After a long summer of dry periods and intense sun, your lawn may be looking a little tired. Autumn (September/October) is an ideal time to do some lawn care to get it ready for Winter whilst the soil is still warm, and there’s more rain around.
Read on to find out step by step how autumn lawn care will get your lawn in great shape for Winter and ready for some lush new growth next Spring!
Adjust Your Mowing
As the days get shorter and the temperature drops, grass grows more slowly. Mow less often, and raise your mower blades to leave about 4cm grass length. Collect the clipping and compost – this reduces the risk of disease during damper weather.
Scarifying
Scarifying is when you rake your lawn to reduce the layers of thatch. Thatch is a collection of debris such as dead grass and old moss that can prevent water and fertiliser from getting through to the roots and soil.
Autumn is a great time to scarify as you can rake a little deeper than if you were to do it in spring when you would have to be more delicate due to the young growth.
Use a long tined lawn rake and be quite vigorous. The lawn will end up looking rather ravaged, but not for long – the grass will recover quickly and be more healthy as a result.
Aerate Your Lawn
Over the course of the SummerThe process of aerating is essentially spiking the lawn to allow for more air (and nutrients including water) to get to the grass roots. Aeration will also help your lawn survive through more extreme conditions such as waterlogging or drought.
Repair Bare Patches
Autumn or Spring are good times for this as the weather is damp and cool, so the lawn is likely to recover well.
- Cut out the damaged area of turf in a square, using a half moon edging iron to cut the square and a spade to lift it.
- Lightly fork over the soil in the base of the removed square.
- Sprinkle some crumbly top soil or compost over the base of the removed square.
- Scatter the grass seed over the base at a rate given on the packet. We stock various types of Johnsons lawn seed – click here to see our range.
- Cover the seed with a light sprinkling of top soil or compost to hide it from the birds.
- Water in with a watering can fitted with a fine rose.
Autumn Feeding of your lawn
Once your lawn is treated and in pristine condition, it’s important to get some lawn feed down to ensure that the roots are still growing strong throughout the winter. Using an autumn lawn feed product will toughen up the grass and encourage strong roots, without causing soft growth that needs extra mowing.
We recommend using Miracle-Gro EverGreen Autumn Lawn Care. This product is best applied using a lawn spreader to ensure even application over your lawn – this will help prevent any scorching or damage. Click here to buy these autumn lawn feed products.