May 1st, 2018 by Chris Chapman

Lawn Care Advice to Make Sure the Grass is Always Greener

A good lawn is the centrepiece of your garden. Growing lush, green grass takes a little time and effort, but if you do it right there’s a real satisfaction to be had in maintaining your lawn and watching your ideas turn into reality. Your lawn can be anything; a play area, a work of art, a place to relax, a place to party and it can even be a deal-clincher if you’re looking to sell or rent your house. Caring for your lawn isn’t as simple as just sowing seeds and hoping for the best, but it doesn’t have to be stressful. Simply follow our advice below for a beautiful and stress-free garden!

Feeding

Iron sulphate kills moss, deters pests and gives you greener grass! You should look to feed your lawn about once per season to keep it lush and full all year round. Try to apply your fertiliser when rain is forecast so that it gets watered down into the soil. If rain isn’t forecast, you can just use a watering can or a grass feeder to water the fertiliser into your soil properly. One important tip is to make sure you apply your fertiliser after cutting your grass, not before! This gives the nutrients plenty of time to soak into the soil before the next cut. You should also complement your lawn feeding with a dose of iron sulphate, especially in winter. Iron sulphate strengthens grass and helps it fight off pests and diseases. Water it down into your soil just like you do with your fertiliser to get the most out of it. For more detailed info on why iron sulphate is a must for anyone who wants a lush, green lawn, check out our article on why the grass is always greener with iron sulphate!

Watering

If the weather forecast is saying a long, dry spell is on the way, make sure you water your lawn thoroughly and regularly to prevent your grass from drying and dying. This is doubly important if you’ve got a young, freshly-planted lawn! If your grass is young its roots will still be growing, meaning you need to take extra care in giving them enough water to absorb. On very hot spells you might want to leave your hose on for a couple of hours to really give your soil a soaking.

Mow Problem

Mowing your lawn is therapeutic for you and good for your grass! Keep your mower well maintained and try to keep your blades as sharp as you can to ensure you get a nice clean cut every time! Let your lawn grow a bit longer in summer, especially if there’s a heatwave forecast. This will help your grass retain water and will prevent drought. Cutting your grass every couple of weeks or so will actually strengthen it – it encourages the roots to grow, meaning they leave less room for weeds to sneak in. It also means your grass will be able to absorb water much more effectively. A regular feeding and mowing schedule will give you strong, luscious grass that’ll make your neighbours green with envy!

Don’t Be Scared of Scarifying

In addition to mowing your grass regularly, scarifying your lawn is also an important habit to pick up. Lawn scarifiers use steel blades to cut out thatch – old, dead grass that builds up on your lawn over time – and give your living grass more exposure to light, air and water. You can also use a rake for this, however scarifiers tend to do the job a bit faster and will nicely prune your grass as a bonus! One thing that makes scarifying your lawn a bit easier is a dose of iron sulphate, which in addition to helping strengthen your grass, will kill moss, allowing you to easily brush it off your lawn.

Air Raising

Alongside scarifying, aerating your lawn with a gardening fork is also vital for ensuring your grass grows as healthily as possible. If you’re new to gardening, stabbing a fork into your lawn might not seem like the best idea, but trust us; it’s vital to stop your grass from compacting and to get air into your lawn. Compacted grass doesn’t grow properly, so you’ll end up with a blotchy and uneven lawn if you don’t loosen it up once in a while. Just stick your fork into the soil and gently lean on the handle to lift and loosen the turf.

Look Underneath

Too many bugs under your lawn can cause birds and other animals to dig it up for a snack While you’re loosening your turf, it can be a good idea to check underneath the surface and see what you’ve got living there! This is a particularly good idea if you’ve noticed your grass looking diseased or yellowish all of a sudden. Dig up a small square of turf (make sure you dig underneath the roots of your grass so you can put it back!) and check what bugs and grubs are living under there. Seeing a few grubs and worms is natural and nothing to worry about, but if you have too many bugs down their munching on your roots, your lawn could be in trouble. For more detailed information on this, read our guide to chafer and lawn grubs here!

Weeding Out Problems

In a way, every plant in your garden is in competition with all the other plants. If you’ve got an unhealthy lawn, it’s easy for weeds to take root and push past your grass as they don’t have much competition! Making sure your lawn is as healthy as possible will make weeding out plants much easier, as strong grass will prevent weeds from thriving. However, even the healthiest lawns need a little weeding from time to time. If you have patches of moss appearing on your lawn, a dose of iron sulphate will sort that out. If you have dandelions, clovers or other weeds sprouting, give them a rake before you mow your lawn. This will lift them slightly and make it easier for your mower to cut them away! You can also get in and do some weeding with your hands – if you’ve got a healthy lawn it shouldn’t be too big a task! However you choose to get rid of weeds, make sure you do it regularly and as quickly as possible, before the weeds start to spread.

Improving and Replanting

Be careful of allowing pets to disturb freshly sowed grass If your lawn isn’t looking as full as you’d like, you may want to sow a few more seeds come the spring or summer. Always rake or scarify your lawn before sowing new seeds as it’ll clear a bit of space for the seeds to take root. Sow your seeds and tread them in, making sure you give them lots of water and don’t disturb them for about 6 weeks while they take root. Just keep watering them and be extra careful about mowing, weeding or carrying out any other maintenance while your new grass is still very young. You can put as many plants you like around your garden, but a good lawn is always your best centrepiece. Follow the advice above and you’ll soon have a lush, green carpet of a lawn for gardening, outdoor games and parties.