4 Easy Steps to a Great Lawn
Not everyone has the time to spend on a full year-round lawn maintenance routine, if this applies to you then here are a few easy jobs you can carry out which will make a difference to your lawn in a short space of time.
1) Mowing
The easiest way to make it look as if you are on top of your lawn maintenance is to mow your lawn regularly. A lawn really needs to be cut every time it grows about 1cm longer than you want it. If you leave a lawn to grow too long and then cut it short, it will look unhappy for a while, because you will have cut into the thick, brown or yellow stems at the base of the plants, instead of through lush green leaf blades. Regular mowing produces a greener, denser, harder-wearing lawn.
Start mowing in spring, as soon as the grass is dry enough, with the blades set high just to slice the top off. Lower the blades as the lawn gets used to being cut but if the weather turns dry in summer, raise the blades again to reduce stress to the grass. As the weather turns colder in autumn, raise the blades back up to their spring level, but don't give up cutting the grass for the winter as it will keep growing unless it's really cold.
It's up to you whether you prefer to use a grass-box or not but lawns tend to look better if you do.
2) Edging
After cutting the grass, trim around the edges with edging shears. However, before you can use edging shears, you need a lawn edge - a shallow, neat-edged gully all around your beds and borders with a vertical drop. Hold the blade of the shears against this flat surface as you cut.
3) Top Dressing
Top dressing your lawn will enhance its appearance, stimulate new grass grown, level an uneven lawn, improve drainage and wear and tear and reduce thatch. Top dressing can be done at any time but is probably best done in Spring or Autumn when the ground isn't too dry.
4) Feeding
An essential part of your regular lawn maintenance is feeding. All lawns need feeding if they are to look good. The most important time to feed is in late spring, as that's the start of the growing season, but you can keep feeding every six weeks until autumn to keep grass looking lush.
Spring and summer grass feeds are high in nitrogen and so produce a rich green lawn but during autumn use a formula that is low in nitrogen but high in phosphate and potash to toughen up the roots ready for winter.
Alternatively use an organic lawn fertilizer once a month which releases nutrients over a longer period of time than other lawn foods. If you want to improve your lawn without making it grow any faster (so it doesn't need so much mowing), use an autumn lawn feed during summer instead.
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To find out more take a look at our Lawn Care articles.
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