to consider over seeding any bare patches. The first step is to choose a seed variety that is suited to the aspect of your garden and the conditions that it faces. A north facing lawn with neighbouring properties on all sides will likely suffer from being damper all year round where as a south facing front garden will likely suffer with being scorched in summer.
Common seed choices are Rye grasses, Bent grasses and Fescues. Our current preference is for a lawn seed mix with a high proportion of the Bent grasses and Fescues. Both of these are native across the UK and thrive. Ryegrass tend to be varieties that are bred to be dwarf varieties for use in lawn. Often the species of Rye used are perennials so they will die back in the winter leaving a sad and patchy lawn. They should regrow in spring but as use increases this often does not work so well.
There are numerous varieties of Bent and Fescue grasses, each come with their own unique qualities, strengths and weaknesses which would be far to much to discuss here.
Top Dressing
This can be such an important step in the spring if you are fixing bare patches or damage that has occurred over winter. It goes hand in hand with over seeding but will require careful choice of the right material. There are numerous top dressings out there now for you to buy and we could not recommend one for your lawn without carrying out a survey to understand your lawn and soil profile.
Some people will chose to use a fine compost to help with overseeding. We have used a product called Turf Humms provided by Material Change. This is a very fine heavily screened material that is made from composted green waste. It comes in a 0-5mm size top dressing and it is more for adding some organic matter to your lawn to improve the microbial activity. We have also used a lawn dressing from Oakley Turf Farm. This was covered in our previous post about a spring renovation.
It is important to choose the right type of top dressing for your soil profile and also what your goals are.
Summary
If you are unsure where to start or how to proceed with any of these steps or you have tried but you just havent achieved what you were trying to achieve then why not use our booking form and get booked in for a free lawn survey with one of the team. It is a 30 minute appointment that is free of charge, we will take samples of your lawn to assess thatch, soil type and also a review of species of grass plants in your lawn. We will also take note of any weeds or other issues and provide you with a tailored plan that we can carry out to get your lawn into tip top shape for the coming summer.