Lawn Care for Autumn

This year has been a real tough one for garden lawns.  Especially in the south where most suffered with the lack of rain leaving a dry, brown lawn resembling that of saw dust. However, as usual, with a bit of rain most are back to something resembling that of a green lawn with fresh, green shoots of grass.

Autumn lawn care differs this year, do not dress your lawn with "Autumn Fertilisers" These will probably do more damage than good. The new grass shoots and young roots are too tender to cope with this type of food, the net result will be the possibility of scorching and the new roots not being able to cope. Generally, lawns are stressed and need some gentle TLC to get them ready for winter and promote plenty of new root growth for next year.

This years maintenance should be as follows.

1.) Mow the lawn, not too short, raise the height of the blades from your normal summer cutting height.

2.) Lightly scarify the lawn with a tine rake to remove any build up of debris and thatch.

3.) Aerate the lawn with a garden fork, about every 10-12" should be suffice.

4.) Spread lawn top dressing over the entire lawn, about Cm deep and brush this into the lawn, filling the holes made by the forking.

A good, quality lawn top dressing will contain small amounts of nutrients, all that is needed to prepare the lawn for the winter and up to the following spring. 

Rolawn supply an excellent top dressing available in bulk bags. Click here to buy Rolawn Lawn Top Dressing

October is the month for lawn care

To keep your lawn looking great and prepare it for next year you will want to give it a good top dressing. A good top dressing you can make yourself, half multi purpose compost and half sharp sand. Mix it in a trug or wheel barrow and spread over the entire lawn. I've got into more detail on a previous post about what to do if your lawn suffers from moss.

Lawns this month

A previous wet summer and fairly mild winter has left many lawns infested with moss. One of the main reasons for a mossy lawn is drainage - and not enough of it - when we have flash downpours the water just sits on the soil surface, helping the moss to take hold.

What to do?

Give the lawn a light trim if necessary, then (in keeping with our 2008 organic statement) apply this Maxicrop product - we think it's the only organic moss killing product available, it's fairly expensive but does treat 1000sqm and also has seaweed extract to fertlise your already choking grass. Apply by watering can or sprayer.

Once the moss has blackened, lightly rake it out with a tine rake.

When you've completed this you will need to start on the aeration bit. Push a garden fork into the soil about every 10"-12" and give it a little wiggle to make the holes. Then, when you've done this bit (or got bored) thoroughly brush lawn sand (available in most good garden centers) working the sand into the drainage holes.

Voila - you're tired, go get a glass of wine.

Depending on how much moss had taken over, you may need to do some over seeding, I would recommend this is done appox 2-3 weeks after application of the moss killer.

Turfing

Winter can make your garden look dismal, lacking colour and untidy. You don't have to wait until springtime to start the process of regeneration. If your old lawn is beyond repair, completely un-even or if you would like a new area needing instant grass then re-turfing is the answer.

Turf can be laid at almost any time of the year providing there isnt a hosepipe ban. Turfs needs lots of water to stop the curling up and the roots to penetrate the sub soil below. Call us for turf prices as we have various grades available.

Seeding

Now is the time for lawns to be over-seeded where necessary. There is roughly a 6 week windows from now for this to be successful and take seed otherwise it will be next spring before this work can be done.