The best lawn care tips to follow this spring in order to achieve a perfect summer lawn
This is the time of year when you should start preparing your lawn for summer.
With the weather becoming brighter and warmer getting your lawn in great condition is paramount, and will leave your garden looking healthy and well-kept, so you can fully enjoy your outside space during the summer months.
The climate at this time of year means your lawn will start actively growing, and if it has been left over winter it will need some love and care to get it back looking its best.
No lawn can be left untended for too long. In order to keep grass growing healthily and strong, and to avoid sparse dry patches, you need to feed, water and cut it back regularly.
Even if initially it may require some time and effort to bring your lawn back to life, once you have done so, a little and often approach is best, and providing you give it regular maintenance it shouldn’t be a huge job to keep it looking great.
If you haven’t already started, now is the time to start thinking about your lawn and, and with the right attention, it will start to flourish in no time at all.
Here are the top spring lawn care tips you should follow in order to achieve the perfect summer lawn.
Mowing
This is one of the more obvious, but still crucial tasks to complete in order to maintain your lawn.
While not much growth may have occurred during the colder months, you will no doubt have noticed your lawn now beginning to grow again.
Mowing your lawn not only gives it a neat, well-kept, and even appearance it will also keep it healthy by eliminating pests from the grass, clearing bits of debris that may not be immediately obvious if your lawn is overgrown, and help it to easily distribute and absorb water, sunlight and feed due to its even nature.
When you cut the grass on your lawn you are eliminating the weaker, thinner strands, leaving only the most vigorous and hardy shoots which will give your lawn a greener, more luxurious appearance.
The older cut grass that falls onto the earth (even though you will undoubtedly clear the majority of it away) helps to fertilise the earth creating a natural compost which stimulates even more growth.
Do this regularly in spring and summer and your lawn will stay looking fresh and bright throughout.
Eliminating moss
Moss can cause problems to the look and health of your lawn. If your lawn is damp and poorly drained moss can grow and create issues when it comes to creating that neat and even look.
Moss growing on your lawn is usually an indicator that your soil is not right for growing grass – either that it is too acidic, too moist, or is nutritionally poor or too compacted.
These conditions are perfect for moss to thrive in, but not for your lawn! Killing the moss is the first step and can be done with a good quality herbicide or moss killer, which often come combined with a fertiliser. Following this, the lawn will need scarifying which removes the moss and weeds leaving the grass. However, to thoroughly tackle the problem you also need to change your soils condition.
Do this by aerating the soil where necessary and by distributing a fine layer of loam topsoil and/ or soil conditioner to help your lawn recover from the stress and feed the bacteria within the soil, helping to improve its root mass. Alternatively, a good quality green rootzone (a blended sand and compost mix) can also be applied following scarification and re-seeding which is available to order online or by calling 01306877540.
Feeding your lawn
A good lawn fertiliser is useful to help maintain your lawn. Feeding your lawn on a regular basis will help to increase growth and the strength of the grass shoots. It will also keep weeds at bay.
For best results apply a good lawn fertiliser when the soil is damp. Do this as early as possible in spring/ summer. Too late in the year and you could actually damage your lawn by encouraging too much growth too late on which will then potentially be damaged by the cold weather, or pests and disease.
Planting grass seed
There may be patches of your lawn that have become sparse and dry particularly after scarification, and if this is the case you may need to seed over these areas to encourage new growth. Always use a good quality FRESH grass seed which has been coated to aid germination.
Pay attention to the more shaded areas of your garden where lack of sunlight may have affected growth.
The best way to plant grass seed is to create a seed bed by either carefully raking the areas to be re-seeded or by applying a fine topsoil or rootzone. Sow the grass seed at half the recommended rate (unless you are starting from scratch) and then gently rake over the soil for even distribution of the seeds.
Keep an eye on the weather and water the areas if the sun stays out for a few days. You should see the newly planted grass start to show within 7-10 days.
One of the problems with over-seeding your lawn, however, is that it can create a patchy look in terms of colour. It may be advisable to simply seed over your entire lawn in order to achieve a uniform result.
Watering your lawn
Pay careful attention to how much water your lawn is getting. In the UK watering is not usually necessary for your lawn to stay in good condition in summer. However, if you encounter a particularly hot, dry summer, then use a fork to aerate the soil before you water and then do so once a week in order to keep the soil from drying out and the grass turning brown.
Looking after new lawns
If you are planning a new lawn this summer then make sure you choose top quality grass seed or lawn turf to achieve the perfect, manicured garden lawn look.
You can find advice on the best time to lay lawn turf here.
Be sure to carefully follow instructions, and remember not to use your lawn right away. Lawn turf needs at least a week to settle and lawn seed should be planted and allowed to grow until it is ready to be cut back by mowing before it is used.
If you follow these handy spring lawn care tips you are sure to have a beautiful, fresh, well-nourished garden that you can enjoy all summer long!
Bury Hill provides everything you need to get your lawn in great condition this spring. From premium grade topsoils and soil conditioners to grass seed and lawn turf, if you are looking to create a fantastic lawned area in your garden then our friendly and knowledgeable team will be happy to advise you. Get in touch today!