Lawn Care

Lawn Care is practised to varying degrees by nearly all lawn owners. The key to maintaining a high quality lawn is to routinely carry out the essential lawn care tasks BEFORE the lawn suffers. Don't leave it until the bare patches appear, weeds and moss invade or the grass is yellowed and parched or else it could be too late and will mean you have to put a lot more work into the lawn to get it back to a respectable state. It is far to frequent an occurrence that people only think about treating a problem when it has become an eyesore or it is clear that ‘it isn’t going to get better by itself’.

Lawn care should be looked at as many people look at their health in that prevention is better than the cure. If a human does little exercise, smokes and drinks heavily then they will be more likely to suffer from a disease due to tissue degeneration. Their immune system will be weakened and they will become less resistant to any disease and colds, bugs, viruses etc that they are exposed to. The same principles are true for grass. If we routinely carry out the essential lawn care tasks then the grass will be healthy, thick, vigorous and strong. These factors mean that the lawn will be far less susceptible to disease, drought and pests.

There are various lawn care jobs with the most obvious being mowing the lawn. This is about as far as a large number of lawn owners go when it comes to maintaining their lawn. Mowing is essential (and the most frequent of lawn care tasks) but is only one of a number of jobs that should be routinely carried out.

If you want a lawn that looks beautiful then you will need to carry out the following essential tasks.

Mowing the lawn
Different types of grass have different optimum lengths and mowing the lawn will help keep the grass vigorous and maintain a neat appearance. Ensure your blades are set to the right height and are sharp to achieve a clean cut.

Feeding the lawn
Feeding the lawn with either organic lawn feed or non-organic chemical lawn feeds is essential to carry out each spring to help promote thick grass with strong growth that will make it harder for moss and weeds to establish themselves on your lawn.

Watering the lawn
Ensuring that your lawn does not suffer the effects of drought by watering well in advance of the grass weakening and dying. Use an appropriate lawn sprinkler to ensure that the lawn is evenly and thoroughly watered. Water thoroughly when necessary, not a small amount each day as this can do more harm than good.

Rake the lawn to prevent thatch build up
Raking the lawn can collect the build up of dead grass, grass clippings, moss and weeds from above the soil and thus enable better soil aeration and entry of water into the soil so that it can reach the grass roots. Removal of thatch also prevents water

Trimming edges
The appearance of your exquisite lawn can be highly tainted by poor edging. Stray clumps of untrimmed grass and poorly kept edges can make a lawn look messy. Choose a suitable lawn trimmer to trim the lawn edges. This job should be done immediately after mowing.

Prompt removal of worm casts
Worms might be a gardener’s friend when it comes to helping maintain the condition of the soil but they can be a thorn in the side of the lawn keeper. Worm casts are small mounds of soil deposited by worms on the lawn surface and when trodden on or compressed they can cause unwanted lumps and bumps on the lawn surface. Worm casts should be dispersed with a besom.

Aerating the lawn
This is an essential job on lawns that have compacted soil that may have resulted from children playing, vehicle and walking on the grass. Aerating the lawn has the benefits of allowing water and oxygen into the soil, letting carbon dioxide out of the soil and improving soil drainage.

Kill weeds and moss
Weeds and moss are the bane of many aspiring lawn keepers but by routinely carrying out the other lawn care jobs listed on this page you can greatly reduce the ability of weeds and moss to colonise and ‘overtake’ the lawn. There will however be times when you will need to take the necessary action to either remove or kill off weeds and moss. This may mean using a weed killer. Again early treatment is far better then letting a small invasion get out of control.