Lawn Maintanence

Courtesy of Barneys Fencing & Landscape Services at www.barneyslandscapes.co.uk

Maintaining Your Lawn

Like almost every living plant, your grass needs air and water to grow and thrive. A simple lawn care routine can make all the difference.

Watering
Dry spells will slow up grass growth if your lawn care does not include proper watering. Deeper-rooted weeds will survive and outgrow grass struggling in drought conditions. Try the 'footprint test'. If the grass fails to spring back after standing on it, then it probably needs watering.

Aeration of your Lawn
During the summer months in particular your lawn can suffer from continual use, whether by general use, children, games or parties and all of these can contribute to causing damage and surface compaction. So some care is important for a healthy lawn and to prevent further damage. This compaction impedes drainage and it is more difficult for air, water and lawn feeds to penetrate to the roots.

Lawn aeration during the Spring and Autumn helps the surface to literally 'breathe'. Good lawn care requires opening holes in the lawn surface at regular intervals. For a small lawn this can be done by hand with a fork or there are many tools for sale in garden centres or available at your local hire shop that can do the job on larger areas.

Worm Casts and Leaf Litter
Worm casts and leaves on the lawn surface can smother fine leafed grasses and produce ideal conditions for weed seeds to germinate. Dormant weed seeds buried deep in the soil and can be brought to the surface by worms in these tiny mounds of soil. This need sorting out soon after they are found. When they appear scatter them with a brush or besom before mowing. Leaf litter can be removed by hand with a lawn rake or mechanically with your mower on a high setting or with a garden blower (most of these also suck)

Trimming Your Lawn Edges
Trimming round the edges of your lawn after mowing is the final flourish and will give you a neat, attractive finish. As far as possible, make sure your mower can reach right to the edges so that manual trimming is a quick and final task. Investing in a good sharp pair of long-handled edge trimmers will make light work of the task.

Scarifying or Raking
Scarifying means removing thatch, which is the accumulation of dead and decaying organic matter at the base of the grass plants roots. The primary scarifying or raking of your lawn should be done in Spring and this has several benefits, mainly the preventing of thatch accumulation and getting rid of surface debris. A second rake in the Autumn would be beneficial by removing fallen leaves, dying grass plants and other debris. The lawn would also then be ready for seeding bare or worn patches if this is necessary.

Top Dressing
This technique is really for the dedicated gardener. Top dressing is the application of a mixture usually made up of peat, loam and sand that literally fills in all the minor hollows that develop on lawns naturally and is most beneficial after a routine of scarifying and aeration. Top dressing is best applied in early autumn and usually results in more dense grass growth, a flatter surface and improved drainage which help the lawn survive better during the winter months.