Lawn Maintenance This September
Isabelle Byrne
What's up, fellow green thumbs!
How’s September treating ya?
With the skies still light, the weather moderately warm, and the showers not too heavy (kind of), now is prime time for giving your lawn some much-needed attention.
Not sure where to start? We've got you covered! Dive into our handy lawn maintenance guide below.
Scarifying
Sounds a little scary? Nah, it’s just a fancy way of describing the process of removing thatch, via raking, from your lawn. Thatch is certainly very cheeky, prone to decreasing air circulation, specifically between grassy plants, and encouraging potential fungal problems (which are definitely not appreciated).
Scarifying will ensure water reaches the soil more and so enable your lawn to recover better from drought spells.
When scarifying, be sure to use a spring-tined rake, moving in one direction and then the other. Add all thatch to your compost pile after raking it out.
Never stress if your lawn is looking a little coarse. Your lawn will recover in any case.
Aerating
Boosting water and air circulation within your grass roots is a must, so it’s important to aerate, or ‘spike’, your lawn, doing so every two to three years. Aerating honestly does wonders, helping your lawn combat future bouts of drought or waterlogging.
Use a garden fork to aerate your lawn, creating several holes which are 10-15cm apart and are as deep as possible. To make the holes bigger, shift the fork back and forth.
Top Dressing
After you've finished aerating, you'll need to do some top dressing.
All you gotta do is add a mix of sand, loam and well-rotted organic matter to fill the holes. Add around 2-3kg of your mix to the holes, using the back of a rake to weave it in. Should any mix appear on the surface, decrease the amount.
Fertilising
Barring any wildflower planting, there’s no harm in adding a top-up of Autumn lawn feed to help your lawn recover from any drought or damage caused by the hotter Summer weather. Adding feed will also boost root growth during Winter.
Taking a handful’s worth of fertiliser, disperse it evenly across your lawn. Aim to complete the task just before it’s forecast to rain. Should the rain fail to deliver, water the fertiliser in.
And that's all for now. As always, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01858 545819 regarding any gardening enquiry you may have. Alternatively, pop into Langton Greenhouse and Garden Centre and speak to a member of our horticultural team, who will be more than happy to help.
See you again soon, green thumbs!